23-24 Team Update #1 - Gracious Professionalism at CCC Tournament

The leaves are changing colors, furnaces are lighting, and college applications are tormenting seniors. These are all signs that the robotics offseason is in full swing! Quarry Lane School’s robotics team, FRC 7419 (aka QLS Tech Support), has burst into the new season, fueled by the passion of our leaders, returning members, new members, and our mentors. Last weekend, QLS sent two robots to compete in the Capital City Classic, and both teams performed exceptionally well both on and off the field.

More than winning, QLS robotics aspires to embody FRC’s co-founder Woodie Flowers’s value of “Gracious Professionalism.” Flowers expected teams to compete with integrity and respect, but what makes FRC special is how the teams learn from and support one another. What makes QLS Tech Support special is how we supercharge Gracious Professionalism with kindness. The QLS community is built on kindness, which is more than passively supporting others, but actively seeking to help them. QLS Tech Support strives to embody QLS’s values at FRC, so we can raise the bar on Gracious Professionalism.

After two months, Gracious Professionalism and kindness has helped the team come together. Each of us is finding our way, from the longest tenured seniors to the first-years because each year, our team, our role, and our contribution changes. Since robotics is intense, and we have so many brilliant, passionate minds, it can be easy for tempers to flare. Fortunately, we always remember two things:

  1. Everybody on the team wants us to succeed
  2. Everybody on the team wants to contribute using their unique talents Therefore, in addition to training everybody on the fundamentals of robotics and FRC, we help them find their calling.

You may think that robotics competitions are just about the hardware, software, and driver, but we embrace people who want to do more. In just the first two months, we have: submitted grant requests, created an inventory system, planned an animated safety video, worked with younger robotics teams, run social media accounts, participated in a fundraiser to raise money for clean water around the world, and so much more.

Like kindness, Gracious Professionalism is not passive; it is the act of selflessly helping others. We expect our team leaders to sacrifice time and energy to enable each of the members to learn the basics and find the position to help them thrive. What sets our leaders apart, however, is that they actively seek out the team members to give them the opportunity to succeed. Our members, then, take those lessons of kindness and Gracious Professionalism and make a difference in the world. In addition to mentoring younger teams and helping disadvantaged people, we bring that same QLS spirit to the competitions.

At the Capital City Classic (CCC) tournament at Pleasant Grove HS, our team put our Gracious Professionalism and kindness on display. We cheered for all teams, shared our resources, and learned from others.

Here are some shining examples of how we practiced kindness:

  1. Andrew Truong - Shared a Neo motor with team 253 (Boba Bots), so that they could keep competing
  2. Hadi Bajwa - connected with team 2551 (Penguin Empire) to build a new relationship
  3. Krish Jashnani - borrowed a pulley for our robot’s gripper from team 5924 (Golden Gate Robotics) Why is Krish asking for help an example of Gracious Professionalism? Because, sometimes, asking for help is the hardest thing somebody can do. Graciousness is a two-way street, and QLS robotics demonstrated that we can accept kindness with as much grace as we give it.

The results of the competitive matches demonstrate how quickly our old and new members have become a team. QLS robotics sent two robots to the CCC tournament and both finished in the top 25! The competition involves grabbing cones and blocks and putting them in specific places on a game field. Multiple robotics teams work together in alliances, and the alliance that scores the most points wins. The QLS teams competed with the resilience that one would expect. One team went 5-3 (wins-losses), and the other 4-4. During the playoffs, both QLS teams were on the same alliance, and despite remarkable teamwork, fell to the opposition. Still, the tournament was a resounding success!

QLS Tech Support is already looking forward to Madtown Throwdown at Madera High School. We will build on the experience we gained in CCC, and make an even bigger impact on every team around us. Furthermore, we are building momentum for the new competition that will be launched in January 2024.

QLS Tech Support, however, is doing something more than building the next generation of robots to win a competition. We’re building a team that will spread QLS’s kindness through our Gracious Professionalism, so we can change the world.