Longest droughts in FIRST history

[Brandon Holley]

I have been on my current team (125) since september. We are not at any means a large team (now, at one point we had over 100 members). I come from a team of extended success (11). Team 125 has one major accomplishment, 1 national championship in 2001. At regionals however, their success is absolutely 0. Never won a regional, never a chairmans, judges, spirit, or any of the other awards. Team 125 has been in existance for 9 years. I was just wondering, are there any other teams out there, who have been in a "awardless" drought if you will?



p.s. - i am not whining or anything, i am just curious to see if any other veteran teams have had such a drought at regionals. the numbers would point you in a direction that winning something should have occured.

[Mark McLeod]

Your team got the Woodie Flowers Finalist award in 2004 at MD.

I do know teams that have been around a good number of years and have never won any award. DarkJedi613 has a database of all FIRST team awards at http://www.team358.org/files/team_lookup/public/ you can download and search to your heart's content, or you can use his search engine at http://www.team358.org/files/team_lookup/ .

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Your team got the Woodie Flowers Finalist award...

I consider the Woodie Flowers Award to be honoring an individual, not a team. In my opinion, Brandon is not out of line to ignore it when figuring the length of 125's "drought".

[Jason Kixmiller]

A possible solution to this might be to particularly focus your efforts in one area...in a sense, doing a few things really well rather than everything "so-so." Just because a team doesn't win many awards doesn't mean they aren't a good team; however, awards tend to recognize teams with great features rather than overall solid programs. I would say the important thing is the impact the team has on the people involved, not just the awards that are accumulated (although I will admit that awards are definitely nice motivators ).

[jagman2882]

the X-cats had not won a regional from 1992 through 2004. last year was thier first win ant FLR. thats what id call a drought

[jagman2882]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Your team got the Woodie Flowers Finalist award in 2004 at MD.

I do know teams that have been around a good number of years and have never won any award. DarkJedi613 has a database of all FIRST team awards at http://www.team358.org/files/team_lookup/public/ you can download and search to your heart's content, or you can use his search engine at http://www.team358.org/files/team_lookup/ .

its good but does need some updates, 1126 won newton division in 2004 not 2003

[Travis Hoffman]

I know this doesn't fit in exactly with the thread topic (no awards vs. no victories), but I felt it has to be said....

48 has never won a regional in its entire 9 year existence, and we never, ever, ever, ever, ever will.....especially this year......especially not in Mississauga in 5 days. In fact, I don't know what I'd do if we ever won. I'm scared to death of winning and would like to keep our drought intact for eternity. I do not wish to anger the robot gods by upsetting the balance of competitive equilibrium and harmony they've sought to enforce over the past decade of our existence.....

(shhhhh.....reverse psychology.....)

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I consider the Woodie Flowers Award to be honoring an individual, not a team. In my opinion, Brandon is not out of line to ignore it when figuring the length of 125's "drought".

True. I didn't mean it as a team award in that sense, and I agree it doesn't really apply to Brandon's original point.

I was thinking more of the team pride that an award engenders, even one any individual member receives, as something they would be proud to list as an accomplishment, especially since it was a team submission in honor of that outstanding individual.

[Brandon Holley]

125 and other teams in a "drought" situation must look at the big picture. We know we are doing a great job in FIRST. This year a lone we helped start 7 rookie teams in the Boston area. We have 5 high schools that we must reach out and help bring to our lab.

We all have a great sense of pride for our team, but who wouldnt want to be recognized for their efforts. I feel bad for this team, constantly watching others win awards, who do deserve it, but never being able to go and shake the hands of the judges, and grabbing that plastic trophy and hoisting it into the air. One would think in their 9 years of existence and regional experience, they would have come away with 1 such award.



As for concentrating our efforts, we have done our best. I feel we have always been in the running for such awards, but, there is always a team who is able to convey their message of FIRST a little better.

