Warning: Long read ahead
Well to start this off I’d like to say that I’m not trying to brag about how well our team has done, or how we are better than any other teams. We are just like hundreds of others out there and heck, winning a regional has just been an impalpable dream to most of us.
I simply plan to tell the story of our team this year in hopes of lifting some spirits or maybe even reminding people why they started this whole crazy 6 month experience.
Anyways, our team isn’t one that I consider financially set. There are plenty of teams out their with corporations that have graciously donated thousands of dollars or man-hours to them which has really allowed them to flourish. We don’t have an inspirational story of humble beginnings 
we barely even have a story of beginnings.
Our team started when one engineering teacher decided, hey, today I’ll make a difference. Mr. O’Neill decided to get a few kids together from his classes and call on any people he could to start this “robotics team.” From there we started asking companies to sponsor us. I’m sure you can imagine a CEO of some company being beseeched by a bunch of nerds asking for money to build a robot. Needless to say, it was slow goings. But, like plenty of teams out there, we got by and made some pretty cool robots to boot. Fast forward to the end of our '06 season:
We started out this season (summer of '06) by losing our founding mentor, Mr. O’Neill. He was pretty much the glue that held the team together. He could keep the students in line while maintaining a joking atmosphere that we all loved, he took care of pretty much all the behind the scenes work for our team (I still can’t even fathom the amount of work that goes into all that stuff), and always was there to bring the team to any community project or presentation we had to give. But after 4 years of holding this 50+ organization of students and mentors on his shoulders it had basically sucked any personal life he had out of him. His family needed him more than our team did (Well, thats what he told us :)) and we understood.
Well, okay, time for a new leader and a fresh start on a new year. Well sort of. Next we lost our major sponsor who had given us $10,000 for the past few years. Our budget of about 30,000 had just been cut by a third.
However much this stung, we still had a team to run. The team starts off in a storm of fund raising and presentation giving. We do our normal assignment of companies to each student to hit up for donations. The money is trickling in but can’t quite fill up the hole. As we continue our meetings it appears that the team has only about half the members it did last year. There are about 15-20 students or less at each meeting making up a total of 25 consistent members. Well, we’ve still got a robot to build.
The build season goes as well as expected if not a little ahead of schedule from last year. We’ve got a solid robot and solid community outreach work, however we don’t have the money to register for Nationals. We won Engineering Inspiration at the Peachtree Regional last year but were unable to take our place in registration this year. Depressed is a mild word for some of us. Still we have our two regionals and a good bot; lets see what we can do.
About a week after shipping the robot our close relationship with our community press pays off in the form of a TV interview and demonstration. Luckily we have our prototype (more like last years robot with a suction arm :yikes:) decently working. We also invite a new start up company, Energy Solutions, to come and observe what we do and how we do it. They come and we demonstrate our robot, what went into making it, and how we run our team, and Energy Solutions decides to give is $7,500. Sweet! 7,500, plenty of money to go to Nationals!! Unfortunately the date to buy your way in has passed. After months of working for the money to be able to go, we’re just too late. Well, we do our best to take this in stride and remember that by winning one of the two top honors at a competition you get an automatic place at Nationals. Now we have the money for it.
Off to our first Regional!! We do pretty well at the Peachtree Regional but our hopes are on the closing ceremonies and the Engineering Inspiration award again. (We decided to save the Chairman’s for the Palmetto Regional because 1002 (Circuit Runners) has won it at Peachtree 3 years running…and they’re an amazing team) Alas! We lose the award to a great team’s work with the community…1002. These guys are good. Luckily though, we have been working on our Chairman’s presentation for a while this year and have what we think is a much better compilation.
Off to Palmetto! the arguably more competitive Regional. We get to our pit to find a 9ft x 9.5ft rhombus taped out instead of the uniform 10x10…well we fix that, but it sets a strange omen. We check when our Chairman’s presentation is and promptly find out that it is 4 minutes before our 3rd match. Well, we had this problem last year and they were very accommodating in helping us find a better time. I am scheduled to present and am the arm operator for our robot. Because they were so helpful last year we didn’t foresee any problem. This time though…nope. They can’t budge an inch. Well with about an hour before we present, we get this information and have to speed teach another team member my part of the presentation. As we see it now, Chairman’s is not going to happen.
Still we have Eng. Inspiration. I talk to the Judges as they come around asking about our team: all starts well but whenever I start talking about our community activity (aka Eng. Inspiration selling points) I am interrupted with questions about how our matches are going or how the day is going by the Judge. Its tough to get a word in edgewise, and with about half of our community outreach work covered they bid their farewells and put a sticker on our pit sign (presumably telling other Judges that we have already been spoken to). Well, thats about that. With Eng. Inspiration half covered and Chairman’s looking unprepared and dismal it seems like we just can’t catch a break.
After we are knocked out of the eliminations most of us just start goofing around in our pit. We’re supposed to be taking it down, but…we’re all feeling the artificial good spirits after a defeat, where you feel relieved that you don’t have to try anymore but you still know that all the fun is over. A last grasp of camaraderie and fun before the long trip home.
We all head up to the stands to watch the last match and the closing ceremonies. Hopes hold strong for minor awards and even a few hold out for those final two. They come to Engineering Inspiration, and along with it the silly clues as to what team has won and while we have done a lot of the things they mention, its not us to take the prize. We were certainly close and we put our best foot forward but there is an amazing display of model teams at the Palmetto regional and they all deserve the recognition they get.
Then comes Chairman’s. The very last award to be announced of our season. The last moment at a FIRST competition our seniors will ever have, myself included. After all is said and done following our 6 weeks of building and two weekends of intense competition comes one last award given to the team that the Judges believe exemplify the meaning of FIRST to its fullest.
They begin their announcement by saying that the winner is a South Carolina team. “Oh great, that only narrows it down to 22 others…”
100% of this team’s seniors are pursuing engineering Majors. “That was part of our presentation! But, sure plenty of teams do that.”
They say this team has outstanding community outreach programs. “Well, we do, but come on, plenty of teams do that as well.”
They mention an art program that the team worked with to create their icon. “Holy Crap!!! Thats us! We did that. Did anybody else, they must have, We did that!!”
This team used a David Copperfield approach to robotics. “What the hell does that mean?!? David Copperfield?” Wait, what’s our name? M’Aiken Magic “Oh My God It Is Us!”
People can’t stop talking, fists tighten, tears start to trickle. “How did we do it?”
“Team 1102! M’Aiken Magic!!”
We did it. Still, I don’t really know how. So much went wrong. We faced quite a bit of obstacles and had to overcome them. Maybe it was that. Maybe our never quite attitude won it for us. Who knows. But we did it, we came together, worked our butts off, and eventually looked at failure and decided…its just not our style.
Was it worth all this trouble of coming in during our free time, fighting for donations, spending late nights trying to decide what we’re going to do in a match, and trying to figure out what the heck they mean by FIRST?
You betcha.
Well thats about it. There’s our story. I hope its brought a smile to your face and maybe a little hope for when things aren’t looking so great. Just remember that no matter how many sponsors drop out, how broken your robot looks after a match, or just if things aren’t going as planned, don’t stop doing what your doing. I think maybe thats what FIRST is about. No matter what obstacles are thrown in your way you have to find a way to overcome them. Whether its finding a way to put a tube on a rack or finding a way to pay for the food at your meetings. Just don’t stop. Never give up on this program and it will never give up on you.
See you at Nationals!
