Meet the Mentors
Head Mentor
Kiley Plooster
She currently works for VRC Metal Systems as an Engineering Program Manager. She is the co-lead mentor for Rapid Acceleration and has been involved with the program since 2015. Kiley also won the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award in 2021.
Head Mentor
Matthew Bunge
Matt currently works for Caterpillar as an Engineering Project Manager. He is the co-lead mentor for Rapid Acceleration and has been involved with the program since 2015.
Chief Mentor Of All Things
Tony Fischer
​Tony currently works for VRC Metal Systems as an Engineering Project Manager. He is the longest standing mentor for the team and is a master of all trades.
Finding Stuff To Do Mentor
Dean Walters
Dean currently works for Caterpillar as a Design Tech. He has been a coach for the FIRST Lego League team since 2016. He joined the FRC team in 2018. If you ever need something to do, go find Dean.
Electrical Mentor
Grace Wilson
Grace currently works at Black Hills Energy as an Electric Distribution Planning Engineer. She has been the Electrical Mentor for the team since 2016. She is also an alumni from the FRC Team 2996.
Programming Mentor & Duct Tape Expert
Anthony Taylor
Anthony currently works at Black Hills Energy as a Transmission Planner. He was involved with his robotics team for seasons 2013-2016, and is an alumni of FRC Team 2811.
Mechanical/CADD Mentor
Braden Walters
Braden is a Mechanical Engineering student at the School of Mines and Technology. Braden has worked at CAT for the last 3 years and is an alumnus of the team.
Mechanical Mentor
Jason Sanderson
Jason work at Black Hills Energy as Business Intelligence Manager. This is Jason's rookie year with FRC is always around to help!
Programming Mentor
Kaleb Barbour
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Mechanical and Scouting Mentor
Gretchen Noble
Gretchen is a Mechanical Engineer major at SDSMT and alumni of Rapid Acceleration. She was also awarded the DOD SMART Scholarship in 2023 and will be working for NSWC Carderock in the structural health monitoring code located in Bethesda, MD.
Electrical Mentor
Abigail Hammond
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Robot Inspection
Carl Hansen
Carl is a retired systems engineer who has been involved with FIRST since 1994. He joined the team in 2016 and has been advising on systems and sensors.
Marketing Mentor
Caitlin Gerdes
Caitlin is a rookie mentor with a degree in Graphic Communications, and a minor in Commercial Art.
*Honorary Programming Mentor*
Mathew Clutter
Mat is a computer science major at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. He was in FLL and alumni of Rapid Acceleration
*Honorary Scouting / Strategy Mentor*
Gavin Merkle
Gavin is a crew chief with US Air Force. Originally from the St. Louis, MO area, he has been involved with FIRST for the past 6 years. He is alumni from team 1706, the Ratchet Rockers and joined Rapid Acceleration in 2017.