Our F.I.R.S.T. Experience

[Nick Babion]

My name is Nick Babion and I represent the Loveland, Colorado - Surrey, North Dakota teams #1977 and #1101 respectively. Our combined team came together this year through one man that was first a mentor and North Dakota then came to Loveland high and brought the idea of FIRST with him. Together we have created the team Virtual Commandos and shared allot of responsibility across the country using the Internet and allot of phone calls. While the building was done in Loveland, Surrey did allot of the behind the scenes work of proving mathematically that we could do certain things as well as allot of the stuff most participants don't want to do, i.e. paper work. Together with this team we created Loveland's first and Surreys fourth robot. Nicknamed the jumping jukebox we accomplished what we thought was the best example of KISS imaginable. With a front mounted roller to pick up and shoot balls in the easier to score in lower goals we didn't have a whole lot of things to worry about. And after a couple weeks we added what was probably a very good design element, our opening/backboard at the top of our robot to try and catch what we could from the more advanced shooting robots.

With our crated robot on our minds we headed to the Colorado regional in Denver and met up with our Surrey counterparts with whom we bonded instantly. After unpacking and fixing up all our loose ends (and missing our first practice round) we began to look at those around us. Amazed, as we went around the pits, at these engineering masterpieces we knew we were in for a tough first year. When our first practice round came up we got psyche up and headed out there with allot of reserve. "How are we going to do this? Are we even going to be able to run?" were just a couple of the questions that managed to be asked in between the constant "oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez" rambling though our heads. The things we learned from that match were probably nothing more the affirmations of things we tried to design but it also told us, Yes, we can do OK at this, i think we have a shot. The rest of the day went without a hitch pretty much. We discovered some flaws that were not accounted for in our limited testing but they were fixable and we headed into the next day anxious for the qualifying rounds. Our first two matches went exactly how we wanted, despite our same weak points creeping up again, our alliance was able to take it. The next two matches were probably the most important of the day. The first we learned what we thought was just a weak point, could potentially cripple us, as i don't think any one really wants to throw a chain repeatedly. The second was the respect that we already had for our other teams increased ten fold. We found out that even though you tried your hardest sometimes things just don't come out. And while sometimes in other sports you see people give up, or throw a fit, or even start a fight, everyone in this competition smiled and said "what can we do to get back out there." This level of enthusiasm and dedication to a competition such as this where the potential for allot of negative things happening is just amazing. As for my self through the blur of the past 3 days, i know it was one of the happiest and most tense things i have done, and i would not trade it for the world. The experience i and my team mates gained and will be second to none through out my life. i would gladly give all that i did this first try ten times over to do it again.

This brings me to one of our major setbacks and faults during our building phase. I cant speak for everyone when i say this but i generally think allot of people want to work with their hands before they want to work with a telephone. So not realizing just how much money it takes we set forth with our hands and not our phones. We had to crunch every little penny to get what we could for this robot and even work around not being able to get it. This was our major fault. There is no one to pin this on but ourselves. We were the ones that thought we could do it with what we had and tried to, but we soon learned that things always cost money. The second time our money issue came up was the final day of competition in Denver. We came in this thing with solid hopes that we could compete and have fun. What we didn't realize is that we ended up having what it took to not only be picked for an alliance in the finals but to do everything we could to help our alliance members compete to the best of all of our ability. What the end result was will be something that i and my team will remember for a life time, looking up from our damaged robot on the third and final match and seeing our alliance win our very first competition.

What i wrote this message for today was what we remembered after our celebrations and packing up. We never did raise that much money for our robot let alone the amount its going to take to get to finals. We seem to be in sort of a tight place as of the moment and need to do all we can to try and be in Atlanta. My thought was to come here and ask for suggestions and help. What I and my team are looking for is not charity and we are ready to accept the fact that because of our negligence in fund raising we might not be able to make it to the championship. What we are looking for is some help and ideas on how we can get this money. What we are looking for is all the information and possibly even contacts we can get to try our hardest to get there. Again i am not trying to gain as much pity as possible and i know one less team, albeit a rookie team, is less competition. But this has been one of the most exciting times of our life's and we wish to do everything we can to try and make it last as long as possible. Thank you for listening to our story and thank you to all the teams that helped us and thank you to all the teams we might get to meet in Atlanta. I hope F.I.R.S.T. lasts longer and get bigger than even Dean dreams himself.

Nick Babion team #1977

My E-mail - IllicitAgency@gmail.com

Our Team Website - http://lhs.thompson.k12.co.us/vc/home.htm

Our Team Message Boards - http://lhs.thompson.k12.co.us/vc/phpBB/index.php

Our School Website - http://lhs.thompson.k12.co.us/index.htm