Congrats to Team 1676

[mhayon]

Congratulations to Team 1676;


I don’t make a ton of posts, but I think my guys (and girls) deserve one, to say the very least.

You guys might know me, or may not; I’m [the famous or I hope not infamous] Matt from 1676- the former CEO/founder/whatever you want to call me (they’re just names anyway) of 1676. You know, 1676, one of the up-and-coming teams from the east coast that took NJ Rookie All-Star last year and this year took Judge’s Award and Safety Credits Award at the NJ regional and became finalists and won the Safety Credit’s Award at the Palmetto regional.

DISCLAIMER: I in no way want to toot my own horn. If anyone deserves recognition, its not a someone, it’s a team. After a certain point, in a lot of ways, I traded in “Matt Hayon” for “1676.” And in the FIRST community, I’m so glad I did this, and my hard work can live on through the future of 1676.

Last year, when 1676 won NJ Rookie All-Stars, it was a rush. The reason it was a rush (or at least part of it) was because we had a lot of backing. There were other teams rooting for us. Whereas like three teams even knew us coming into the regional, like 50 teams knew about us going out. And then we went to Championships. 50 teams knew us going in, a good number of teams knew our shirts and spirits going out.

And at the end of that year, I had a discussion with both another senior and an underclassman.
“I feel bad for you.”
“Why? We won All-Stars. We went to Atlanta. We made a huge community shift, and everybody knows about us. For a first-year team, we’ve done alright for ourselves.”
“Because next year, you’ll have to say all that stuff happened ‘last year’”

The underclassmen sighed, but agreed. Ironically, that underclassman is the 2005-2006 CEO of 1676.

I went to college. I went to like one meeting…and there wasn’t even huge attendance while I was there. I’d heard stories about how the team was doing, but I didn’t really see anything.

So I’m in my dining hall. And a freshman (now a Sophomore, who has done really well for himself) calls me on my cell phone to tell me 1676 won Judge’s Award at New Jersey. I was like, “That’s amazing; I’m coming to the regional tomorrow.” Judge’s Award was amazing, but it didn’t really hit me.

It was weird to be sitting in the stands at a regional. Remember, I was the CEO last year, so I was constantly running around like a madman last year, constantly out of breath. What was weirder, though, was that like every team remembered us. That like every other team was rooting for us (I love Gracious Professionalism—but now they were rooting for us because they actually knew and liked us).

Fast forward to this weekend. I was in the dining hall, killing time while my girlfriend was out shopping. I call the CEO (I don’t think I’ll give names), but I can’t hear anything. He then tells me they’ve been picked, and they’re in the semi-finals (thanks for calling me).

So I run to my room and I watch the webcast, even though you can barely see anything. I call everyone FIRST-related in my phone book to tell them how 1676 is doing. Funny, everyone seemed to know except for me.

This weekend I wasn’t just proud of the team for becoming finalists. I was proud of everything the team did this year—and I can’t take any credit for it. Last year, I used to joke around about “building a legacy.” But this year has changed that. As much as someone might not agree, 1676 has built a legacy. I’m not saying “I hope next year will top this year,” I’m saying “I wonder how next year will top this year.”

I’m so proud of everyone on the team. There’s a lot of people I don’t know, so send them my regards, but I want to congratulate the ones I do know. What I admire is that they knew last year it would be hard to top what we had done. They could’ve become complacent. They could have lived in the past, flaunting “NJ Rookie All-Stars 2005” in 2010. They could have retired saying, “You know what, we did really well last year, so it doesn’t really matter how well we do this year.” But they didn’t. They could’ve been complacent.

I want to thank every mentor to Team 1676. I want to thank the teachers and advisors who stayed until 9:00PM+. I want to thank anyone who believed in 1676. I want to thank our role models… I want to thank the 6-8 year teams that we wanted to be just like. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t get so many comments about how mature we were for such a young team. I don’t want to single people out and name names (for virtue of not forgetting anyone), but everyone knows well who they are.

I know it’s a cliché, but everyone is incredibly important. I don’t want to single out the Scouting team on 1676, but we’ve been having problems with them at our first 3 events. We considered changing the whole system several times, and punishing the leaders of what we have now. But at Palmetto, when their efforts got us chosen for an alliance, they were the stars. So, really, EVERYONE is important, even if you’re not in the spotlight. And if you’re not in the spotlight yet, it will happen. I worked my $@#$@#$@# off for months, and when they called our name for NJ Rookie All-Star, it didn’t seem like nearly enough.

A little anecdote: when 1676 was in its final match, I called the current CEO. I said, “Congratulations…you did what I couldn’t.” And he said, “There’s no way we could ever be here if it weren’t for you.”

Thanks to everyone. And Team 1676, thanks for making me proud. Prouder than I ever thought I’d be in FIRST. Now they’re expanding on what I did even more than I thought possible. I must have inspired someone. I must have taught a man to fish.


Your 2004-2005 founder/CEO/President…screw it, they’re only titles…team member,
Matt