Waaaay back in 2005-2006, I had the opportunity to save the last remnants from my old high school’s FIRST robotics program. The program had ended with the 2004 season with a local regional win. This is the same team that back in 2002 seeded first and won the Einstein division at Nationals and made it to the finals (look at those casters!). Anyway, the 2k4 robot is off to be “restored” back to working condition by a West Islip robotics mentor who was a senior in 2004 at East Islip. He will be modifying the controls setup to use the modern control system instead of the old Innovation First box.
The 2k2 robot was stripped a while back and needs significant repair and replacement of missing components to be able to be brought back to operational condition, but it could be a random future project for posterity sake.
What’s really interesting is that this team competed in Zone Zeal 2002 against FIRST Team 71 and FIRST team 173 ( This is back in the day when we had two team alliances).
Team 71 was approaching the height of their epic run and was essentially unbeatable. To this day I think those matches on Einstein were two of the best matches ever. 71, sponsored by Beatty, was breaking the box apart–not just thinking outside it. They created a “crawler” bot which dragged the two opponents and two 180 LB goals across the floor while Team Rage (173) “Hoovered” all the soccer balls off the floor and dumped them in 71’s goals to blow the competition away. They almost got beat in the final match, however, when 311 (or their alliance partner) reconfigured their start such that it raced across the entire field and hit 71 before they could deploy their robot into the starting position. Since 71 could only move in a straight line, they could not steer once deployed. Being knocked off line they were useless as a scoring machine (the only time it happened all year). 173, their ally stepped up to the challenge and sucked up most of the balls, backed up to one of the goals and dumped, then dragged the goal into their scoring end to win, single-handedly!!! I still remember it as though it were yesterday. …And I was only in the crowd as a spectator. Had it been a sporting event, it would have made the all-time favorite replay reels.
Speaking of which (and I hate when people change the topic-so I’ll just mention it quickly), wouldn’t it be awesome if someone were able to gather videos of the all-time great matches and make a narrated disc for teams to have? They could even sell them as a fund raiser for charity or off-set the cost of running a divisional or regional competition.
I remember that 2004 311 machine from my very first Championship–I worked Archimedes that year and saw them tangling with WildStang, Rhode Warriors, Sie-H2O-Bots, Martians…and yes, Beatty.
It’s always great to see old robots together, maybe even functioning. It’s something worth fighting for.
This WAS the pinnacle of East Islip’s abilities. I was a mentor with them since 1999 when my son (Matt C) was a sophomore. We were #1 seed in our division, back when Einstein was still a division and chose teams 308 from Walled Lake MI and 180 SPAM. As you said this was still 2 team alliances and you HAD to swap out during eliminations so each team got to play.
We lost the first match of finals on the Einstein stage. We were able to win the second match when SPAM with their ridicously powerfull drivetrain (remember these were still only DRILL motors.) was able to speed across the field and into 71’s machine just about the time the soccer ball arrived. 308was able to lift 2 of the goals, which I believe weighed around 180 lbs EACH when empty and carry them into scoring position. Chris Hibner on here was on the drive team of 308 that year. I’m sure he’ll chime in with his thoughts as well.
It was the only time 71 had been beaten during all of Championships that year.
We discovered some stripped teeth in 308’s gearbox after that and went into the final match with 311 and 180. Lost the rubber match and ended up World Champioship finalists.
I believe team 1114 was #2 seed at the Long Island Regional in 2004 right behind 311 and they were East Islip’s first pick (wouldn’t you?) At the time they were still a relatively new team but we could see by their organization and the quality of their machine that they had big aspirations.
It really is interesting to look back on the pre-VEX, Andymark days.
Those ‘screamer’ radios worked pretty darn good! IFI built, and still builds some nice stuff!!
2 quick stories I have to relate regarding the 2002 Championships:
Matt C was in his freshman year at WPI working with team 190.
In order to get to the championship finals team 311, his High School team ewhich I still mentored had to compete against WPI in the Championship Semi-finals as they had won their division as well. Talk about family rivalry. :ahh:
After finishing as champion runner-ups in EPCOT team 311 attended BattleCry at WPI in May. Guess who we met in the finals there? Team 173 RAGE. This time 311 was able to pull out the win, with lots of help from the Rhode Warriors and team 190 who was on our alliance as well. That settled any leftover family issues…
