Best experiences in FIRST

[Ken Zaballos]

I am the mechanical engineering/design mentor for FRC Team 1983. I have two “Best” experiences in FIRST. One was the 2013 season and the most significant happened in 2008.

I won’t bore you with the details of our difficult 2013 Build Season. Late in week 4 we realized that the architecture we were pursuing was not going to work. We needed to make some hard decisions. We reorganized what we had and put together a machine that could play the game, more or less. It was/is a weird machine, very difficult to operate.

Our first competition was at Central Washington University and it started out horrendously. We seeded 32 out of 50, probably our worst showing ever. I was thinking this season was going to be a fiasco. The rest of the team, however, only saw a challenge to be met. The entire team came together like I could never have imagined. The Pit Crew and Drive Team put in heroic efforts to get the most out of what we had. The Scouting Team identified the best alliance partners who could augment our capabilities throughout the season. We continued to gel: winning three regionals (Central Washington, Seattle and Spokane) in three consecutive weekends along with Chairman’s in Seattle. In St. Louis, we were undefeated and seeded 2nd on Curie, but lost in the semis due to mechanical problems. I am inspired by our team’s perseverance and belief in their abilities. It was an unexpected and unbelievable season.

My absolute best experience in FIRST happened in 2008 as a rookie mentor. I didn’t know what FIRST was about or what my role was. I just loved working with students on a challenging problem … still do. We had a good season and I was happy with that, but I was clueless about what was really happening. After the season was over, a student gave me a long, heartfelt letter explaining the impact I had changing the direction of her life. Engineering was not a career choice encouraged in her family. She now has a BSME from WPI and is married to a FIRST alum. She is also the Coach for our two new FTC teams. She is an intelligent and highly capable woman and I am proud to have her as a friend.

FIRST changes lives and I am humbled to be part of it.