In the last two years, 968 has only gone to 1 regional, and hasn’t performed well at either of them. Does anyone know what happened to this former powerhouse?
2006: 2x Regional Wins & Einstein Finalist
2007: 21-13-1 Record (8-1 at IRI)
2008: 1x Regional Win & Newton Winner (#1 rank)
2009: 12-2 Record. #1 Seed
2012: 4-5-2 (Rank 25)
2013: 10-7-0 (Rank 32)
The blue alliance has 968 winning the Inland Empire regional, so they must be pretty good. No clue why they only attend 1 regional a year though.
No longer collaborating with 254. This doesn’t mean that by themselves they’re not great (look at the amazingness at IE), but 254 makes everything better.
This a pretty unfair statement; they were good before 254, and they were good for a bit after.
They were great before, and after. I just meant that both 254 and 968 brought experience and ideas to the table that made their collaboration extremely effective, which is why when looking at 968 (and 254) through the collaboration years, you can see a heightened level of competition from both of them.
The were pretty good this year, even though they were selected on the back hand of the draft at IE.
Proof is that the following year (2011) they both competed on Einstein which was so cool to see!
As a big 968 RAWC fan I too have been wondering what happened in the past two seasons. 
They lost 3 mentors with close to 40 years of FIRST experience between them.
968 never directly played against 254 on Einstein. We lost with them and 51 in the semifinals.
968 was third pick for 1538 and WARLords and played good defense. One of their mentors is on 696, a team showing great improvements, and 1538, who are already great and getting better.
Their 2011 robot really stood out to me on my first trip to champs, and remains my favourite robot from Logomotion, and one of favourite bots of all time. The robot had an incredibly sleek and minimalist design, and was extremely effective on the field.
Here is a video of them playing in the semis of the 2011 Madtown Throwdown, with three other great machines (973 emperor swerve, and two 254 bots): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIHPwlAhPPY
And here is an up close video of the machine doing a two tube auto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs_JBPIsJj0
As a big RAWC fan myself, I was very happy to see them win the Inland Empire regional this year, and will be definitely dropping by their pits to check out their machine this year.
Cory is right, they actually lost 4 mentors in 3 years - each with between 8-15 years of experience. It’d be hard for any team to lose that much experience and continue playing at the level 968 played at. Those mentors are now on 254, 696, 1538, 3476. Both 696 and 3476 are becoming top teams in California (as can be seen by their appearance in the finals together at Inland Empire).
That being said, they still build good robots. In fact, we couldn’t have asked for a better 2nd pick than 968 at Inland Empire. They were able to score 2-3 in the 3pt goal in auto, able to play defense (they kept 2485 clear to full court in all 6 elimination matches), they could provide emergency scoring and could hang for 10 points. There wasn’t a single robot that could do all of that left by the time we picked with the 16th pick.
@TheFish, I’m curious who you actually are. PM me maybe?
Anyhow, it’s really nice to see my former team remembered. Team 968 RAWC is one of those fantastic teams that often did not get the level of national recognition that seems to come rather easily to others. This is a team full of a lot of rich history and some real stand-up mentors. And one interesting thing to note is that this team has never had any mentors who were actual experienced engineers, and other than a teacher at the school has never had any mentors over the age of 28. I have a lot of great memories from my years spent on 968, the most memorable probably being the 2008 trip to Hawaii and playing against 1114 on Einstein also in 2008.
Jon, I’m sorry we didn’t have time to directly cross paths this season, but man, you clearly know your team history here. I’ll add to it just a bit. The team has actually lost even more mentors than you describe.
Bob Anderson, the founding teacher of Team 968 was no longer able to help after the 2008 season due to a personal reasons and transferring schools, and the team struggled to find and retain a committed and willing teacher in the years following. Travis Covington (one of the founding mentors of 968) moved back up north and joined 254 after the 2008 season when he took a new job in that area. Kirk Oden (another founding mentor of the team) moved to northern California after the 2008 season, took a job there, and got married). Andy Hedge (formerly of 980, now of 3476) and I both said fairwell to 968 after the 2010 season, after we both graduated from Cal Poly Pomona University and took full time jobs away from the West Covina area. Kiet Chau (now of 1538) moved to San Diego after the 2011 season to take a job there. Another mentor became married and started a family after the 2010 season, and needed to really reduce his involvement in the team. Another mentor that helped with fabrication has found himself rather busy with work in recent years. And finally, Jacqueline Ha joined the Army as a combat medic some time around 2009 and sadly passed away to cancer in 2012.
