Yesterday, heavy winds snapped off the power pole in front of team 1043’s school, plunging the school and the robotic team in darkness. More bad news - the school will be without power today - two days lost during critical build time, just as the arm was just coming back from the machine shop. Disaster? No way - The Monta Vista(115) team invited the whole 1043 team over to their shop for the day so they can continue to work, so instead of less time, they will get extra time to work on their robot.
I see FIRST Teams… they’re everywhere… they don’t know that they are competing… they’re…GASP… helping each other.
Good job Team 115! This is a great example of what FIRST should mean to all teams. Hearing this kind of thing just lifts my spirits, especially a week away from Ship Date, when there seems to be a lot to worry about.
I hope both 115 and 1043 do well with their robots!
I was team mentor on team 255 who competed from 1999-2002 and were National Champs in 2000. All the Teachers and the principal form those years have moved on to other schools and without faculty sponsors the school sadly and reluctantly decided to abandon FIRST - they still are active in Botball and were National Champs in 2001 and placed highly in subsequent regional competitions. I currently mentor 254 and 1043 - I just think that we should share good news as well as controversy. As a matter of fact I am glad to see that the controversy is about too much cooperation!
Here in No. Cal, several teams have opened up their practice fields to teams with fewer resources, among them 481, 254 and 115.
During the Sacramento regional Team 100 (Woodside) just had an awful problem with their drive train - they could not get the robot moving correctly at all, and ended up dead last in the rankings. Their engineering team came out to Ames and the 254 team helped them work out a plan to repair their robot for the upcoming SVR. Well guess what - They ended up as finalists - only to lose of course to team 254. Just before the finals, I asked a 254 team member if he was sorry they had helped out a potential strong competitor - he answered “Of course not, we like those guys, they’re all our friends, and it’s not about winning, it’s about raising the bar for everyone.”
The Other team I mentored (1043) had an awful time at SVR - they finished dead last - every time they got close to hanging they’d either get flipped over or do it to themselves, so I expected them to feel pretty rotten.
Au contrair… They were delighted with their performance - They said - “The robot worked every match, our autonomous mode worked, we were able to include pneumatics on our robot and it is much more sophisticated then last year.”
115 is proud to mentor team 1043, 670 and 1072 this year. The team and myself are very proud of Patrick Wang, last years MVRT president to be a mentor for 1043. Those who were there at SJ last year and this year must have seen the changes gone through the team and their robot. Its truly amazing how a rookie team changes in one year. I would also like to add since 1043 has members from an orthodox jewish school MVRT has to provide a full Pit crew team and Drive Team both this year and last year for 1043 to compete in the compeition. We are very proud of them!
Akshay
Team 115 would also like to thank our kind mentor, Mr. Phil Roybal, who put countless hours into the constuction of our practice field, both this year and last.
Also, thanks to our past president, Patrick Wang, who has done a phenomenal job of mentoring team #1043 this year. Their robot was done a week before even our drive train was finished.
