Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

After being on a team for four years that struggled to break the top 20, being in second place(even if we lost in the quarter finals), just made me euphoric. It was more enthralling than being in 17th place in Atlanta

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Oh, i forgot to add the point of this lol, i wanted to ask

If you had to pick one moment, what would be your happiest/greatest moment in FIRST

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

2004 at the FLL championships our team was the first to get 3 perfect runs at a competition. To my knowledge, we are still the only ones to do it with an RCX.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

with only 1.5ish years (maybe like 1.75) under my belt, my experiences are limited... so im going to have to say last saturday, the 28th of february, 2009, when my team, 1089, won the regional chariman's award at the NJ regional... emotions were high, and it was an enthralling experience... so that makes it the greatest moment in my FIRST career

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

That would be an amazing memory even for someone involved in FIRST for 10 years....


AS for me -

Winning an upset at the Israeli Regional 2006 semi finals, match 2, with a score of 5-4 in a very, very defensive match, and thus qualifying to the semi-finals.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

yeah i think the only thing that would top that is winning chairman's in Atlanta or being part of the winning alliance at the championship event... so i guess i am lucky to have such an awesome experience so early in my FIRST career...

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

for me has to be this Saturday when after 3 years in first i finally got to wear a bib. then when we made the finals, i ran to the other side of the field were our alliance team was sitting and jumped up and down and told them to get up and cheer because we are in the finals :D .

just the whole experience for me was overwhelmingly awesome that even thou we lost i was the first person to walk (almost run) to the other side and congratulate the winning alliance and shake the hand of every judge.

PS i almost passed out on the floor after my adrenaline rush was over because of the excitement. :p

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Watching 1923 via webcast was pretty good. Despite having whatever plague is circling Manchester, I still managed to crank the speakers and dance around the apartment with each victory. Thank the robot gods for curtains.

My best moment is definitely when I heard that two of my students got full rides to Northeastern. A few years later and it is still impossible to think about it without crying. I can still remember snapshots of their personalities over the few years we worked together, and the trajectory is breath-taking.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Two experiences stick out in my mind.
Firstly, winning the Southern California Regional with 968 and 4 in 2006 (my freshman year). This was definitely a great way to start off my FIRST Career.

The single greatest experience I have had though is traveling to New Zealand to teach about FIRST and robotics with my team. We taught almost 1,000 students, 150 teachers, and 100 engineers. It was awesome.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

My greatest moment had to have come during the showing of the finals scores at the GSR this year. It was my first year driving, and it made me feel so good that I helped lead our team to victory.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I would have to say that there are many many great moments.

One would have to be the very first time I ever saw FIRST FRC robots, in 2005 at the IRI. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to be involved with this and wanted to be an engineer.

Another would be witnessing a team that you helped start build a robot and compete successfully. This goes along with all of the numerous acts of gracious professionalism that I have witnessed over the past few years. It's very impressive.

Finally, I will never forget being sent down as the second seed captain and being "proposed" to by 229 and drafted into an awesome alliance at SBPLI 2007.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Hearing 1746 get picked by the seventh alliance at Palmetto 2007. At the time, they were fixing to be the eighth alliance captain--with 1618 one slot below and no realistic hope of its manipulator-free robot being drafted. Naturally, I was a little enthused at the idea even if it meant getting shellacked in the first elimination round by Alliance #1 to the tune of 264-0.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

FLL-winning the NH state tournie for the first time (we have now won it 3 times) or winning research in Atlanta!

FRC-Being named the Safety Star of the Day at GSR for 2 years in a row! (Safety FIRST):yikes:

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

So far...

1) Taking down the #1 alliance in Chesapeake 08. Totally sublime moment when we, the eighth seed, won the event.

2)Being 1st seed in Atlanta in 08. It took a lot of dumb luck, but hey, what doesn't.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

The greatest moment in the history of my face and FIRST experience, and yes I did cried, was to witness the announcement and presentation of our Chief Geek, Todd Lovelace, as the Winner of Woodie Flower Award at the Florida Regional last year (2008). This is basically your local average guy who dedicated his time and even his dinner table in the pursuit of providing inspiration for his students every day, among many mentors in the FIRST Community.

