True Gracious Professionalism

[Pin Man]

On behalf of team 88 I would just like to say that team 173 and team 365 are true examples of gracious professionalism... In New Jersey Tj didn't do as good as we predicted (even though we only had 2 matches with robots that worked for alliances)... We cheered hard through out... I was human player cheering us on also... We cheered, sang, danced, formed conga lines, and it was the best time I think I have ever had at a Regional... OH BOY!!! We did not win the spirit award however but thats ok... It went to a team that also deserved it... We still cheered hard throughout...

Near the end of the competition team 365 lined about on both sides of us... I had no idea what was going on... I saw a couple of their team mates take the floor and they presented to us a motorized award... It was a pair of clapping MOE sticks... It was really cool how they made it... With this act they really touched our team...

Also we found another award in our pit given to us by team 173 RAGE... They gave us a nice plaque that says "Best Vibe"... It is really neat...

Team 88 was really touched by these two teams... They represent everything that FIRST is about... Even though we won't be seeing those two teams at the next regional we plan to cheer hard all three days... We will go crazy... And at Nationals when they are there, we will be out of control!!! So on behalf of team 88 I would just like to say thank you to teams 173 and 365!!! TJ LOVES YOU GUYS!!!!

THANK YOU!!!

David Kingsley
(aka Pin Man)
of team 88

[Trinora]

I have to agree. Rage's own Awards were simply fantasic, and MOE, TJsquared, and 195 showed an amazing amount of team spirit. Many teams embody the aspects of FIRST that are most important, gracious professionalism, coopertition, and other amazing not-so-real words. I'm glad you made a thread to recognize them.

[Nick Mac]

Yeah, I posted under one of the New Jersey threads but i'm glad Pin Man made this a regular post. What both teams did for us was amazing. If you could have seen the gleam in my coach's eye as I told her the story, 3 TIMES!! After i told her the first time she was so amazed that I had to tell her again, and then again. My whole team was excited that we were recognized not by first, but by our peers. I remember my Freshman year, MOE i believe won the national spirit award, so knowing that they saw us as having spirit is a great honor, and by standing up in front of the whole Trenton crowd to acknowledge our spirit was definitely something else. Our team actually didn't find out about rage until the bus ride home and the whole bus went crazy. We were screaming and applauding...it was definitely a site to see. We're glad have been noticed by our peers and just remember, you'll be hearing from us in long island and Atlanta too...bring your ear plugs.

[Pin Man]

And if anyone does know... I would like to know what RAGE made the award out of... It looks so nice...

[D@ve]

I love hereing about all this ...I hope everyone involed in this, brings some of thoughs positive vibes to UTC.....173, 365, 88 ( class act all the way around..)

D@VE

[Pin Man]

Originally Posted by D@ve

I love hereing about all this ...I hope everyone involed in this, brings some of thoughs positive vibes to UTC.....173, 365, 88 ( class act all the way around..)

D@VE

88 will not be at UTC... We are going to Long Island... I wish we could be there with all of you guys but we are going to be ripping it up in Long Island!!! SEE YOU AT NATIONALS THOUGH!!!

[Solace]

we got the award for the best woodie!

go figure.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

i would not like to rain on your parade, but the conga line is copyrighted by the cyber knights. We started the 500+ person one in Houston last year, and also the larger of the 2 in NJ.

Either way, great job cheering out there guys. Without teams like yours and ours, the stands would be dead. Dead Stands = No Fun... Great Job and keep on cheering!

[Nick Mac]

Originally Posted by ToMMan b182

i would not like to rain on your parade, but the conga line is copyrighted by the cyber knights. We started the 500+ person one in Houston last year, and also the larger of the 2 in NJ.

Either way, great job cheering out there guys. Without teams like yours and ours, the stands would be dead. Dead Stands = No Fun... Great Job and keep on cheering!

Ok ToMMan...i'll give you the fact that the conga line is yours...but lets just say we took a great invention and added to it to make it better. We had a kid at the front of the line playing drums on a poland spring water cooler...and i'm sure with 500 plus kids in your line, you didn't get the same akward staring like we did!

[Tom Bottiglieri]

no we did... probably because we were walking around the gallileo stands in a 10 person conga line for like 10 minutes before everyone joined on

[Rich Kressly]

The NJ Regional and Gracious Professionalism are synonomous with one another. Maybe that's why so many quality programs return year after year and the rookies are so well supported. Just off of the top of my head:

88 - Where do you start? Here's a team that makes the long trek to NJ when they could play closer to home. The enthusiasm, the tie-dye, always having a good time and exemplifying the true FIRST spirit year in and year out, on and off the field. Liz Calef comes forward to read the Woodie Flowers announcement. Just a class act all the way around.

25 - Hawaiian shirts, killer machine, champion of the "Rookies in Need of Support" effort, always willing to lend a hand, volunteer at an event, and share knowledge. How many teams in the region can say that have not been touched in some way by 25 and Wayne Cokeley?

11 - Bill McGowan and MORT have been turning kids onto FIRST at the LEGO level in HUGE numbers for years ... and somehow they find the time to build their own quality machine and be very competitive every time.

102 - Even in the midst of financial difficulties they find a way to be extrememly competitive and so easy to work with. Being "pit neighbors" with this crew has been awesome over the years. The'll burn your motors out in a match and help you replace them 10 minutes later.

87- Working with Diablo as an alliance partner is so easy and so much fun. Why? Quality people and great machines. Congrats on the silver medal.

365 - MOE, the green, and the awards they hand out have always been cool and it's fortunate that they chose to travel to NJ this year. John Larock and the kilt crew run a very efficient and uniqely inspiring team.

303 - What an awesome team. Always modest, always helpful. It's great to see them win it all.

So many more to talk about so little time:
173 - cool "poem" and a great competitor
195
237
224
...

on and on ....... these are the stories and reasons FIRST is so cool to be around.

[Carlo]

Thanks guys, but it is because of you that we were up and cheering. You gave us life, and you were the ones to take the initiative to cheer on a day that started out a little slow. When we all started making noise that regional woke up. We appreciated the high fives after we got our judges award, and we hope that team 88 is always there as a fellow friend.

As we continue our life as a team we are trying to better ourselves, and going to a competition such as the NJ regional, it just shows how many great teams are out there. Mr. Kressly outlined a few, except he missed another big one: Team 103. What an overall great setup of teams we had at NJ regional, and I hope to be a part of it again next year.

BTW, I was the kid speaking when we gave you the mechanical MOE sticks. Hope you liked them, I want a pair myself.

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by Pin Man

And if anyone does know... I would like to know what RAGE made the award out of... It looks so nice...

Ok here is the scoop on the RAGE team awards. They are made out of polycarb with a high gloss spray paint on the back and then engraved it all into the back backwards so it comes out with the interesting frosted look on the front.(Be careful it has been known to scrape off. We are working to fix that now. Unfortunately we were not able to perfect them like we were hoping to but they will hopefully be better at UTC New England.) But after we sprayed the back we used a CNC machine and a V tip router bit and had it etch them with the font that we use for our RAGE on our shirts etc. And it was all done in Mastercam fairly simply it only took me about 15 minutes to get the basic design.

[Pin Man]

nice... I wasn't planning on making one I was just wondering... It looks so nice...

[MOEmaniac]

Like my teammate carlo i agree with Mr. Kressly because without all of the enthusiastic teams out there FIRST would be what it is today. so to all the teams out there keep up the great team spirit and show your love for robotics. I know I will