Salt Lake was an epic blast. It was crazy, obnoxious, and grueling. The team that went learned a lot of lessons, like mohawks are hard to make, you have to get rid of your nerves when driving the robot (Cowboy), and moodiness is sometimes acceptable when you're running on four to five hours of sleep each night. The drive team did great, once they got over their nerves about driving in front of all those people. The robot was about average on all the stats compared to other teams, which is fine, but now that the rookies have got at least one competition under their belt, we know what we need to work on for Denver.
First, scouting. The scouts for the Salt Lake Regional were all rookies, and you know rookies, they've got absolutely no idea what they're doing most of the time. Now that the scouts have got experience enough to know what questions they're supposed to ask, and what they're supposed to look for in a team, we'll definitely do better with making strategy for the alliance.
Then there's spirit. Let's just point this out real quick: We ROCKED at cheering. We're a small team, but we've got more gusto than the bigger ones when it comes to belting out encouragement to the drive team and alliance. It was just our look we had trouble with. Mohawks suck. It was exhausting and a pain in the butt to put them in people's hair, and I think we may be changing the way our team presents itself at competition from now on, all in honor of this season's robot Cowboy.
We also need to work on how much we sleep. Let's be honest: every single one of us was up past lights-out, ten thirty, whether it was because of the homework we had to do, or the hair we had to prep, maybe because in the middle of the night, we're feeling high and invincible from competition that day and we need to discuss the daily drama that went on, or robot strategy. Whatever it was, I can guarantee that the majority of the travel team found a corner of the stadium to pass out in for a half-hour cat nap at one point or another during the incredibly long weekend that was the Salt Lake Regional.
We won our last three matches before we packed up and went home, and a couple more before that. The Salt Lake Regional, even though we're a little below average in all the stats and completely so-exhausted-I-can-hardly-stand-even-though-it's-been-two-days-since-we-got-back tired, could be considered educationally successful and fun. Also, a sidenote.
DEAN KAMEN CAME TO THE REGIONAL THE RUMORS WERE TRUE OH MY GOD HE WAS THERE AND HE MADE A SPEECH AND IT WAS LONG AND OH MY GOD.
For those of you under a rock: Dean Kamen is the founder of FIRST Robotics. He's a kind of epic superhero or celebrity to those of us classified as 'those Robotics geeks'. He's sort of short but he's got this vibe on him that makes anyone want to sit up and listen to whatever he's got to say about the future. Legit. That man has got super speech-making skills.
And we're so proud of our girls who went to state, every single one of them. Although they went to the consolation championship instead of the actual state one, they still had the opportunity to kick butt all the way in Loveland, and that is something that hasn't happened in ages. We know you guys will go back again, and it's gonna be soon, so FYI, you better start practicing.
One of the FIRST mottos is Robotics is the hardest fun you'll ever have. That's certainly true. We're not done kicking butt and taking names in the spirit of gracious professionalism and coopertition (and yes, I spelled those right), we've still got Denver. Salt Lake was just the practice run.
First, scouting. The scouts for the Salt Lake Regional were all rookies, and you know rookies, they've got absolutely no idea what they're doing most of the time. Now that the scouts have got experience enough to know what questions they're supposed to ask, and what they're supposed to look for in a team, we'll definitely do better with making strategy for the alliance.
Then there's spirit. Let's just point this out real quick: We ROCKED at cheering. We're a small team, but we've got more gusto than the bigger ones when it comes to belting out encouragement to the drive team and alliance. It was just our look we had trouble with. Mohawks suck. It was exhausting and a pain in the butt to put them in people's hair, and I think we may be changing the way our team presents itself at competition from now on, all in honor of this season's robot Cowboy.
We also need to work on how much we sleep. Let's be honest: every single one of us was up past lights-out, ten thirty, whether it was because of the homework we had to do, or the hair we had to prep, maybe because in the middle of the night, we're feeling high and invincible from competition that day and we need to discuss the daily drama that went on, or robot strategy. Whatever it was, I can guarantee that the majority of the travel team found a corner of the stadium to pass out in for a half-hour cat nap at one point or another during the incredibly long weekend that was the Salt Lake Regional.
We won our last three matches before we packed up and went home, and a couple more before that. The Salt Lake Regional, even though we're a little below average in all the stats and completely so-exhausted-I-can-hardly-stand-even-though-it's-been-two-days-since-we-got-back tired, could be considered educationally successful and fun. Also, a sidenote.
DEAN KAMEN CAME TO THE REGIONAL THE RUMORS WERE TRUE OH MY GOD HE WAS THERE AND HE MADE A SPEECH AND IT WAS LONG AND OH MY GOD.
For those of you under a rock: Dean Kamen is the founder of FIRST Robotics. He's a kind of epic superhero or celebrity to those of us classified as 'those Robotics geeks'. He's sort of short but he's got this vibe on him that makes anyone want to sit up and listen to whatever he's got to say about the future. Legit. That man has got super speech-making skills.
And we're so proud of our girls who went to state, every single one of them. Although they went to the consolation championship instead of the actual state one, they still had the opportunity to kick butt all the way in Loveland, and that is something that hasn't happened in ages. We know you guys will go back again, and it's gonna be soon, so FYI, you better start practicing.
One of the FIRST mottos is Robotics is the hardest fun you'll ever have. That's certainly true. We're not done kicking butt and taking names in the spirit of gracious professionalism and coopertition (and yes, I spelled those right), we've still got Denver. Salt Lake was just the practice run.