Seeing Todd winning the Woodie Flower was more important than winning the regional or any awards in the past. It puts the Gracious Professionalism to full strength in its glorious form. I think the special moment made me more appreciative of FIRST for the first time in my seven years experience and motivated myself into the volunteer force this year. :D

-Josh Simpson

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I could write a book about my greatest moment.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Tough to decide between two moments at SVR 2004: being an undisputed 1st after the first day, the only team to go 6-0, or (along with 254 and another team I have sadly forgotten) managing to get a clean sweep and cover every goal. That was an incredible cheer when we got the last one on...

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

While it's easy to say that having 1089 win Chairman's on Saturday was my greatest moment in FIRST ever, I think it was the aftershock and realization that we have a new expectation to live up to that was even more amazing. We have a *lot* more work to do to, and armed with an amazing group of students and mentors, and absolutely AWESOME teams around us, I think we can help motivate more schools in our area to develop more opportunities for students to pursue science and technology, whether they become a part of FIRST or not.

Listening to our freshman and sophomore RCA presenters give their presentation today to the rest of the team, I was floored that our students have taken so much from the program in such a short period of time, and that they not only want, but they HUNGER to do more. It just reinforced to me why I have participated in FIRST for the last seven years.

Regardless of the issues that exist within the organization, or issues that exist within our team, our team winning RCA has made me think even more about how important it is to give students an ability to lead, an ability to communicate, and a knowledge and recognition that by being a cog within the machine that is a FIRST team, their responsibility and contributions make an impact in ways that they may not initially understand. Their accomplishments are fueling them, and many of them have never had to come to the realization that "hard work brings success". Too often students are missing that, and FIRST is a fantastic way for them to see it.

When I "accidentally" watched Wayne C and team 25 deliver a presentation to my high school back in 2002, I NEVER imagined that I could ever be a part of something so important, and I sincerely hope that I can continue to be a part of this team that's clearly taken up a life of its own, for many years to come.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

As with many, I have multiple moments:
1) Winning the Chairman's Award last year (2008) in Minnesota as a mentor for 1816, even if I had to get my nose crushed and bloodied by Mark Lawrence!
2) Winning the St. Louis Regional with 16 and 537 my senior year (2004). We were the 2nd seed with an undefeated record and had an excellent run with the Bomb Squad and Charger Robotics.
#1 far outweighed #2 for me though.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

[quote=RMiller;831426]
As with many, I have multiple moments:
1) Winning the Chairman's Award last year (2008) in Minnesota as a mentor for 1816, even if I had to get my nose crushed and bloodied by Mark Lawrence!
[quote]

1) After winning the Chairman's Award in Minnesota as a member of team 1816, going down to the arena, giving Mark Lawrence a huge hug for all his help mentoring, and seeing Ryan Miller holding a kleenex to his bloody nose.

2) Rookie year - winning the Wisconsin regional with the help of two amazing teams - Wildstang and Winnovation

3) Rookie year - Seeding 6th in the Archimedes division in Atlanta and winning the Highest Rookie Seed award

I could go on and on with all the wonderful memories I have from this inspiring program. Thanks FIRST for all the great memories and hopefully many more to come!

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I've got some time on my hands...so I wrote a book:

So 174 was never really a team, just a rag-tag group of friends that all knew each other. Some students would get into serious fights and some of us did very un-FIRST things most of the time. We really didn't live up to the whole 'GP' thing. It was my senior year, and most of the rest of the team was having this year be the last year. The game was Tripple Play and we really worked hard to make a powerful robot. But all of us wern't really together, we didn't have that much spirit - we just wanted a good year.

We went to the first FLR and we did a really good job getting picked by 8th seeded 141 in the elims and fighting one of the hardest fights of our FIRST lives. I was the Human Player, and to keep within the theme of Tripple Play took on a Tri-corner hat to wear.

After a very sucessful showing at FLR, we were all pumped for Buckeye and we couldn't wait to get to that field. The bus ride there was filled with an electricity and we all felt it. Before anyone even sat down that Thusday - RIGHT out of the 6 hour bus ride - everyone was cheering when the robot was just about ready to take the field. I got down to my Human Player position and with a flag I made I got the entire team to shout like a director of a chior. It didn't matter if we won or lost, each time my friends would get on their feet and shout a the top of their lungs.

There was one moment where the DJ started to play YMCA, and the MC called out for someone to get the judges to stand up and dance. Well...I called them all to this duty. As I danced along side one of the judges, he turned to me and said "Are you a Senior?" I answered yes. He said, "You really want this don't you?" I shook my head and pointed at my team that was up in the stands dancing, "They really need this." The look that judge gave me was probably the first time someone ever looked at me like I was were I meant to be.

