Re: CONGRATULATIONS 16, 25, and 180!
 

What Libby K said - they helped start FRC 1882 Team Rebel Robotics and the reason I am still a FIRST coach now for the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore. They will give the "Shirts of their Backs!" I am a proud wearer of one of their original Hawaiian shirts! Thanks for the inspiration and continued support over the years. I know you guys are the go to team when I try to expand up to the FRC level again! Congratulations !

Re: CONGRATULATIONS 16, 25, and 180!
 

Thanks all for the wonderful sentiments. I feel that getting allied with SPAM and Bomb Squad was serendipity and we were blessed.

This was a really rough year for us. We had a lack of everything- money, materials, tools- time. You name it. Fortunately Cybersonics was there to help us along and together our two teams built our machines side by side.

At our initial event in Orlando we simply weren't ready. Got our butts kicked. But the team rallied and we used every minute of our Bag and Tag time to fix the problems and improve. After learning from SPAM's flashlight of death we decided on a beacon of our own to line up and it made all the difference.

To end up as partners with SPAM for the Championship and also link up with our perennial pit neighbors BBS was great. We have highest regard for both teams and hope to play together again down the road.

And I will be forever indebted to these teams for helping us earn the Galileo banner. Getting that one was a goal we have had for a very long time. Now I can retire.

While I am on here I also want to give a shout-out to 341 Miss Daisy for being our partners at the MAR Championship. We really expected to be seeing them in the final 4 last weekend- their machine is truly spectacular.

Eventually all this controversy about comms, storms and robots will be sorted out by FIRST and next year the games should be better. Heck- with the end of the world happening outside the arena during the finals, for a time there I thought we weren't leaving that place in one piece.

And like Woodie told us in his talk, all the bad stuff we anguished over will be replaced by the memories of the achievements and good time we had this year. My team is graduating yet another class of great kids who will go into the world capable and focused. And after a decade and a half of FIRST robotics those memories are as treasured as any trophies.

WC :cool:

Re: CONGRATULATIONS 16, 25, and 180!
 

congratulations 16,25,and 180 you guys really did deserve the win and i really enjoyed being on one of the only alliances that got to play a third and very exciting match against you guys. also thanks 180 for lending 1918 a hand when their robot was having some issues

Re: CONGRATULATIONS 16, 25, and 180!
 

Wow, I just realized that this is only Bomb Squad's first championship! For whatever reason, I thought they already did!

Re: CONGRATULATIONS 16, 25, and 180!
 

It's now a few days later and I can finally see straight again, what a season this turned out to be.

180- Thank you, not only for picking us first round at champs but you were the reason why we placed a light on our robot for aiming at the goal. Because of the light we went from a 40% shooter from the key, to 85%. Sometimes the simplest ideas work the best.

16- Wow what a steal for a second round pick. Without a question your the reason why our alliance won. You made 2 above average shooters look like super studs. We had so many balls on our side of the field all we had to do is drive back 5 feet and we would be fully loaded, ready to shoot again.

Bryce and Brandon- It has been a long long time since I had an alliance where all 3 coaches were completely on the same page. When mistakes were made, we fixed them. We had game plans ready for dead robots, which happened to us. It all just worked. I can't wait for the day to be behind the glass with you 2 again.

103- We can't thank you enough for everything you did for our team. I hope I can return the favor one day.

Re: CONGRATULATIONS 16, 25, and 180!
 

Thank you all for the kind words. Thank you to 180 and 25 for picking us. We had great hopes coming into St. Louis after a very successful regional season, but were plagued by gremlins and odd failures to the point of discouragement.

Though we never really got to show off the improvements we had made for the Championship, our drive train suffered none at all from the abuse it took and our drive team lived up to their reputation under pressure.

The combined 48 years of team experience on our alliance proved invaluable. I have stayed out of any discussion regarding all the issues on Einstein, but have total faith that our alliance could have come out on top regardless. For all the nastiness on the field and since (some of it very painful), absolutely none of it has come from the 12 teams who were actually affected by the situation and I take great comfort from the wonderful attitude of all our worthy opponents.