TRC founder and director
our story is just beginning
Michael Puckett, M.Ed.
Owner and Director, Tennessee Robotics Center
President and Founder, Tennessee Robotics Club
It All Started in My Garage — Two Boys, a Robot, and a Challenge
On July 16, 2011, my son Ben turned nine. He was playing baseball then, and I was his coach — Coach Mike. I still remember him walking up to me and asking if he could join a robotics team. He'd seen an ad for a LEGO robot, and he wanted to do that instead of baseball.
So we did what any dad would do: we found a way. We started a community robotics team in my garage with a couple of his friends and classmates. I had no idea what that conversation would set in motion — not just for Ben and me, but for my family, my friends, and my community.
That garage grew into something bigger than I imagined. It became a higher calling.
For fifteen years now I've coached and mentored teams in FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge. In 2020, our FTC team 11161 earned the Inspire Award at the Tennessee State Championship and qualified for the World Championship in Houston. COVID canceled the trip. It didn't cancel what those students learned about themselves, or what they had already achieved.
A Challenge Accepted
On July 16, 2018 — seven years to the day after Ben asked his question — I traveled to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida for the USAF FIRST Leadership Experience, to learn how to coach, mentor, and build teams with exceptional leadership and professionalism, the Air Force way. PACE- Professionalism Major Ross McKnight gave us a challenge to carry home. Drawing on Outliers, he challenged us to take what we'd learned that week and become a competitive advantage for our students and our teams — because no one does it alone. Every one of us needs someone who helps us reach greatness. I still have this challenge coin tradition in my program.
On July 16, 2022, the Tennessee Robotics Center opened its doors. What once fit in my garage is now a full K–12 robotics and engineering education center serving hundreds of students across Middle Tennessee and beyond. Challenge accepted.
On July 16, 2026, we celebrate our 15th anniversary. And we're just getting started. In 2026 we're launching TRConstellation — our first curriculum — and TRC Online, bringing TRC to students everywhere. Maybe even outer space. :)
Dare Mighty Things.
— Michael, Founder & Director U.S. Navy Veteran | M.Ed., Purdue University
our FLL legocy
FIRST, there was AN IDEA
It was the summer of 2011 when my oldest son named Ben approached me with a simple request: "Dad, can I join a robotics team?" As a coach and father with a career in network engineering and a passion for engineering education—that question ignited something far greater than either of us could have imagined at the time.
After researching opportunities and programs, we discovered FIRST LEGO League but couldn't find a local team to join. Rather than simply signing Ben up for another program, I saw a chance to do something more. So I reached out to my friend David, cleared out space in my two-car garage, built a robotics table, recruited a handful of neighborhood kids and homeschoolers, and what became known as the Tennessee Robotics Club was born in the summer of 2011. Fast forward 15 years, this year we celebrate our 15th program year of robotics and engineering education having mentored and coaches thousands of students in our area.
This is our legacy, not the robots we build but the students and teams who build them.
Murfreesboro THunderbots - Team 4625
2011–2012 — FOOD FACTOR
Teams tackled food safety, studying how contamination happens between the farm and the table and designing ways to keep food safe at every step of the journey.
Our very first FLL Team. We were the only FLL team in Murfreesboro at that time.
FLL Regional Qualifier Results
- 2011- 1st Robot Performance
- 2011- 2nd Overall Performance
Murfreesboro THunderbots - Team 4625
2012–2013 — SENIOR SOLUTIONS
A season focused on aging. Teams researched how to help seniors stay independent, engaged, and connected to their communities, and built robot missions around everyday senior life.
FLL Regional Qualifier Results
- 2012- 2nd Robot Design
FLL Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2013- 2nd Presentation Award
in 2013, a brick Dynasty was born
2011-2012 were truly special years for us, marking our "rookie" years in a thrilling journey filled with new learning experiences. As we navigated through the challenges of FLL, we had a lot to learn, but we also built many lasting friendships along the way. These connections would prove invaluable, laying a solid foundation of teamwork that not only benefited us in the moment but also set the stage for a winning tradition that would thrive for years to come. In the fall of 2013, our team rebranded as the Brick Dynasty based on the popular TV show the kids all loved, Duck Dynasty.
