The high school robotics team placed seventh in the world at the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC).

The “FIRST” stands for ‘For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology’.  The school’s team competed against 3,790 FRC high schools around the globe.

“Seventh in the world is an amazing accomplishment,” engineering teacher Enrique Elias said. “We outperformed many teams that had more experience, more people and many more mentors.”

The team had six weeks to construct a robot based on the competition requirements.

“At the beginning of the year, they release the game and what you have to build your robot to do,” sophomore Ethan Rogers said. “With that robot that you built, you bring it to all competitions.”

The group met on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to build the robot in the given amount of time.

“On some Saturdays, we would meet at someone’s house because the school was closed,” freshman Kate Carline said. “The theme this year was ‘Deep Space’ because it was the fiftieth anniversary of the man on the moon.”

The robotics team earned the “Gracious Professionalism Award.”

“We were observed to always be gracious in our winnings and in our losses,” Elias said. “We always helped any team in need.”

Prosper went to the World Competition once before in 2017 as a “wildcard” invitation. This year, the group participated in two district events and one state event prior to FRC.

“This is an incredible team,” Elias said. “Some robots and teams are mainly driven by the adults. This robot was designed and built by the students all the way.”

The FRC team consists of 18 students ranging from freshmen to seniors.

“We are always looking for people (to join),” Rogers said. “Everyone on the team always has so much fun.”