But no worries, myself and team 125 are going to go to every regional with the same sense of pride we always have. Like I said earlier, we are by no means a large team, but the amount of pride and trust we have in each other would definalty point you in a different direction....

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by MORT~11

As for concentrating our efforts, we have done our best. I feel we have always been in the running for such awards, but, there is always a team who is able to convey their message of FIRST a little better.

I think you've struck upon an important component of getting recognized for awards - effective and energetic communication. The team members who spend the most time interacting with judges should be those who are best equipped to "tell the story" of your program, your people, and your robot. Some teams will only permit students to perform this task, and while they are certainly the ones who get the most out of your team and benefit the most from speaking to these professionals, they aren't the only ones with great stories to tell and experiences to share. We feel we have a good balance of participation among all our team members, and therefore, we've found good success in involving multiple people in our judge conversations. We often encourage mentors, teachers, parents, sponsors, and alumni to join the students in sharing their thoughts with the judges if they have relevant information and ideas to contribute to the current topic of conversation. I believe this diversity in communication has helped earn us a few more awards than we would have otherwise received had students alone handled all the talking.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by jagman2882

the X-cats had not won a regional from 1992 through 2004. last year was thier first win ant FLR. thats what id call a drought

Yeah but I think they mean any awards and we are instantly discounted becasue we won the biggest award of all.
Twice.

[jagman2882]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Yeah but I think they mean any awards and we are instantly discounted becasue we won the biggest award of all.
Twice.

True true

[Brandon Holley]

Team 125 also won the national competition in 2001, like i said...but i am specifically talking about regionals, and about awards

[Jeremy L]

Is winning an award such an important thing? Why can't members of a team just be happy with putting engineering to the test, and every year pumping out a highly sophisticated robot in six weeks?

Sure, awards are nice to shove in the display case, but the point of FIRST is to enjoy yourself. Not every team can win a regional or an award, but everybody can certainly have fun and be proud of the work they've done.

[Erin Rapacki]

Mentoring a rookie team was the best experience I ever had in FIRST; of course, it was cool that 1975 won Rookie Inspiration (I stood up, screamed, hugged the girls, and shook hands with all the judges while wearing my Boston Planning Committee attire), but what was cooler was that I WAS NOT WITH QUEEN AT THE REGIONAL TO HELP THEM!

I was there every meeting during build season, but the girls did it themselves during the regional with the help of ONLY two other college mentors.

I remember the first week when the girls asked me, wide eyed, "Are you here to help us build the robot???" Five weeks (not six, we lost a week) and some major personal credit card debt later QUEEN churned out a rather competitive robot and even more competitive girls. They loved it, they were inspired, they showed up to every meeting, they can fix the robot themselves, they've learned to ask questions, use tools correctly, and dream big.

In turn, QUEEN taught me that I can dream big, and helped me re-realize my passion for robotic products.

All I can say is that when a FIRST student leaves High School and becomes a college "mentor" the feeling of seeing high school students work on the robot should be reward in itself. Regional FIRST awards are nice, but if the high school students aren't supportive of winning it, if they aren't doing the work, then the team doesn't deserve to win it, and "how long the team has been in FIRST" doesn't matter.

NU-TRONS, you had a breakup and rebirth during the 2002 season, so consider yourself a FOUR year old team. Many of the members from 2001 and before are not involved anymore (except George Perna, but he's cool and he's one of the reasons 125 survived the 2003 season during the team's reorganization).

I posted this information because I am a Northeastern Student, and I'd like for the NU-TRONS to be successful in winning competitions and awards, but 125 needs rethink their goals and better align them with the ideals of FIRST before true inspiration and success settles in.

I go to Northeastern, I love it, and since 2004 the NU-TRONS has been heading in a positive direction with their goals. They just aren't all the way there yet and could use experienced High School students to apply to NU, step up as team leaders, and help them with Chairman's, awards, and building competitive robots. The NU-TRONS do have potential, but younger college mentors tend to confuse the real purpose of FIRST with "lets go build a cool robot!!"