We got into Elims as a Seeded team for the first time, though we didn't make it past quarters (A good memory though, as we were beaten by a rookie team #1511).

I was feeling really sick after all the excitement, and went to the First Aid room to rest away from all the action while the rest of elims were going on. I had a really amazing conversation with the nurse that was attending the first aid room about how much FIRST means to me and all that. One of 174's mentors took me back to the bleachers just before awards, and I sat though each one. To be honest, I completely forgot about the Team Spirit award and just as the MC started talking my heart just jumpped.

I don't know how to explain the feeling. It was like everything that was ever wrong just became right. Everything that all of us ever did to each other to make us seem less and less like a team - gone. The fights - gone. The anger and gossip - gone. The MC read off "The winner of the Team Spirit award.... Team 1 -- 7 -- 4. The Arctic Warriors" And wow, I can't even tell you. I kinda didn't want to believe it, but thats what it was. I had my arms up to the sky with tears in my eyes just like all the other team mates beside me. I was so late getting down to the stage and I slapped each Judges hand really hard giving a quick but so grateful thank you.

I walked over to where someone was taking pictures and another mentor gave me one of the trophys and I held it up high with a shout to my team who huddled around.

As we walked back up to the stands some guy looked at me all crying and seriously shaking, he goes "Yo man, you look like you just won the Chairmans award!" I kinda laughed and said "Yea, we won the most important award in FIRST." Obviously the guy didn't get it. I mean we only won the Team Spirit award..."But thats the thing. We are finally called a team."

We won the Buckeye the next year when I mentored them, 174's first regional win....doesn't even come close to winning a simple Team Spirit award.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I am glad I provide such entertainment! Thankfully, I think that was the worst injury of the year for us or and at the Minnesota regional.
See you in a couple weeks at Milwaukee.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

In order

1. Joining
2. Scoring a ringer as a human player in 2007
3. Winning NYC Regional

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I've had some great moments through FIRST. Winning a Chairman's Award, an FVC Championship, wrapping around the rack in 2007, and many others.

Even with all those moments, I certainly hope my greatest moment in FIRST hasn't happened yet.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

So far...

1) Going to the finals at FLR in 2007 as the number 8 seed

2) Winning Chairman's at FLR 3 out of the past 4 years :)

3) Mentoring all of the great kids that I've had the pleasure of working with over my 5 years in FIRST.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Mine was last year at Atl, our team was only a second year, we had the #5 pick on Archimedes :)

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

My greatest moment is when I was able to drive the TechnoKat robot in St. Louis in 2007. We won the regional. That year we had a "second robot" (nicknamed 45T), and all the many many hours put in with that robot is the reason why we (as a team) were able to perform so well.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

LOL... I was the Game Announcer for that regional and saw you running towards Mark and then you going down as he was cheering the Chairman's award. Mark was so excited. This year we will have to clear a zone around him in case you win again!

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

The greatest moment in my FIRST career would have to be winning the IRI scholarship this past summer. Moving around a wide range of teams put me in situations that I have learned so much from. The essay that I wrote for the IRI scholarship is an essay that I am sure to say was the most heartfelt out of any scholarship, award, college essay I have ever written in my life.

With IRI being the last event I would be attending as a high school FIRST student, it was my last hurrah to be able to share my FIRST experience with others, even if it meant a panel of judges from an offseason event. After doing what I have been in my years of FIRST, I never have felt more like I actually have been doing it right until my name was called to receive the award.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

