What Happened to 968 (RAWC)?

[thefro526]

The HS Freshman inside of me is extremely grateful for this thread.

968 is one of those teams that sticks in my head as 'dominant' regardless of their performance as of late. Being a 'young' participant in FRC back in 2006, 2007 and 2008, some of my most influential Memories are of the 25/968/195 Alliance in 2006, the super light 2-speed developed by 254 and 968 in 2007 and the 2008 254/968 machine being one of the only machines that seemed to be close to the same league as 1114*.

*For those of you who are not up on your late 00's FRC history, 1114's 2008 machine is arguably the most dominant conventional machine of the 'modern' era of FRC. At the Championship in 2008, 1114 made it out of the stacked Galileo Divison as the Undefeated Captain of the #1 Alliance and selected 217 and 148 to be their alliance partners. In the finals they went head to head against 1717 and 254 and won in two matches.... Then on Einstein, they lost one match - 1114's only loss of the 2008 Championship, to the Newton (I think) alliance captained by 968... It was an amazing thing to watch. (Newton Alliance was 968/233/60)

[David8696]

Here's an example of the kind of unbelievable defense 968 played at Inland Empire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVmN-lRZhU0
This year, they apparently weren't the world's best offensive bot, which is why they didn't do too well in quals - because they weren't paired with particularly good offensive bots. But once they got to the finals, paired with our full-court shooter and Holy Cows' brilliant ground pickup, they were able to exhibit their spectacular blocking.

[Adam Freeman]

Originally Posted by David8696

Here's an example of the kind of unbelievable defense 968 played at Inland Empire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVmN-lRZhU0
This year, they apparently weren't the world's best offensive bot, which is why they didn't do too well in quals - because they weren't paired with particularly good offensive bots. But once they got to the finals, paired with our full-court shooter and Holy Cows' brilliant ground pickup, they were able to exhibit their spectacular blocking.

I'd love to get a chance to pickup 968 in my division eliminations. This is the perfect full-back / defender that our robot could use.

It would be very difficult to lose the amount of experienced mentors that they lost and continue to perform at a high level. Even with all the loses, they were very good in 2011 and look like they have a robot that a lot of high powered alliances will be looking for in the second round.

[kiettyyyy]

Unfortunately, West Covina is located some what of a distance from major engineering corporations.

When I was a mentor on 968 (2008-2011), I tried to pull in additional mentoring resources from local companies and schools. Sadly, we did not generate enough interest. As David mentioned, 968 has not had a mentor that was over 28 years of age or had a significant amount of "real engineering" experience in the field.

That being said, the majority of our mentor base came out of willing college students who really wanted to be a part of the program; sadly, they usually move on a few years later once they graduate.

Regardless of losing a significant amount of experience, 968 still strives to build quality machines and still manages to do so with VERY limited resources. Richard still continues to inspire students perform their very best regardless of hardship and heartbreak that has come to the team.