Hey rookies-
This old team guy wants to know what you think of your first competition and what you got out of the experience. I hope it has been as fun and fulfilling for you as it was for us.
" that two minutes seemed to last forever"- Erik Cokeley- driver and my son, team 1089- who made it to the semifinals at NJ (lost to Dad’s team 25!- I’ll hear about this one forever)
WC 
Definitely more exciting than school. It was really fast-paced and a wonderful experience. It has taught me more about leadership and some about robotics (I never really worked on the robot). Definitely doing it next year.
[Being the rookie of the team,] I had a lot more fun than I had expected to have. Regionals were so full of life, so exciting, something was always going on. After my team members told me about Mark Leon, I was completely ecstatic when I saw him in person.
I was one of the controllers in the final match of the day (at SVR) and I was about to pass out I was so excited/nervous. Needless to say, I jumped up and down and squealed. I seriously do not remember the last time I genuinely jumped up and down and squealed with excitement. I’d say I’m the most spiritied person on the team.
FIRST is the greatest thing that has EVER happened to me. 
See y’all in Houston! Approximately 94 more hours!
One word sums up my first year as a mentor on Cybersonics: MORE
More work than I imagined
More fun than I’ve had in ages
More appreciation for how brilliant our students can be
More success than I dreamed of
More great people to call friends
and More to come in Houston, Tunkhannock and the future!
Thank you everyone for making it a great year to be a rookie in FIRST.
I would have to say that yes, we definitely got a lot out of it.
Was it what we expected? We honestly didn’t know what to expect!
When the inspectors came by to inspect our machine, I pulled a few kids that were in the pit – and they huddled around – various ones told them about different parts of the machine --it was great to know that they knew our machine inside and out.
When we got the pass sticker put on our team sign, we all cheered. It was great.
Then throughout the competition, between watching, giving out things, and helping other teams, we all got very excited. Even our main student doing giveaways was so excited to do his job that it just made everything worthwhile. We worked better as a team at that competition than we did throughout the build season, and I think it was because we finally had something tangible to go with. The competition was no longer some vague principle that we haven’t seen before – we were there! I think this will better foster team communication for the future.
Having the Brazilian team (1156) in our pit made for a great time. They were so fun to be with, and so thankful for our help (They gave me and one of our coders a shirt!) I remember going outside to play frisbee and some guys from team 25 said “Team 25 vs Brazil!!” – so I took off my 1089 shirt, wearing a 1156 shirt underneath, and ran over to play with the brazilians. Good times.
In the end, while some of my students and I were initially disappointed that we didn’t win an award, we looked back at all of the things we accomplished (like pushing two robots down the ramp at once and getting our autonomous code working properly)
and I can say that we all agree that we were winners. We all learned a lot about technical design, we all learned how important it is to work with and help others, and I think that we all showed a great deal of gracious professionalism. And more importantly, we saw teams show a great deal more. This is what we’re going to strive to do in future years.
(And of course, being the only rookie team to make it to the semifinals helped, too 
)
I was thinking that the most prominent values FIRST competitions teach students is kindness, generosity, and responsibility. In the world we live in today, I see too many people that live their lives in a “dog-eat-dog” style, only caring about themselves. FIRST is a refreshing change for our students. I truly believe that many students can take advantage of this program to learn how personally rewarding it is to be more outgoing, more generous, and more prepared for all of life’s situations.
Ack! I’m hooked! :ahh:
I’ve never started a team before, and I only had one year of experience under my belt, but I can’t wait to get another one started! I think being a rookie mentor really just made me want to get out there and get more teams going, get more kids into the program, and show our school how great their kids really are!
I’m a FIRSTer for life. I just hope the kids on our team this year can say the same.
Two weeks ago we were happy to be able to compete in FIRST. Going to Houston from a relatively small town we felt that we would be overwhelmed by experience and knowledge of other teams. We were suprised after we went through practice rounds generally destroying the other teams. Competition on friday was more fierce but we continued to win only losing once and tieing another. We even took the most QP’s with a 280 point match. When we were given the team spirit award, rookie all-star, and were rank 1 we were ecstatic. Saturday started slow with a low scoring match and a loss, but we returned to 1st with a 230 point match with the team with lossed with on friday. We chose a great alliance of team 34 and 647 and after two relatively easy wins we faced team 118 and 1010 for our first match. “immoboliuos” (team 118) lived up to its name that round and we were defeated 54 to 8 or 70 to 8 In the second match all was going well until they destroyed our stacks and team 704’s robot got under our robot. We got off of them with 5 seconds left but couldn’t move because they had wrecked our motors. Our alliance and 1010 ended up on top(luckily for us). The score ended as us winning 35-33 or 101-33 and the final score was us 109 to them 103. FIRST was great and I can’t wait for next week. I hope to keep involved but will have to keep involved as a mentor (I’m a senior).
The season was nothing close to what I had expected it to be like. It was way better! 
From the beginning of build, I became, well, addicted. I met some awesome people, learned a bunch of new stuff, had fun, and experienced my first regional. Now, I’m really looking forward to Houston and I know it’s going to be the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me…aside from me getting my power back after 2 days of living in a freezing ice box…
I look forward to next year and hope to return to team 1037 with a greater appreciation of FIRST.
Last but not least,
Look out Houston, SCREAM’s coming!!
hell… in a good way 
it was alot more work than i thought it would be… botball was nothing compared to this, but we got alot more out of it, too.
it was a helluvalot more fun, especially interacting with other teams at the regionals, borrowing tools, exchanging stories. etc
also, we’ve become alot more than just a robotics team. We recently brought (most of) the team to the Relay for Life, which was a community service thingy for the american cancer society, and we had alot of fun there
gah… i’m a FIRST-a-holic… ohwell
Freakin’ awesome.
I’ve no more words for it. (Well, I’m really just too lazy to link to my thread about everything this year. )
I’m coming back next year, and the year after that, and after that I’m mentoring, no doubt.
My cell phone proudly proclaims upon powerup what was true for about three months: FIRST is Life!
Definitely the greatest time I’ve had in a long while! I went into the robotics season not sure what to expect, or what field of study I wanted to go into in a few years… thanks to FIRST, now I know. Not only did I get a hands-on experience in engineering, I met lots of great people, learned the meaning of discipline and patience, the list continues. Yes, robotics does take a lot of dedication. But when you’re with a group of people who share the same love for engineering as you do, you WANT to go back every day! And to see that our brother school wanted to take the initiative to integrate us into their program this year was great.
I truly can’t wait for next year’s season to begin!
-Lisa
“Engineering with attitude!”
573-Brother Rice AND Marian