Mentors are the backbone of every FRC team, working to make sure we are focused, on-track, and working towards our goals, and making sure each student is contributing to those goals and participating as part of the team. Our mentors instruct the team members how to perform a given job or task, usually via hands-on demonstration, but also through whiteboard discussion and collaboration. Mentors can demonstrate, but student members must do the work to supply the parts needed to construct a competition robot.
MENTORS
Current Mentors
Marc Rogers
Joe Barry
The highest level science teacher at Cimarron-Memorial High School and co-Founder of the team, Marc Rogers has always been a committed mentor who keeps the team on-track, organized, and focused on the Build. At competitions, Mr. Rogers usually takes the role of Drive Coach - the critical third member of the Drive Team who assesses the
Mr. Barry is a co-Founder of the High Rollers, a leader, spokesman, and role model to the team. He is always ready, willing, and able to help team members from ANY team develop new skills and techniques using tools and parts in traditional and improvised ways.
dynamics of the game and provides strategy and direction to the driver and co-driver throughout the match. In between matches, he is constantly developing new strategies to move the team forward. Back in the Pit, he reminds the students in lead positions to practice the fundamentals, like tightening screws, checking and securing connections, lubricating moving parts, and verifying sensors. He has a long list of extremely important things to do that can turn out to be the deciding factor in any match. Marc Rogers was awarded the prestigious Woodie Flowers Finalist Award in 2008.
During Build season he adopts the role of Lead Mentor
of prototyping, providing conceptual design options
well before initial CAD drawings are finalized. At competition, Mr. Barry assumes a leadership role, coordinating activities and tasks behind the scenes to
keep the team in-sync with the evolving competition
from the moment it starts, and until a champion is
named on the Einstein field. Joe Barry was the first
Team 987 mentor to be awarded the prestigious
Woodie Flowers Finalist Award in 2007.
Dr. Jones
Clint Barnes
Mark Jones joined the team one year after it was formed and has always been there, ready to mentor the team. He challenges team members with difficult projects meant to develop and grow their hands-on skills, especially in the area of CNC and manual machining, fabrication, mechanical engineering, and of course tool safety.
Clint was the first mentor to return to Team 987 after graduating from CMHS as a student-alumni . Later he joined the staff at CMHS as the new Manufacturing instructor teacher and coach for the robotics team.
The instruction he provides to the students is detailed and meticulous; precision and accuracy are his standards. His past and on-going contribution to the team during Build as well as at competitions is always welcome and much appreiated.
Mark Jones was awarded the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award in 2007.
Clint recently left his teaching role at the school to pursue a technology career in the private sector but he still remains active with the team. Clint is a certified instructor in Solidworks 3D CAD and an extremely proficient 3D printing modeler. He utilizes the latest techniques and equipment in FDM Fused Deposition Modeling) (FDM) and Photopolymerization to help students stay on top of the latest changes in this fast paced area of fabrication. Clint was awarded the prestigious Woodie Flowers in 2019.
James Campbell
Steve Mulcahy
James Campbell started his career at CMHS as the a teacher of advanced mathematics at Cimarron-Memorial High School. He joined the team as soon as he received his assignment to CMHS, and we are sure glad he is on our team! Mr. Campbell is extremely organized, detailed, and ready to solve all sorts of problems, be it mathematical,
Mr. Steve Mulcahy is a Mechanical Engineer with decades of experince in his profession, and yaers pf experinec working with
the team in all areas of
robot design and constructiuon. He has
held senior positions with several mechanical
engineering firms in Las
Vegas. In the recent past,
Steve worked for engineering firms in Caifornia
full-time but that distance did not keep him away
from the 987 Shop as he would regularly jump into his sports car and drive back to Las Vegas at a moments notice for all occassions both big and small.
Steve has two sons, both of whom have been team members in past years, and his eldest son, Brendan, continues to mentor the team on a regular basis.
logistical, organizational, or technical; you name it and James' has it covered. Mr. Campbell has lead our team in Scouting, which is the process of analyzing other teams strengths and weaknesses to find the best Alliance Partners to compete with during final matches at FRC Regionals and Championship events.