Over the next three years, Brick Dynasty achieved remarkable success, winning several FLL regional and state championship awards. This achievement helped establish our team Brick Dynasty as a team synonymous with excellence, values, dedication, and outstanding performance in the world of FIRST LEGO League robotics. This team built a culture of excellence and the four core values we live by to this day:
Respect, Integrity, Service, and Excellence.
Brick Dynasty- Team 6724
2013–2014 — NATURE'S FURY
Teams studied natural disasters — earthquakes, floods, storms — and looked for better ways to prepare communities, keep people safe during an event, and rebuild afterward.
FLL Regional Qualifier Results
- 2013- 1st Champion’s Award
FLL Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2014- 1st Robot Performance
- 2014- 2nd Strategy & Innovation
Brick Dynasty- Team 6724
2014–2015 — FLL WORLD CLASS
A season about learning itself. Teams reimagined how people learn a subject they care about and designed a better learning experience, with missions built around classrooms and knowledge sharing.
FLL Regional Qualifier Results
- 2014- 1st Robot Design
FLL Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2015- 1st Teamwork
Brick Dynasty- Team 6724
2015–2016 — TRASH TREK
Teams followed the life of trash — where it goes, how it is sorted, recycled, and reused — and looked for smarter ways to handle waste in their own communities.
FLL Regional Qualifier Results
- 2015- 1st Champion’s Award
Brick Dynasty- Team 7375
2015–2016 — TRASH TREK
Final State championship
Teams followed the life of trash — where it goes, how it is sorted, recycled, and reused — and looked for smarter ways to handle waste in their own communities.
FLL Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2016- 2nd Mechanical Design
Our final championship run together:( We never officially punched our ticket to the FIRST Championship in FLL but we had so much fun competing together. No other FLL team in our program has ever come close to the winning legacy of team 6724, the Brick Dynasty.
FIRST Tech Challenge Seasons
challenge accepted
In the fall of 2016 we stepped into the FIRST Tech Challenge for the first time, and it changed what our students thought they were capable of. Gone were the studs and beams — now it was aluminum, hand tools, machined parts, and code that had to hold up under a two-and-a-half minute match with nobody's hand on the controller for the first thirty seconds. We had no clue what we were doing. I remember this day like it was yesterday and showing up for that first day of college, like a lost ball in high weeds:)
That rookie season humbled us and hooked us at the same time. The same lessons that carried our LEGO teams — show up prepared, document everything, take care of the people beside you — turned out to matter just as much at the higher level, and the students who learned them started passing them down to the ones coming up behind.
Team 11161 became the heart of that tradition. At the 2020 Tennessee State Championship, 11161 took home the Inspire Award — the highest honor in FTC — along with a FIRST Leadership awards and a spot as Winning Alliance Captain. The World Championship trip that came with it was cancelled when COVID shut the season down, but what that team built didn't go anywhere. Today TRC fields three FTC teams — Red (11161), White (23866), and Blue (23867) — with veterans mentoring rookies, notebooks and traditions handed down season after season, and the same standard held in the shop that was set in that first year: build it right, own your mistakes, and leave the program stronger than you found it.
This is our FTC Legacy and the teams that built it, one robot at a time.
FTC Team 11161
2016–2017 — VELOCITY VORTEX
Alliances collected wiffle-ball "particles" and scored them into center and corner vortexes, pressed beacons for ownership, and finished the match by lifting a large cap ball onto the center vortex.
FTC Alabama State Championship Results
- 2017 - 3rd Rockwell Collins Innovate Award
FTC Team 11161
2017–2018 — RELIC RECOVERY
Robots stacked glyphs into cryptoboxes to complete cipher patterns, knocked opposing jewels off their platform in autonomous, retrieved a relic from outside the field, and balanced on the balancing stone at the buzzer.
FTC Alabama State Championship Results
- 2018 - 1st Think Award
Note: Tennessee did not have a Championship tournament yet.
FTC Team 11161
2018–2019 — ROVER RUCKUS
A lunar exploration theme. Robots began latched to a lander and descended to the field, sampled gold minerals from silver, claimed the depot with a team marker, scored minerals into the lander's cargo holds, and re-latched to hang in the endgame.
