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Unread 29-04-2012, 12:38
Richard Wallace's Avatar
Richard Wallace Richard Wallace is offline
I live for the details.
FRC #3620 (Average Joes)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Rookie Year: 1996
Location: Southwestern Michigan
Posts: 3,667
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Re: CONGRATULATIONS 16, 25, and 180!

I first encountered FRC 16 in 1996, when my rookie team (now long gone) had its pit directly across from the rookie team from Mountain Home, in that absurdly hot tent in the Epcot parking lot. I recall being impressed by the level of mentor and parent engagement, and in the quality of the robot they built. The judges were clearly impressed, too -- the Baxter Bomb Squad were Chairman's Award Finalists in their first FIRST season. After several more CA Finalist recognitions, the won the CA outright and joined the FIRST Hall of Fame in 2000.

2002 brought the Bomb Squad to the St. Louis Regional, where again I was mentoring a rookie team, 931. That was the first time I met the Novaks, if I recall clearly. 16 seeded first and won the regional. I think that may have been their second regional win (after winning Midwest in 1998?) -- anyway, today they have more regional wins behind them than I can count without looking them up.

For the next several years as a volunteer at the St. Louis Regional, I had the honor of sweeping the Bomb Squad out of the pits on Thursday night -- they were ALWAYS the last team to leave, because they were always working on some kind of improvement, aiming for that elusive perfection. I didn't mind chasing them out, though, because by being at our event they raised the standards of quality and effort, and they found many ways to help other teams and to help the local volunteer corps. When I was the LRI and later the FTA, I encountered many situations where advice and assistance from John Novak proved invaluable. In 2009, John was recognized with the Woodie Flowers Award in Atlanta.

Joining forces with two other great (ok, let's call them powerhouse) teams 25 and 180, the Bomb Squad finally got it all together this year. Three regional wins (all with the help of great scoring teams) and then a switch to ball-control defense in division elimination play -- and finally an inspiring display of field awareness on Einstein. Their robot was where it needed to be , doing what it needed to do, nearly all the time. (Except when it sat there doing nothing -- but that happened to many other great robots, too.)

Now that 16's trophy case includes all three of the big prizes, it is time for the next step. They've been busy mentoring new teams, and now Meredith is working on a new regional down in Arkansas. I'll go out on a limb and predict that will be a great event.

Well done, Team 16.
__________________
Richard Wallace

Mentor since 2011 for FRC 3620 Average Joes (St. Joseph, Michigan)
Mentor 2002-10 for FRC 931 Perpetual Chaos (St. Louis, Missouri)
since 2003

I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)