Currently Mr. Campbell is teaching at Arbor View High School but continues to support the team and its efforts to maintain its position as one of the top FRC teams in the world.
Greg Hjelstrom
Brandon Hjelstrom
Brandon Hjelstrom started out as a team member and lead programmer for the High Rollers, graduated as a team alumni, came back to the team as a mentor, and later became a Sponsor. You could say that Brandon has done it all. During Build, Brandon makes time in his busy schedule to work with the new team programmers
and is often last to leave the Shop. As the co-creator of the LimeLight for FRC robot vision subsystem, he is sought after by many teams during competition events and spends a lot of his time assisting teams with troubleshooting, tips and tricks, and even last-minute integration of LimeLight into their robots. Brandon and his dad, Greg Hjelstrom, went on to develop and perfect the Limelight product line and launch the e-business known as Limelight Vision.
Recently Limelight Vision was awarded an RFP from the FIRST organization to collaborate with Raspberry Pi, WPI, Rev Robotics, and Google to produce the latest version of robot controller called "SystemCore" which will embed Limelight technology into every robot competing in the FRC. Brandon was awarded the prestigious Woodie Flowers Finalist Award in 2023.
Greg Hjejstrom started as a mentor when his oldest son, Brandon, joined the team as the lead programmer. Being an accomplished professional programmer himself with many years of experience coding numerous popular game titles, Greg was naturally drawn into the team. A few years later his son Kevin also join the High
Rollers. With Brandon still a high school student, together, they both began a deep-dive into the the world of robot vision. After forming this new e-business called Limelight Vision, Greg and Brandon responded to and won an RFP from the FIRST organization to collaborate with Raspberry Pi, WPI, Rev Robotics, and Google to produce the latest version of robot controller called "SystemCore" which will embed Limelight technology into every robot competing in the FRC. Still working as a programmer, and this new business, Greg still finds time in his busy schedule to come to the Shop to advise and guide team members who are still new to programming. Greg was awarded the prestigious Woodie Flowers Finalist Award in 2012.
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Curt Thompson
Dennis Jenks
Now retitred from the work-a-day life as a degreed Electronics Engineer and a member in good standing with the IEEE, "Mr. Curt" spends a lot of his spare time working in his own lab and on his own projects as well as those special projects in the 987 Shop. He never misses an opportunity to invent, create, redesign, or modify anything
Dennis Jenks joined the
team in 2018 and brought decades of FRC experience with him. From rookie
teams to top teams, he has seen and mentored it all. Twice. His experience with
the FRC goes back to a time when most teams only had two-digit team numbers!
to make it better (cooler) than it was before. You might even say he makes the ordinary... Extraordinary!
He has mentored students one-on-one in the theory and concepts of electronics and engineering, both after school and on weekends for those students seeking an engineering degree after high school. Back in the Shop working together with Joe Barry and student members of the team, he has built the new game fields for teh past ten years, co-built the mobile Pit that is used to support the team robot at competitions, built new game elements, improved Shop safety, and just about anything the team needed to push it forward for a successful season. He also assists students with other tasks like building and updating the team website, improving the technology infrastructure, acquiring and repairing tools, making modifications to the Shop itself, fundraising and sponsorship activities.
Now a retired engineer from a major military defense company, he mentors the High Roller CAD leads in SolidWorks so they are proficient in these important design tools well before Build season starts. Mr. Jenks also performed the duties of Drive Coach for the High Rollers in the 2022 season of Rapid React. And when he's not mentoring CAD students in the Shop or networking with other coaches at competitive events, he's working on end-game stratagies with our other coaches to help push us closer to the Einstein field.
Travis Murray
Brendan Mulcahy
Travis is an alumni from Team 987 and went on to earn a degree in Mechanical Engineering before returning to the team as a mentor. He is well known for his keen recollection of competition match details, events, and strategies of past competitions for hundreds of teams in FRC.
Brendan “Mohawk” Mulcahy joined the team as a student in 2012 when he was just an eighth grader. He joined his dad in the shop and at competitions and never looked back.