After a really tough season in 2008 that I could rant about for hours, we ended having a totally non functioning robot at both Regionals we attended. The whole season we E-stopped all but 2 matches. At Davis we were put in the pits next to a team from Deer Valley (I forget the number) Who had come to the competition with 1 member, a 38"x38" robot, and no robotics experience. We decided that our robot was hopeless but maybe we could help out this team. We were afraid that, as rookies, they would have a bad 1st year experience with FIRST and not come back. By the end of thursday we (not only our team, lots of people helped) got them with legal bumpers, a correctly sized frame, and a scissor lift that could knock orbit balls off the overpass. I was so happy when they out ranked us by a hugh margin (we got 34th, they got around 15th). Then a local school, 2390 Dougherty Valley, with whom our team has a large relation had issues with wiring and programming, and released some magic smoke on friday. We helped them rewire and programed a hybrid for them. They ended up seating 10th but were not picked. Luckily for them, their day wasn't over. In the semis alliance 4 IIRC had a team member break un-repairably. 2390 was drafted as a backup. Wen that was announced, it was one of my most exciting events in FIRST (more so then winning a regional). They did not however win the finals but got second place and went home their rookie year with a blue banner. Coolest part was that at the award ceremony we already knew that there was no way we had won an award. Our robot was awful and we didn't try for any non robot awards. Also we figured because we didn't hand out booklets or first aid kits we hadn't done enough for GP or Safety. Fortunately I was wrong. Someone had told the judges about what we did for 2390 and Deer Valley and they gave us GP. Realize at this point we had totally given up on the season, even our Coach (now ex-coach) had left to be with his family. They announced that 1458 had one GP and we all went ecstatic. It was absolutely unforgettable.

In my 4 years of FIRST and 13 FIRST events, nothing compares to that level of excitement.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Oh, I was excited as well. Just ask the volunteers I was sitting next to on the arena floor! My excitement kept me from thinking through my actions before I managed to get clocked.
Moral of the story: be careful of mentors and flailing arms!

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I would have to say that for me it was this last weekend in KC placing 2nd... we had a really bad year last year and i didn't know how the team would work out this year, but everyone on our team(only 10 guys!) worked well with each other and we placed 2nd with teams 2164 and 1985, thanks guys for making it a great SR year for me!

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

To date, this is one of the most inspiring moments I've had the privilege of witnessing. Watching shy students approach these wonderful people to visit for a moment or two was so very special, not to mention the crazy infusion of energy in the robot competition brought by the presence of these folks.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I bet I know Karthik's greatest moment: Theres a picture floating around here somewhere of him lying down in all the confetti on Einstein having just won the 2008 Championship.

As for my own greatest moment... I'm not sure. Its kind of a tossup between being Canadian Regional finalists in our rookie year (2003), winning the Wonderland Invitational in 2004, or maybe winning the Kettering Kickoff in 2008, when we werent even on the field... (thanks 2619!)

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

To me, stories like those from wsansewjs, Tetraman, Woody1458 are what I can relate to, and what I believe FIRST is all about.

In 2008, one of our mentors suggested we create a license plate with the FIRST logo on it and make it available to the public. We moved forward with the project, a couple students did the research and design work to submit it to the BMV. At the Boilermaker Regional, we had students circulating the stands & pits, trying to gain the needed 500 signatures on the petition. Our bid was unsuccessful (the BMV decided not to make any new plates that year, but we plan to revisit the project in 2010 with the help of other Indiana teams), but it was still a great exercise for the students.
At the award ceremony on Saturday, as Amanda Morrison was describing the Judges' Award recipient, she mentioned that a team "really stepped up to the plate." I honestly don't remember much after that.
For a 4th-year (at the time) team that had never made it past Saturday Morning, let alone be in contention for an award, to be recognized like that, was the single greatest shot in the arm we could receive.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Same moment for me. Winning with my son as the driver is one of my best moments in my entire life. Sharing that moment with my pseudo son Greigh and you and Nick made it even more special.

Winning for Randy after so many years of struggle was also great.

I still tear up when I see the picks.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I would have to say 2007 atlanta - great year to be the driver on my team. Between being undefeated after the first day of qualifications to being in the finals of our division and all the time between and after, it was great.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

1-anytime spent with FIRST buddys
2-2007 when my team 8 seed beat the first seed (365) and when on the get 2nd

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

My greatest moment in FIRST is probably very different than most.

I've been part of teams that have won regionals, won rookie all star, and many other awards, but my greatest moment happened at a little offseason event ('Mayhem in Merrimack' put on by Chop shop 166).

The game was triple play and that was the year that everything that could have gone wrong did. We got boxed out of our home regional due to school internet issues, so we had to travel that year. During our 1 regional, anything that could go wrong did, including an incorrect rules interpretataion that required us to rebuild our lift system at the regional. Needless to say it was a very uninspirational year (so far).

Anyways, at the offseason event things started to click ... the robot was performing perfectly, the new autonomous code was on spot every time, things were just going our way. After the seeding rounds we were the #1 seed at 8-0. We chose the 2nd seed and they declined (wanting to work with another team). We went through the quarter- and semi- finals without a loss (as did the #2 seed).

