[archiver]

Posted by Anton Abaya.

Engineer on team #419, Rambots, from BC High / UMass Boston and NASA, Mathsoft, Solidworks.

Posted on 2/26/2000 1:55 AM MST



FIRST Community,

As a former member of a FIRST team and having experienced being in FIRST, I have continually expressed to my new team the spirit of FIRST and the sportsmanship it involves.

It was natural in my experience for teams to regard every team with 'gracious professionalism.' We define that as sportsmanship and showmanship to other teams. But with the sudden influx of rookie teams this year, it was a common misconception that each team is against one another and that 'our team will kick your team's butt.' But is that really the spirit of FIRST? I have expressed to my team members that although it sounds nice for team building, it does not and should not be the over-arching slogan for teams, whether veteran or rookie.

I would highly suggest to the veteran teams and rookie teams to express to their students that although FIRST is a competition to compete against one another, that it does not necessarily imply the act of kicking a team's behind.

I say this because I have received several comments from students from other teams expressing the need to kick other team's behinds. Although playful, we all know that it will intensify as the excitement of the competition grows as well. The worst thing to occur in a FIRST Competition is a brawl of students fighting about who's team is better in kicking the other's behind.

In the spirit of FIRST and gracious professionalism, let's keep it fun, educational, fair, and peaceful.

ANTON ABAYA
team leader
team RAMBOTS, #419
UMass Boston / BC High