He participated in various robotics events and
outdoor sports his whole life. His background as a
off-road racer made him a natural fit for driving the robot in 3 out of his 4 high school years on the team,
including 2 years on the world championship stage.
His critical-thinking skills and bravery allow him to think quickly and come up with solutions to problems most people wouldn’t even imagine. He has followed
his passion for robotics and fixing things through his career, currently working a robotics engineer for Battlebots. His wide range of knowledge in tools, design, and equipment made him an important part
of the team for many years. At competitions, you can often find him in the pits helping students work on
our robot in-between matches, or helping other
teams work on their robots to make sure everyone
has a fair chance at competing.
As a CMHS student, Travis led the team in CAD as the "VP of Build" and was a driver of the robot his senior year on the world championship stage. During Build Season, Travis mentors new students in CAD and the electrical components of the robots. He always tries to ensure that any student walking through the shop doors feels included and finds something they enjoy. At competitions, you will usually find him in the stands guiding students data collection of other robots (a task known as "Scouting"). He uses that data and his years of experience to give our team a competitive advantage in selecting the best alliance partners for a given game. He also donates a great deal of time personally overseeing the loading and safe transportation of our robot, as well as the robot and support components from other local schools to regional and out-of-state competitions. He currently owns and oversees a nation-wide robotics integration company.
Brandon Leets
Susana
Delgado-Jaramillo
Brandon Leets is a physics
teacher at Cimarron-
Memorial High School.
Having just joined the team
recently, he found his place
in helping students. Mr. Leets
is a Las Vegas native being an
alumni from the Las Vegas
Academy of Arts for his
background in music. He got
his bachelor’s at University of
Nevada - Reno and his Master’s at University of Nevada - Las Vegas. He brings his passion for STEM to the team with a focus on 3D Modeling/Printing. At competition, you can usually find him being the “go-to” guy for fielding all the kids’ questions about the schedule, food, and everything in between. He takes on the managerial roles our team desperately needs - making sure we’re fed, we get to our out-of-state regionals safely, and coordinates the rooms and schedules for every team member at the competition.
Susana “Susy” Jaramillo-
Delgado is a Mathematics
teacher at Cimarron-
Memorial High School.
Our team was in need of
more women-led roles
and Susy stepped right up
to the plate. She joined
our team last year and
traveled to all of our
events, including the
world championship in Houston. She incorporates her
love of design and creativity to help students with
media and strategy. She is also a part of working on
our Impact Award presentation. As a part of Teach for America, she is dedicated to bringing diversity and
culture to the classroom as a first generation Mexican American. She hopes to inspire and motivate students
to always reach their full potential despite all odds.
Her favorite motto is “Todo Se Puede En La Vida”!
Kristopher Key
Madison Hershey
As a graduate of Cimarron-
Memorial HS and an alumni of
Team 987, Kristopher “Kris” Key
got his professional start
working for Tesla. Kris was an
integral part of the team in his
high school years working on
electrical, mechanics, and
building. He was also a driver of
the robot for 2 years. Later, he
helped to coach a younger
robotics team at Green Valley High School for several years. Now back as a 987 mentor, he recently started teaching the CMHS Manufacturing Class, teaching students a wide range of engineering and manufacturing skills which provides students with a dual credit at the college level. He also teaches manufacturing at CSN, educating students at many different stages in life.
Madison Hershey is a
Cimarron-Memorial HS
graduate, an alumni of
the team, and our team’s
Impact Mentor. During
her time as a student, she
embraced the side of the
FIRST robotics program
that emphasizes it’s
“more than robots.”
Madison captured media
at events, spent countless hours inside and outside the shop working on essays, speeches, videos, and
graphics to help lead our team to 3 Chairman’s Awards (now known as the Impact Award) and our FRC Hall of Fame induction in 2016. Madison’s friendly and smiling demeanor helps students find their voice, making sure
that new students feel welcome in the shop and find a
place to fit in. She helps students broaden their professional skills, including public speaking, essay writing, video editing, and graphics design. She
graduated with a BS in Business Management from
UNLV and worked as an interior designer for 4 years
before becoming a licensed REALTOR® for Nevada.