Combined, there were probably close to 100 people-years of experience mentoring this team. I cannot think of any other team that has lost so much experience over a period of only a few years. Today, Richard Medina, originally a student on the team from it’s rookie year in 2002, continues as the lead mentor, and the team is still supported by several sponsors in their local area. Team 968 RAWC still carries its demanding standards of quality which were instilled into its culture and methods of operation by Travis from the very beginning. Their dedication, attention to detail, care for aesthetics, and high standards of quality are evident in every piece they produce. I have carried these standards and methods to 696, where I have helped drastically improve their program over the past three years.
Friday night I instructed my students to pick 968 for our 3rd alliance member. They disagreed, and well, it is what it is. I don’t think there was any way we we could stop the Holy Cows and Warlords alliance, regardless of who their 3rd partner was. But yes, 968 was a fantastic last pick.
They were an amazing 2nd pick and I was very surprised that they were still available; we, of course, loved having them on our alliance. As Jon said, they could fill every role and played exceptional anti-defense.
They were last pick. We didn’t think to pick them because they weren’t scoring, weren’t defending, and were still building their robot Friday evening.
Their drive base certainly came in handy during elims however, doing great counter-defense to protect 2485’s full-court shooting.
The HS Freshman inside of me is extremely grateful for this thread.
968 is one of those teams that sticks in my head as ‘dominant’ regardless of their performance as of late. Being a ‘young’ participant in FRC back in 2006, 2007 and 2008, some of my most influential Memories are of the 25/968/195 Alliance in 2006, the super light 2-speed developed by 254 and 968 in 2007 and the 2008 254/968 machine being one of the only machines that seemed to be close to the same league as 1114*.
*For those of you who are not up on your late 00’s FRC history, 1114’s 2008 machine is arguably the most dominant conventional machine of the ‘modern’ era of FRC. At the Championship in 2008, 1114 made it out of the stacked Galileo Divison as the Undefeated Captain of the #1 Alliance and selected 217 and 148 to be their alliance partners. In the finals they went head to head against 1717 and 254 and won in two matches… Then on Einstein, they lost one match - 1114’s only loss of the 2008 Championship, to the Newton (I think) alliance captained by 968… It was an amazing thing to watch. (Newton Alliance was 968/233/60)
Here’s an example of the kind of unbelievable defense 968 played at Inland Empire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVmN-lRZhU0
This year, they apparently weren’t the world’s best offensive bot, which is why they didn’t do too well in quals - because they weren’t paired with particularly good offensive bots. But once they got to the finals, paired with our full-court shooter and Holy Cows’ brilliant ground pickup, they were able to exhibit their spectacular blocking.
I’d love to get a chance to pickup 968 in my division eliminations. This is the perfect full-back / defender that our robot could use.
It would be very difficult to lose the amount of experienced mentors that they lost and continue to perform at a high level. Even with all the loses, they were very good in 2011 and look like they have a robot that a lot of high powered alliances will be looking for in the second round.
Unfortunately, West Covina is located some what of a distance from major engineering corporations.
When I was a mentor on 968 (2008-2011), I tried to pull in additional mentoring resources from local companies and schools. Sadly, we did not generate enough interest. As David mentioned, 968 has not had a mentor that was over 28 years of age or had a significant amount of “real engineering” experience in the field.
That being said, the majority of our mentor base came out of willing college students who really wanted to be a part of the program; sadly, they usually move on a few years later once they graduate.
Regardless of losing a significant amount of experience, 968 still strives to build quality machines and still manages to do so with VERY limited resources. Richard still continues to inspire students perform their very best regardless of hardship and heartbreak that has come to the team.