In 2006, Dr. Polly Reikowski, Principal of Eagan High School, was approached to be one of 10 high schools in Minnesota to start a FIRST robotics team. Dr. Reikowski enthusiastically approved of the proposal and proceeded to recruit Eagan High School Physics Instructor, Mark Brandt, and Technology Coordinator, Jim Lynch, to act as the first faculty advisors for the team.

The recruitment meeting was in early November of 2006 to build the first EHS Robotics team. The Edina Robotics Team generously agreed to bring their robot to this meeting along with their advisor and two team members.

Dana McKinnon and Shawn Siirila were elected to be the first ever team captains. A young team of 24 students and 5 adult mentors successfully completed this rookie season. The team competed in the Wisconsin regional competition in March of 2007 and was one of the highest ranked rookie teams. The team maintained a light meeting schedule over the summer. Hardware Hank of Eagan invited Blue Twilight to travel with them in the Eagan 4th of July parade. Everyone had a great time promoting robotics at this event.

Leading into year two, the 2007 to 2008 season, the team gathered 34 students and 12 superb mentors. The year’s robot, once built, was named Broominator in honor of the broom that was the dominant feature of the bot. Team 2220 raffled off a large basket of goods and a Roomba robotic vacuum during parent teacher conferences to raise funds for the season. This year, the team again went to two regionals: Minnesota and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At both regionals, the web team won the Web Award and at Milwaukee we won the Chief Delphi award. Later in the off-season the team walked once more in the 4th of July parade. Year two ended with high hopes for the next year.

And so began year three of the Eagan High School Robotics Team 2220 Blue Twilight. The team numbers stood at 38 students and 13 mentors. After receiving the game, the team organized a large group meeting to help develop a strategy for the year’s bot. A shooter robot was selected and building commenced.

During this time the business team worked on getting grants from various companies. The media team produced a video a week and the build teams learned the value of keeping things simple. Fundraising included bagging groceries at Cub and doing another raffle for the Roomba vacuum robot. Team members also taught classes at local elementary schools about robots and the team sponsored a FIRST Lego League. We also mentored a FIRST Robotics Competition team near us.

This year ended splendidly and year four is approaching from a bright horizon.