After a two-day robotic basketball tournament with 99 qualification rounds that tested its engineering, teamwork and alliance-building skills, “Sparky” team 384 from Tucker High School was seeded sixth and chose the teams from Martinsville, VA and Raleigh, N.C. as alliance partners in the final matches. Sparky's alliance emerged Saturday as top winners in the 2012 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Virginia Regional. Tucker High School's FRC team qualified to compete at the FIRST WORLD Championship in St. Louis, April 25-28.

“It was a great day for Tucker High School Robotics,” said Assistant Coach Carol Edelman.

The contest brought together 59 teams from Virginia, the Carolinas, Connecticut and Washington, DC to face off at Virginia Commonwealth University's Stuart C. Siegel Center. In addition to leading the winning alliance, Tucker's team was named winner of the Engineering Inspiration Award, celebrating outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school as well as their community.