Meet Our Team
Our team has collectively been involved as volunteers for 36 seasons with FIRST®.
Lesley Hamilton
Lesley is a passionate home educator and advocate for hands-on STEM learning. Her journey with FIRST began in 2016 when she discovered the perfect outlet for her sons’ curiosity and creativity. Since then, she has coached teams across all levels of FIRST, including FLL Explore, FLL Challenge, and FIRST TECH Challenge. Her team, the Mega Mavericks, became 2021 Regional Champions and have gone on to compete at multiple Florida State Championships, the Razorback Open Invitational, and the South Asia Pacific Open Invitational. Her FTC team, composed entirely of FLL alumni, has qualified for the Florida State Championship three seasons in a row under her leadership. Her Maverick Robotics program now spans 150 miles, 3 counties and over 10 teams.
Lesley began volunteering in 2018 and has served in a wide range of roles, with Head Core Values Judge being her favorite. She has also been a long-standing member of the Regional Planning Team and now proudly serves as the Program Delivery Partner for FLL Explore and FLL Challenge in Northeast Florida.
In addition to her work with FIRST, Lesley is the President and Founder of Edison Kids Inc., a nonprofit homeschool program, and CEO of STEM Training LLC, where she developed a custom STEM curriculum for homeschoolers. She continues to homeschool her sons and is committed to expanding access to competitive robotics within the Northeast Florida homeschool community. In her downtime, Lesley enjoys quilting, watercolor painting, and knitting, and is an active member of her local church community.
Jason Sweat
Jason is a local entrepreneur with several successful business ventures under his belt. He started in the business world in 2004 at the age of 24 where he owned and operated his first successful business. Jason has always been humble about his successes and desired to serve those of his community more so than create more personal success. He began volunteering and coaching youth baseball at the age of 22 and served as the league president for his local youth sports league for 3 years.
Jason discovered FIRST in 2020, when his kids were invited by some friends to a community robotics class. 4 months later, he found himself volunteering to help coach the team during another coaches absence and never looked back. Jason has mentored and led more than 12 teams since he started coaching in 2020, but his original team, The Frogmen, will always hold a special place in his heart. A championship team that has competed not only at the local and state level but on the international stage as well. The joy and excitement that he saw from the kids on that team was the driving force behind Jason taking an even greater role in the local STEAM and Robotics community. In 2022, Jason founded SwampBots, Inc, a local non-profit organization that aims to provide STEM opportunities to children all throughout the rural communities of North Central Florida. Since its beginning, with just one single team serving 9 young engineers, Swampbots has now grown to more than 10 teams and serves more than 70 young engineers throughout the community.
Jason took to volunteering in FIRST and the NE Florida Region in style by joining the BOD of Builders of Tomorrow and hosting the 2023 Regional Championship with a flare and style that further excited the kids and the parents and thrust NE Florida to the forefront of FIRST Robotics in the state of Florida. His desire to see these kids excel and compete and defy all the odds at every level is only eclipsed by his desire to see them all have fun and grow as good humans that will one day change our world!
54 Combined Seasons of Coaching