My youngest son Dylan finally rejoined the team when he got to the 7th grade rejoining his old teammates as a team member again.
FTC Alabama State Championship Results
- 2019 - 2nd Design Award
- 2019 - 3rd Control Award
- FIRST Leadership Award Winner (Ben Puckett)
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results (Very first Tennessee State Championship)
- 2019 - 1st Collins Aerospace Innovate Award
FIRST Tech Challenge Seasons — Brief Game Descrip
FTC Team 11161
2019–2020 — SKYSTONE
A construction theme. Robots delivered stones from the quarry, identified the specially marked Skystones, stacked skyscrapers on a movable foundation, repositioned that foundation into the building site, and parked under the Skybridge.
FTC Alabama State Championship Results
- 2020 - 2nd Control Award
2019–2020 — SKYSTONE
A construction theme. Robots delivered stones from the quarry, identified the specially marked Skystones, stacked skyscrapers on a movable foundation, repositioned that foundation into the building site, and parked under the Skybridge.
In 2019-2020 season—and all the challenges that came with it, the pinnacle of everything TRC had worked toward was realized. Our FTC team 11161 had done the unthinkable. After years of growth, learning, and perseverance, they captured the trifecta, prestigious Inspire Award, Dean's List Award and Winning Alliance Captain award finishing first place at the Tennessee State Championship—the highest honor a team can achieve, all three awards achieved in one tournament. No other team in TRC program history has ever come close to this level of achievement. For the first time in TRC history, TRC earned a spot at the FIRST World Championship in Houston.
In 2019-2020 season FIRST RISE Skystone, TRC FTC team 11161 achieved the prestigious Inspire Award at the Tennessee FTC State Championship, propelling them to the World Championship in Houston, TX for the first time. We also had our second FIRST Leadership Award winner two consecutive years in a row. Our robot Big Red still provides robot demonstrations for TRC.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2020 - Inspire Award Winner (TN State Champion)
- Captain Winning Alliance
- 1st Design Award
- 2nd Control Award
- FIRST Leadership Award Winner (Nate)
FTC Team 11161
2020–2021 — ULTIMATE GOAL
Played remotely during the pandemic. Robots launched rings into three tiered goals and at power shot targets, delivered wobble goals to scoring zones, and finished by parking on the launch line.
2020–21 Ultimate Goal was the remote/at-home season, which explains the gap in our team's event and award history.
***Team did not compete. Program rebuilding after COVID shutdown.
FTC Team 11161
2021–2022 — FREIGHT FRENZY
A shipping and logistics theme. Robots delivered freight — boxes, balls, and rubber ducks — to the three levels of the alliance shipping hub and a shared hub, spun the carousel to release ducks, capped the hub, and parked in the warehouse.
***Team did not compete. Program rebuilding after COVID shutdown.
FTC Team 11161
2022–2023 — POWER PLAY
An electrical grid theme. Robots stacked cones on junction poles of four different heights, claimed ownership of junctions with beacons, linked owned junctions into circuits, and parked in the substation to close out the match.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2023 - 3rd Think Award
FTC Team 11161
2023–2024 — CENTERSTAGE
A theater and performing arts theme. Robots placed hexagonal pixels on the backdrop to build mosaics and cross set lines, read a team-built prop in autonomous, launched a paper drone into scoring zones, and suspended from the rigging in the endgame.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2024- 1st Motivate Award
- 1st Winning Alliance Team
FTC Team 23866
2023–2024 — CENTERSTAGE
A theater and performing arts theme. Robots placed hexagonal pixels on the backdrop to build mosaics and cross set lines, read a team-built prop in autonomous, launched a paper drone into scoring zones, and suspended from the rigging in the endgame.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
2024 - Always earned, never given.
FTC Team 23867
2023–2024 — CENTERSTAGE
A theater and performing arts theme. Robots placed hexagonal pixels on the backdrop to build mosaics and cross set lines, read a team-built prop in autonomous, launched a paper drone into scoring zones, and suspended from the rigging in the endgame.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
2024 - Always earned, never given.
