[martin417]

I became involved with FIRST in 2008 (yes, that makes me a noob). It was 1114 that really inspired me to stay involved. I was green, and knew nothing about FIRST that year. We got to go to championships where I saw 1114 and their awesome robot. I realized that our robot had the POTENTIAL to be just as good, if the execution had been better. I was happy that we come away with the Xerox creativity award that year. I also came away with the determination to improve. I knew that our team had the ability to be as good as anybody else, we just needed the experience and leadership. We have come a long way, but we are not yet at the "powerhouse" level. What I can say is that we have improved every year. Last year we had a blast, and did well, playing head to head in the quarterfinals on Galileo against another powerhouse, the Thunderchickens. I hope to get the opportunity to play against (or better yet, with) a powerhouse team again this year, hopefully with different results.

Is our robot 100% designed and built by student? No. Do the students have 100% say-so over all decisions? yes. Do the mentors help with design and build? Absolutely. Are we focused on winning? You bet. Winning is the motivation for excellence. Who wants to work as hard as you can, and not do everything you can to win? This past Saturday we spent 14 hours at the school modifying the robot because we came up with an idea that would make us better. We had an excellent bot Saturday morning, but we decided it was worth the effort to make it better. The students knew the challenge involved, and were willing to put in the time and effort make it a little better. The motivation for that willingness is teams like Simbotics that always have a great robot. Don't look at them as spoilers, look to them for inspiration. Do your best to beat them. I like to think they will respect you for it.