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 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 The 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 as Black Hills Energy as a Distribtion Planning Manager. She has been the Electrical Mentor for the team since 2016. She is also an alumni from the FRC Team 2996.
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 has joined Rapid Acceleration in 2017.
Programming Mentor
Lars Slentz
Lars Slentz is an Associate Engineer at Caterpillar. He is our Programming Mentor and has been with the team since 2020.
Mechanical / CAD Mentor
Levi Kent
Levi is a Design Engineer at VRC Metal Systems. He is our Mechanical and Design Mentor. Levi joined the team in 2021.
Robot Inspection
Carl Hansen
Carl is a retired systems engineer who has been involved with FIRST since the early 2000’s. He joined the team in 2016 and has been advising on systems and sensors.