FTC Team 11161
2024–2025 — INTO THE DEEP
An ocean exploration theme. Robots collected samples into low and high baskets and clipped specimens onto the rungs of the submersible chambers, then climbed those rungs for a leveled ascent in the endgame.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2025- 1st Winning Alliance Team
- 2nd Motivate Award
- Invitation to Premier Event
FTC Team 23867
2024–2025 — INTO THE DEEP
An ocean exploration theme. Robots collected samples into low and high baskets and clipped specimens onto the rungs of the submersible chambers, then climbed those rungs for a leveled ascent in the endgame.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
2025 - Always earned, never given.
FTC Team 11161
2025–2026 — DECODE PRESENTED BY RTX
An archaeology theme. Robots gathered 18 artifacts — purple and green balls — and shot them into their alliance goal, reading an obelisk AprilTag to match a required motif pattern, triggering gates to return overflow artifacts to the field, and parking in the base zone.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2026 - 1st Control Award
FTC Team 23866
2025–2026 — DECODE PRESENTED BY RTX
An archaeology theme. Robots gathered 18 artifacts — purple and green balls — and shot them into their alliance goal, reading an obelisk AprilTag to match a required motif pattern, triggering gates to return overflow artifacts to the field, and parking in the base zone.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2026 - Always earned, never given.
FTC Team 23867
2025–2026 — DECODE PRESENTED BY RTX
An archaeology theme. Robots gathered 18 artifacts — purple and green balls — and shot them into their alliance goal, reading an obelisk AprilTag to match a required motif pattern, triggering gates to return overflow artifacts to the field, and parking in the base zone.
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2026 - 1st Design Award
- Advanced to Kentucky Run for the Robots Premier Event in June
FTC Team 23867
2025–2026 — DECODE PRESENTED BY RTX
An archaeology theme. Robots gathered 18 artifacts — purple and green balls — and shot them into their alliance goal, reading an obelisk AprilTag to match a required motif pattern, triggering gates to return overflow artifacts to the field, and parking in the base zone.
FTC Kentucky Premier Run for the Robots Tournament
- 2026 - 6th Place Qualification, Team Captain - Man o' War Division
RDL Team 3013
2025–2026 — moonbase
A lunar exploration theme. Teams ran paired robot and drone missions on a moonbase-style arena, taking on the kinds of tasks a crew would face establishing and supplying an outpost on the Moon — with the drone handling flight and delivery objectives while the ground robot worked the surface.
Middle Tennessee Regional Results
- 2025- Rookie award
National Championship Results
- 2026 - Always earned, never given.
2026-2027 TRC teams
FTC Team 11161
2026–2027 — BIOBUZZ PRESENTED BY RTX
The newest challenge, part of the FIRST CANOPY season, drawing on the energy and engineering found in the natural world. The full game releases at Kickoff on September 12, 2026.
FTC Tennessee Qualifier Results
- 2027 - TBD
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2027 - TBD
FTC Team 23867
2026–2027 — BIOBUZZ PRESENTED BY RTX
The newest challenge, part of the FIRST CANOPY season, drawing on the energy and engineering found in the natural world. The full game releases at Kickoff on September 12, 2026.
FTC Tennessee Qualifier Results
- 2027 - TBD
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2027 - TBD
FTC Team 23866
2026–2027 — BIOBUZZ PRESENTED BY RTX
The newest challenge, part of the FIRST CANOPY season, drawing on the energy and engineering found in the natural world. The full game releases at Kickoff on September 12, 2026.
FTC Tennessee Qualifier Results
- 2027 - TBD
FTC Tennessee State Championship Results
- 2027 - TBD
RDL Team Picture Coming soon...
RDL Team 3013
2026–2027 — Emergency! Urban Rescue
An emergency response and disaster theme. Teams design, build, and refine paired robot and drone systems to complete mission-critical tasks in a simulated urban disaster field — the ground robot entering hazardous areas while the drone provides aerial intelligence, delivers supplies, inspects damaged infrastructure, and supports search and rescue.
Middle Tennessee Regional Results
- 2026- TBD
National Championship Results
- 2027 - TBD
