Greatest Moment in my FIRST career

[Dan2081]

Mine was last year at Atl, our team was only a second year, we had the #5 pick on Archimedes

[Kyle Love]

My greatest moment is when I was able to drive the TechnoKat robot in St. Louis in 2007. We won the regional. That year we had a "second robot" (nicknamed 45T), and all the many many hours put in with that robot is the reason why we (as a team) were able to perform so well.

[bduddy]

Tough to decide between two moments at SVR 2004: being an undisputed 1st after the first day, the only team to go 6-0, or (along with 254 and another team I have sadly forgotten) managing to get a clean sweep and cover every goal. That was an incredible cheer when we got the last one on...

[RMiller]

As with many, I have multiple moments:
1) Winning the Chairman's Award last year (2008) in Minnesota as a mentor for 1816, even if I had to get my nose crushed and bloodied by Mark Lawrence!
2) Winning the St. Louis Regional with 16 and 537 my senior year (2004). We were the 2nd seed with an undefeated record and had an excellent run with the Bomb Squad and Charger Robotics.
#1 far outweighed #2 for me though.

[Matt382]

[quote=RMiller;831426]
As with many, I have multiple moments:
1) Winning the Chairman's Award last year (2008) in Minnesota as a mentor for 1816, even if I had to get my nose crushed and bloodied by Mark Lawrence!
[quote]

1) After winning the Chairman's Award in Minnesota as a member of team 1816, going down to the arena, giving Mark Lawrence a huge hug for all his help mentoring, and seeing Ryan Miller holding a kleenex to his bloody nose.

2) Rookie year - winning the Wisconsin regional with the help of two amazing teams - Wildstang and Winnovation

3) Rookie year - Seeding 6th in the Archimedes division in Atlanta and winning the Highest Rookie Seed award

I could go on and on with all the wonderful memories I have from this inspiring program. Thanks FIRST for all the great memories and hopefully many more to come!

[Tetraman]

I've got some time on my hands...so I wrote a book:

So 174 was never really a team, just a rag-tag group of friends that all knew each other. Some students would get into serious fights and some of us did very un-FIRST things most of the time. We really didn't live up to the whole 'GP' thing. It was my senior year, and most of the rest of the team was having this year be the last year. The game was Tripple Play and we really worked hard to make a powerful robot. But all of us wern't really together, we didn't have that much spirit - we just wanted a good year.

We went to the first FLR and we did a really good job getting picked by 8th seeded 141 in the elims and fighting one of the hardest fights of our FIRST lives. I was the Human Player, and to keep within the theme of Tripple Play took on a Tri-corner hat to wear.

After a very sucessful showing at FLR, we were all pumped for Buckeye and we couldn't wait to get to that field. The bus ride there was filled with an electricity and we all felt it. Before anyone even sat down that Thusday - RIGHT out of the 6 hour bus ride - everyone was cheering when the robot was just about ready to take the field. I got down to my Human Player position and with a flag I made I got the entire team to shout like a director of a chior. It didn't matter if we won or lost, each time my friends would get on their feet and shout a the top of their lungs.

There was one moment where the DJ started to play YMCA, and the MC called out for someone to get the judges to stand up and dance. Well...I called them all to this duty. As I danced along side one of the judges, he turned to me and said "Are you a Senior?" I answered yes. He said, "You really want this don't you?" I shook my head and pointed at my team that was up in the stands dancing, "They really need this." The look that judge gave me was probably the first time someone ever looked at me like I was were I meant to be.

We got into Elims as a Seeded team for the first time, though we didn't make it past quarters (A good memory though, as we were beaten by a rookie team #1511).

I was feeling really sick after all the excitement, and went to the First Aid room to rest away from all the action while the rest of elims were going on. I had a really amazing conversation with the nurse that was attending the first aid room about how much FIRST means to me and all that. One of 174's mentors took me back to the bleachers just before awards, and I sat though each one. To be honest, I completely forgot about the Team Spirit award and just as the MC started talking my heart just jumpped.

I don't know how to explain the feeling. It was like everything that was ever wrong just became right. Everything that all of us ever did to each other to make us seem less and less like a team - gone. The fights - gone. The anger and gossip - gone. The MC read off "The winner of the Team Spirit award.... Team 1 -- 7 -- 4. The Arctic Warriors" And wow, I can't even tell you. I kinda didn't want to believe it, but thats what it was. I had my arms up to the sky with tears in my eyes just like all the other team mates beside me. I was so late getting down to the stage and I slapped each Judges hand really hard giving a quick but so grateful thank you.

I walked over to where someone was taking pictures and another mentor gave me one of the trophys and I held it up high with a shout to my team who huddled around.

As we walked back up to the stands some guy looked at me all crying and seriously shaking, he goes "Yo man, you look like you just won the Chairmans award!" I kinda laughed and said "Yea, we won the most important award in FIRST." Obviously the guy didn't get it. I mean we only won the Team Spirit award..."But thats the thing. We are finally called a team."

We won the Buckeye the next year when I mentored them, 174's first regional win....doesn't even come close to winning a simple Team Spirit award.

[davidfv]

Originally Posted by RMiller

As with many, I have multiple moments:
1) Winning the Chairman's Award last year (2008) in Minnesota as a mentor for 1816, even if I had to get my nose crushed and bloodied by Mark Lawrence!
2) Winning the St. Louis Regional with 16 and 537 my senior year (2004). We were the 2nd seed with an undefeated record and had an excellent run with the Bomb Squad and Charger Robotics.
#1 far outweighed #2 for me though.

LOL... I was the Game Announcer for that regional and saw you running towards Mark and then you going down as he was cheering the Chairman's award. Mark was so excited. This year we will have to clear a zone around him in case you win again!

