MetalMuscle's Mission Statement

Our team strives to demonstrate gracious professionalism both on and off the field. We are fully committed to helping and giving back to the community, and make every effort to do so. We believe in motivating others, and in keeping a strong team spirit. We also emphasize the importance of academics, specifically in the areas of science, math, and technology. Metal Muscle, team 1506, is proud to be involved with the FIRST organization.

Our Beliefs

An important thing to understand about this team is that the most important thing to us is that the kids should have a good time, and learn. We believe that the students should have as much say as the adults do in decisions. From the strategy for playing the game, to the robot's design, to the team colors; the students get to pick it all. We want our students to enjoy their experience with FIRST, so that they continue that experience and share it with others. Our students will also be trained on whatever aspects of the robot they are interested on. Our students are going to “own” their robot. If they all think it will work, then go for it! They will understand how it works, how to build it, and how to fix it, because they'll have been the ones who engineered and built it. We also believe that FIRST is as much an involvement for the parents as the students. We expect parents to be dedicated to the team, and to attend parent-board meetings to coordinate logistics.

MetalMuscle Background

What began as a simple discussion between friends rapidly became a fully functional FIRST team with endless resources and commitment. After receiving the Kettering FIRST Scholarship in 2004, mentors Alex McGee, Bryan Duggan, and Kurt Wachowski decided that it would be “fun” to try to start a rookie team. Coming from very experienced teams, these three had a wealth of knowledge of the operations of the FIRST organization. However, both of their teams’ existence was still unknown for the upcoming year. So, the three talked about it, but not much more. One day, Alex McGee was talking to, Monica Denis (fellow team member, and graduating senior to Kettering University), about such a team. She was extremely enthusiastic about it, and began organizing everything. She and her parents worked extremely hard to get things up and running. Not knowing the fate of his team, Brendan Hathaway decided he should do whatever it took to ensure that he was involved in FIRST throughout High school. His brother and parents were key in the formation of this team. Alex's father, Steve McGee, graciously donated workspace for a practice field as well as build area, tools, and other help. His position as Chief at Groveland Township Fire Department has helped the team enormously. Nick Denis, Monica's older brother, and a current Kettering University student and a high school alumni of the team that Monica and Alex were on, also got involved, as did Tim Searles, one of Nick's roommates and another Kettering University student. At this point, there were several preliminary meetings to hand out tasks, research, and jobs to parents and students alike. Everyone worked hard, and eventually formulated a business proposal and an organized binder describing the FIRST organization. They then submitted these to various companies and individuals, and received partial funding for the team. We are still seeking additional funding. However, with no name and no credit history, the team stood little chance of being taken seriously without something. This is where Mr. Nichols from Kettering University stepped in. He, per the request of the mentors, organized a 501c3 account for the team. This allowed “tax exempt” status to be granted to the still unnamed team. This provided an excellent way for companies to write off donations. In late September of 2004, Mr. Hathaway registered the new rookie team, Metal Muscle.