After being on a team for four years that struggled to break the top 20, being in second place(even if we lost in the quarter finals), just made me euphoric. It was more enthralling than being in 17th place in Atlanta
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
2004 at the FLL championships our team was the first to get 3 perfect runs at a competition. To my knowledge, we are still the only ones to do it with an RCX.
with only 1.5ish years (maybe like 1.75) under my belt, my experiences are limited… so im going to have to say last saturday, the 28th of february, 2009, when my team, 1089, won the regional chariman’s award at the NJ regional… emotions were high, and it was an enthralling experience… so that makes it the greatest moment in my FIRST career
That would be an amazing memory even for someone involved in FIRST for 10 years…
AS for me -
Winning an upset at the Israeli Regional 2006 semi finals, match 2, with a score of 5-4 in a very, very defensive match, and thus qualifying to the semi-finals.
yeah i think the only thing that would top that is winning chairman’s in Atlanta or being part of the winning alliance at the championship event… so i guess i am lucky to have such an awesome experience so early in my FIRST career…
for me has to be this Saturday when after 3 years in first i finally got to wear a bib. then when we made the finals, i ran to the other side of the field were our alliance team was sitting and jumped up and down and told them to get up and cheer because we are in the finals 
.
just the whole experience for me was overwhelmingly awesome that even thou we lost i was the first person to walk (almost run) to the other side and congratulate the winning alliance and shake the hand of every judge.
PS i almost passed out on the floor after my adrenaline rush was over because of the excitement. 
Watching 1923 via webcast was pretty good. Despite having whatever plague is circling Manchester, I still managed to crank the speakers and dance around the apartment with each victory. Thank the robot gods for curtains.
My best moment is definitely when I heard that two of my students got full rides to Northeastern. A few years later and it is still impossible to think about it without crying. I can still remember snapshots of their personalities over the few years we worked together, and the trajectory is breath-taking.
Two experiences stick out in my mind.
Firstly, winning the Southern California Regional with 968 and 4 in 2006 (my freshman year). This was definitely a great way to start off my FIRST Career.
The single greatest experience I have had though is traveling to New Zealand to teach about FIRST and robotics with my team. We taught almost 1,000 students, 150 teachers, and 100 engineers. It was awesome.
My greatest moment had to have come during the showing of the finals scores at the GSR this year. It was my first year driving, and it made me feel so good that I helped lead our team to victory.
http://joemenassa.com/images/robotics2009/121nh/content/bin/images/large/IMG_0622.jpg
I would have to say that there are many many great moments.
One would have to be the very first time I ever saw FIRST FRC robots, in 2005 at the IRI. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to be involved with this and wanted to be an engineer.
Another would be witnessing a team that you helped start build a robot and compete successfully. This goes along with all of the numerous acts of gracious professionalism that I have witnessed over the past few years. It’s very impressive.
Finally, I will never forget being sent down as the second seed captain and being “proposed” to by 229 and drafted into an awesome alliance at SBPLI 2007.
Hearing 1746 get picked by the seventh alliance at Palmetto 2007. At the time, they were fixing to be the eighth alliance captain–with 1618 one slot below and no realistic hope of its manipulator-free robot being drafted. Naturally, I was a little enthused at the idea even if it meant getting shellacked in the first elimination round by Alliance #1 to the tune of 264-0.
FLL-winning the NH state tournie for the first time (we have now won it 3 times) or winning research in Atlanta!
FRC-Being named the Safety Star of the Day at GSR for 2 years in a row! (Safety FIRST):yikes:
So far…
- Taking down the #1 alliance in Chesapeake 08. Totally sublime moment when we, the eighth seed, won the event.
2)Being 1st seed in Atlanta in 08. It took a lot of dumb luck, but hey, what doesn’t.
The greatest moment in the history of my face and FIRST experience, and yes I did cried, was to witness the announcement and presentation of our Chief Geek, Todd Lovelace, as the Winner of Woodie Flower Award at the Florida Regional last year (2008). This is basically your local average guy who dedicated his time and even his dinner table in the pursuit of providing inspiration for his students every day, among many mentors in the FIRST Community.
Seeing Todd winning the Woodie Flower was more important than winning the regional or any awards in the past. It puts the Gracious Professionalism to full strength in its glorious form. I think the special moment made me more appreciative of FIRST for the first time in my seven years experience and motivated myself into the volunteer force this year.
-Josh Simpson
I could write a book about my greatest moment.
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…
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.
As with many, I have multiple moments:
- 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!
- 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.