[galewind]

While it's easy to say that having 1089 win Chairman's on Saturday was my greatest moment in FIRST ever, I think it was the aftershock and realization that we have a new expectation to live up to that was even more amazing. We have a *lot* more work to do to, and armed with an amazing group of students and mentors, and absolutely AWESOME teams around us, I think we can help motivate more schools in our area to develop more opportunities for students to pursue science and technology, whether they become a part of FIRST or not.

Listening to our freshman and sophomore RCA presenters give their presentation today to the rest of the team, I was floored that our students have taken so much from the program in such a short period of time, and that they not only want, but they HUNGER to do more. It just reinforced to me why I have participated in FIRST for the last seven years.

Regardless of the issues that exist within the organization, or issues that exist within our team, our team winning RCA has made me think even more about how important it is to give students an ability to lead, an ability to communicate, and a knowledge and recognition that by being a cog within the machine that is a FIRST team, their responsibility and contributions make an impact in ways that they may not initially understand. Their accomplishments are fueling them, and many of them have never had to come to the realization that "hard work brings success". Too often students are missing that, and FIRST is a fantastic way for them to see it.

When I "accidentally" watched Wayne C and team 25 deliver a presentation to my high school back in 2002, I NEVER imagined that I could ever be a part of something so important, and I sincerely hope that I can continue to be a part of this team that's clearly taken up a life of its own, for many years to come.

[asmo0901]

Originally Posted by Dantvman27

Oh, i forgot to add the point of this lol, i wanted to ask

If you had to pick one moment, what would be your happiest/greatest moment in FIRST

My greatest moment was yesterday when my team won the Engineering Inspiration award and we found out we were going to the ATL!

[ComradeNikolai]

1. Going from 32nd at Buckeye (I think) to the 3rd seeded team at the Pittsburgh regional. We had an amazing time, we were graced by not having technical difficulties, and we loved playing with everyone there.

2. Being in the pit at both Buckeye and Pittsburgh and having most of the team come up to me and ask if we had already put in our coach's name for the mentor recognition. I didn't know that that much of the team recognized what he does for the team, his commitment, how much he cares. It made me proud.

[Woody1458]

After a really tough season in 2008 that I could rant about for hours, we ended having a totally non functioning robot at both Regionals we attended. The whole season we E-stopped all but 2 matches. At Davis we were put in the pits next to a team from Deer Valley (I forget the number) Who had come to the competition with 1 member, a 38"x38" robot, and no robotics experience. We decided that our robot was hopeless but maybe we could help out this team. We were afraid that, as rookies, they would have a bad 1st year experience with FIRST and not come back. By the end of thursday we (not only our team, lots of people helped) got them with legal bumpers, a correctly sized frame, and a scissor lift that could knock orbit balls off the overpass. I was so happy when they out ranked us by a hugh margin (we got 34th, they got around 15th). Then a local school, 2390 Dougherty Valley, with whom our team has a large relation had issues with wiring and programming, and released some magic smoke on friday. We helped them rewire and programed a hybrid for them. They ended up seating 10th but were not picked. Luckily for them, their day wasn't over. In the semis alliance 4 IIRC had a team member break un-repairably. 2390 was drafted as a backup. Wen that was announced, it was one of my most exciting events in FIRST (more so then winning a regional). They did not however win the finals but got second place and went home their rookie year with a blue banner. Coolest part was that at the award ceremony we already knew that there was no way we had won an award. Our robot was awful and we didn't try for any non robot awards. Also we figured because we didn't hand out booklets or first aid kits we hadn't done enough for GP or Safety. Fortunately I was wrong. Someone had told the judges about what we did for 2390 and Deer Valley and they gave us GP. Realize at this point we had totally given up on the season, even our Coach (now ex-coach) had left to be with his family. They announced that 1458 had one GP and we all went ecstatic. It was absolutely unforgettable.

In my 4 years of FIRST and 13 FIRST events, nothing compares to that level of excitement.

[Martino]

I would have to say that for me it was this last weekend in KC placing 2nd... we had a really bad year last year and i didn't know how the team would work out this year, but everyone on our team(only 10 guys!) worked well with each other and we placed 2nd with teams 2164 and 1985, thanks guys for making it a great SR year for me!

[JaneYoung]

To date, this is one of the most inspiring moments I've had the privilege of witnessing. Watching shy students approach these wonderful people to visit for a moment or two was so very special, not to mention the crazy infusion of energy in the robot competition brought by the presence of these folks.

[Racer26]

I bet I know Karthik's greatest moment: Theres a picture floating around here somewhere of him lying down in all the confetti on Einstein having just won the 2008 Championship.

As for my own greatest moment... I'm not sure. Its kind of a tossup between being Canadian Regional finalists in our rookie year (2003), winning the Wonderland Invitational in 2004, or maybe winning the Kettering Kickoff in 2008, when we werent even on the field... (thanks 2619!)

[Taylor]

To me, stories like those from wsansewjs, Tetraman, Woody1458 are what I can relate to, and what I believe FIRST is all about.

In 2008, one of our mentors suggested we create a license plate with the FIRST logo on it and make it available to the public. We moved forward with the project, a couple students did the research and design work to submit it to the BMV. At the Boilermaker Regional, we had students circulating the stands & pits, trying to gain the needed 500 signatures on the petition. Our bid was unsuccessful (the BMV decided not to make any new plates that year, but we plan to revisit the project in 2010 with the help of other Indiana teams), but it was still a great exercise for the students.
At the award ceremony on Saturday, as Amanda Morrison was describing the Judges' Award recipient, she mentioned that a team "really stepped up to the plate." I honestly don't remember much after that.
For a 4th-year (at the time) team that had never made it past Saturday Morning, let alone be in contention for an award, to be recognized like that, was the single greatest shot in the arm we could receive.