Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Voracek
First off: my four years as a student on robotics are done. Completely. Over. Never will I be behind the sticks of a robot again at an official competition. It's been four years. And the best four years I could have ever asked for.
Our team has had it's ups and downs with robots, but this year, by far, we put together the best robot in our teams history. And we have the medals to prove it.
...
Atlanta this year was amazing. I talked to Karthik, Paul Capioli, Cory McBride, everyone who I thought would never even recognize our team. But we put on a good show... A pretty dang good show.
...
I don't even know what to say. Our team put together an alliance that beat the thunder chickens alliance once. Haha. That's more than I ever expected. Way more than I ever expected.
188, Shawn, your team is amazing. It was awesome working with you guys... We wanted it from the beginning, and we got it, and I'll never look back on that choice.
329, to be completely honest, I only had a brief glimpse of what you guys looked like, before we picked you. But the data backed you guys up, and you performed amazing. Purely amazing...
One little thing I have to explain - finals match 3, when everyone thought we got lured in to get the super cells scored on us... I had to do it. There were no balls on the field, we had 8 in our hopper, and real time scoring showed us as losing. Da bears were waiting in a corner to pin us against 217's trailer once we scored. I saw everything Paul was doing over there, but I had to go for it, at least at the time I thought I did. We would score 16 points (and we did) and pick up the lead... Then we had to hope they missed the super cells. If they missed the super cells, and we didn't score, we still lost (according to the real time... which means I had to make the score). We did what we did, but 217's alliance simply outscored us. Either way. It was awesome.
You know my favorite part of this whole robotics thing?
I can always come back next year as a mentor, and see some freshman go through the program and experience everything I did. Right from square one.
Thanks FIRST. It's made high school... so... so amazing. I don't know what to say. I met amazing, lifelong friends... And it changed my life.
See you all soon. =)
|
I have to say that as a mentor it has always been my pleasure to help students out. Let me say that this year's experience has been amazing to say the least and it has been a pleasure to serve as a coach.
As a previous driver for team 399, I have to say that the experience of coaching a team to success is amazing and an experience that is altogether different than when I was a student. At times you have to support your team through defeat, but it is amazing to me to see the resolve in students to do better as they move on, particularly in the next competition/match.
Along with Brad I have had the pleasure of meeting some great people including, Paul Copioli, Karthik, Shawn Lim (team 188), and many others.
Let me say that I was pleased to match wits with Paul on the field knowing his record as a FIRST master tactician. I couldn't be more proud of our results against such a successful team, but this couldn't have been accomplished without our amazing teammates.
Team 188 - You guys are simply amazing! As Brad mentioned, we were looking forward to working with you all from the beginning and it was a pleasure to get to do so in the finals. Shawn, as a fellow coach and future educator, it was a pleasure to get to know you and tackle the eliminations together. You helped bring our alliance together and I hope I have the chance to work with you more in the future.
Team 329 - Two words come to mind, reliable and teamwork. Without you guys it would have been nearly impossible to get to the finals. Our cheer to "execute" was exemplified in our communication between coaches and your amazing robot. We could always count on you to "execute" the strategies every time. It was a pleasure working with you all
Building a robot that is successful obviously brings a lot of joy to our team. However, it is the relationships that are built and the experiences that brings a joy that lasts beyond the competition. Thank you to all who have made this year such an amazing trip for me and my team.