In the finals, we won the first match and they won the second match, setting up a 3rd match for the championship. With a few seconds left in this 3rd match the score was tied and we were trying to cap a tetra 7-high on the center goal (very high for those who do not know the game). The #2 seed team was playing some rough defense and our 'bot tipped over. The referee called the tipping intentional and that gave us the game / match and event champions ... but our students didn't believe that they tipped us intentionally and without prompting from anyone went to the head referee and asked if we could decline the penalty. The head referee explained that we had won and if he recinded the penalty it would be a tie and would have to be replayed, to which our students replied "We don't believe that they tipped us on purpose and we don't want to win that way".

The head referee recinded the penalty, we replayed the match and we won ... but, in truth (in my mind), the kids won the second they asked the referee to recind the penalty. That is my greatest moment in FIRST.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

For me the greatest moment in my FIRST experience had to be making it onto Einstein as my first year as a driver and second year on a team.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I have two awesome moments.

My first would be 2 years ago. I was a sophmore and it was my first year on the team (our school doesn't have freshman). We deicded to go to the Midwest Regional even though we knew it was a hard regional and we were only a second year team. We had a good run and then at alliance selections we were picked by wildstang. We made it all the way to the finals. The first two matches were ties. We lost the next match. Then our robot broke so we had another team replace us. We then won the next two matches and the regional all together.

My second favorite memory is this year at the KC Regioanal. The announcer was describing the Regional Chairman's Award winner. We then realized it was us.

It is awesome being able to go to Atlanta my first and last year on the team.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

The Greatest Moment in my FIRST career was when I saw my team mates stand up for what was right.

We were having a coaching issue where the coach (who's also the head mentor) got very upset with the Drive Team for a decision we made. We weren't at fault, except for not listening to him but he proceeded to take the Human's Player's badge away and told me he didn't need me to drive. I gave my badge back and sat in the stands. About 5 minutes later I got a call telling me to come back and drive. I walked into the pits and everyone seemed to realize that we were right. We won our next 3 matches without that coach and were the #6 seed.

Sometimes, good friends are the best Award.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

My regional is week six so I'm hoping that my current moment will be topped ;)
But here is my current "moment".

As a rookie team, last year, we like the only robot (maybe besides one other) that nearly went a whole lap (in autonomous)! Our robot was way over the line but our driving wheels were not, so didn't count as one lap, but nonetheless the whole crowd wend ballistic when we completed that one circle.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I'm glad we could help create that amazing memory. I was the scout for Winnovation at the time and was out on the field for alliance selections. After Stang picked us, their scout turned to me with his list and asked me what team we should pick. I looked at the list and saw 1816 and remembered that you guys could play good defense and were decent at dumping in the lower goals. You guys really rounded out a solid alliance. I didn't know it at the time, but I heard that your team had headed back to the hotel because you didn't think you would make eliminations. Your team then got an excited phone call telling them to get back to the arena because you had been picked for eliminations. We then went on to win the competition.

You guys then went on to seed 6th in Archimedes which was an incredible feat for a rookie team. I always kept an eye on your team through champs and I was happy to know that I had a part in getting you there. You guys went on to do great things in 2007 and we saw the number of teams from Minnesota increase very quickly. I'm not sure how much credit I can really take, but I like to say that I am slightly responsible for FIRST in Minnesota. I'm really glad we could do that for you guys. I look for you guys every year and I'm glad we get to compete with you guys again this year in Wisconsin. I can't wait.

This is one of my favorite memories.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

2008 Finals on Einstein with our partners 67 and 348 and our opponents 148, 217, and 1114. It was a wonderful priviledge to be in the company of such great teams whose mentors do so much to inspire their students and challenge all of us in FIRST.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I would have to say that my greatest moment so far was winning Tempest N Tampa back to back. (Yes, winning isn't everything, but back to back with a tie durring the finals both years is pretty amazing. If you were there, you know just how crazy it was.)

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

2006 FVC hanging around @ penn regional

44 teams formed the biggest and arguably the most competitive FVC regional that year. I went to the regional with low expectations. My base driver dropped out at the last minute and I had to "borrow" a person to drive from another team (thanks Spencer).

After being 1-3 in qualifications, we were picked by the 6th alliance somewhat randomly. Our alliance tore through the # 3, 2, 1 alliances, beating notable FVC teams like driven, overdrive, occam's engineers, and the #1 seed.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Greatest moment in FIRST history for me? The conclusion and aftermath of Brunswick Eruption 2008

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

my coolest moment-

in 2008 getting our robot stuck on the overpass and then firing our scissors and lifting the robot about 1.5 feet off the ground

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I'm not sure if I can pick just one greatest moment- I've had a lot. I love my FIRST family- it includes my own team, and the many other teams and volunteers I've encountered along the way so far. I hope it will continue to grow. FIRST has meant a lot to me, and I want to help to give back to others and to inspire the way I have been. This is why watching people learn and grow as individuals create the fondest and the proudest memories for me. I've seen so many wonderful things happen and people flourish because of their time in FIRST. This is why my greatest moment in my FIRST career is reading my team's first Chairman's Award submission. I have pushed for it to happen since I joined the team, but it didn't happen until this year, now that I'm gone for college. Besides asking some open-ended questions to kick-start their brainstorming and a little bit of proofreading, I really had nothing to do with the process- it was all them; their motivation, their creativity, their learning experiences. The result of their efforts was just absolutely stunning, it was a brilliant compilation of our team story, beautifully written. It made me cry. Reading it, I could tell how much it did for them as individuals and as a team. I was thrilled with the result, and truly proud of all of them. Watching the people I've worked with grow into stronger people and benefit from the program means a lot to me.

Being on Einstein last year was also an incredible experience, and quite humbling... but I don't think it topped the Chairman's Award submission. I've experienced hard-earned victories after nail-biting matches. It feels good, I admit it... but it's a fleeting feeling. In the long run, as great as those moments were in the present and shortly thereafter, those aren't the things that count the most, or make us better people. The moments that we spend with our FIRST family, and the little moments where we learned a big lesson, are the moments that stick with us forever, the moments that ultimately matter the most. I don't really care that much if they win the Chairman's Award, the thing that is most important to me is how much they got out of putting the submission together.

Edit: I finally just closed this after like my 3rd edit to make it sound the way I wanted it to... and then I realized how much this sounds like my "catchphrase"- It's not just about building a robot, it's about building a team. (:

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

My third-favorite FIRST moment was when the WFFA was awarded posthumously to Steve Yasick of 85 at the 2006 WMR. I never met the man, but his inspiration was evident in each and every member of BOB.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Well, being involved w/FIRST since Sept of 2002 there were moments. I guess the most important was after my older son joined team 176 in his senior year, received great recommendations from his teachers & mentors, was accepted to UMASS Amherst in Mech. Engineering, graduated in May '08 & now works from Pratt & Whitney. There were others, but just yesterday at the CT Regional, watching teams 126, 1155 & 1902 win was worth it. I've never seen so much crying for joy & happiness.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Before Saturday, my greatest moment in FIRST is the MC dragging me out onto the arena floor to tell a riddle to the crowd, and my first time driving.

But as of yesterday, my greatest moment in my FIRST career is my team winning the Chairman's Award, seriously I am still on the high :)

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

So far...

All in the same day finding out that 1771 won Palmetto, 1676 won RCA at Palmetto, and 1323 won RCA in Sacramento. :) Makes me forget about our own lackluster season so far. Love all 4 of these teams (11, 1323, 1676, and 1771). You guys rock.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

My best moment was just topped... seeing Mark Lawrence win the MN North Star WFA and being presented with the award by Woodie himself. Mark has been an amazing force for 1816 and an amazing force for FIRST in Minnesota.

I was standing with a number of people close to Mark and we were all watching as it became immediately apparent to us that he had won and slowly more apparent to him. Easily my favorite FIRST moment.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

My best moment would have to be my entire 2nd year(this year). After a disappointing rookie season in 2008 with one team essentially playing battlebots in a practice round, we had our entire pnuematic system ripped off and it took us the entire regional to recover, we ended in a three way tie for 19th overall and didn't make it to eliminations. This year, we revamped our image, and marketing plan, we went from C.Y.B.E.R. Robotics, which made us sound like stalkers, to the Flying Platypi. I got a chance to be the secondary driver this year(belt, guns) and The first day of Peachtree we went 6-0, and finished in 2nd place for the day. early day two was a little disappointing with us going 0-3 for the morning, and the head ref giving us a little bad publicity after a mishap with the E-Stop. We ended up 12th overall before the eliminations, after falling from 2nd. Luckily(or not depending on how you see it) the top 8 kept picking inside the top 8, which cleared us into the 8th spot by the time the 7th alliance had picked. Due to our position, we hadn't really planned an alliance to pick, nor had we kept up with who had been picked, so we kinda embarassed ourselves by picking 2 alliances who'd been picked already, then settled on 2415(you may know them as the palmetto winners), and collaborated with them to pick 832. We were a little intimidated going into eliminations, having to play the beast that was 1746,1771, and 547, coupled with the fact that our robot didn't like being on the blue alliance. first round we ended up winning by four points, the arena went nuts, maybe halfway through us and 832 had slammed 1746 into the side pretty hard, and it messed up their chains methinks. we managed to tie the next round 80-80 with our robot screwing up, we got owned the 3rd round, and won by a good 20 points on the fourth and final round, 1746 chains were acting up again. we went on to beat what I think was the 3rd seed, and then we beat the 7th seed in the final to become the 2009 peachtree champs. and that, is the best moment of my FIRST career

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

I think that my greatest moment in FIRST would have to be being in first place for 24 hours at the Boston Regional, even if we were eliminated in the quarters, it was an amazing feeling.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Friday and Saturday! For most of our team this was our first time at competition (not including KC earlier this season) so making it to the finals was so exciting...I could hardly believe it! It was such a wonderful two days (meeting Woodie Flowers/having him sign the robot and drivers pins!! + Shindig + Kurt's Woodie Flowers' Award! + Competing = BLISS) We had a ? for spanish if there was a time we'd totally live again (in a good way) my answer is 100% the mn competition! It was AWESOME and everyone there was so great!

-Hannah
***

BTW I'm making a flickr dump of pics from MN so if you hav any just pm thanks

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

This year at Peachtree we came in very excited with a very young team (more than 50% new members), but slowly these new kids spirits dropped as we fell to the bottom of the standings, with our robot not running about 5 matches and eventually ending 2-7, 43 of 46. But I guess when our robot worked it showed some potential, and the PlatyPi must have seen this in the matches that we did work and picked us as the 8th seed. And "lunch" break was all we needed to get the bugs fixed and some driving practice in. After 2 hours of hard work, we competed in our first playoff match and beat the #1 seed. From there everything worked great and our alliance partners were great also, and we ended up winning it all. This is my greatest FIRST moment.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

This is only our rookie year, but I think the best moment so far, and I'm quite sure it'll stick with me for years to come, would be winning the CO regional with 399 and 1332 with the Rookie All Star award and the website award (this one only because it was me and Scotty that did it). It was one of those few moments when I was sure I had to still be at the hotel dreaming up until the giant cougar mascot grabbed me and the deafening roar from our alliance all but blocked out the single thought: "OH MY GOSH WE'RE GOING TO ATLANTA!" It was a pretty big moment for us since our robot's just a bin on wheels and none of us really expected to make eliminations, let alone win them.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

Mine isn't really a moment, as much as its a process.
I guess winning Midwest was really cool, but, it wasn't my best moment.

I think my best moment was my rookie year, last year, when my team told me to go take pictures of every robot at the end of thursday in Midwest. Camera in hand, I would periodically go to the robot inspection area to see which teams were done, and then to their respective pit. Then I had the same routine. I'd look at the robot, and realize I had no idea how it worked. It took me a couple of pits to speak up and ask how their robot worked. And that was my favorite thing. I loved when a mentor or student would take me, and say "see this, this is how it works and why we have it". The shift from just seeing a robot, to seeing and understanding how it works was the coolest thing.

If you don't understand what I mean, it was the difference between seeing a bunch of letters and reading a word.

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

My greatest moment was yesterday when my team won the Engineering Inspiration award and we found out we were going to the ATL!

Re: Greatest Moment in my FIRST career
 

1. Going from 32nd at Buckeye (I think) to the 3rd seeded team at the Pittsburgh regional. We had an amazing time, we were graced by not having technical difficulties, and we loved playing with everyone there.

2. Being in the pit at both Buckeye and Pittsburgh and having most of the team come up to me and ask if we had already put in our coach's name for the mentor recognition. I didn't know that that much of the team recognized what he does for the team, his commitment, how much he cares. It made me proud.