Re: Galileo 2009
 

I had a chance to talk with the coach of 1717 after the eliminations and he told me how his team every season is made up primarily of seniors, so every new school year he has an entirely new group of kids that are total rookies. That makes how competitive they have been every year even more impressive.

Re: Galileo 2009
 

Yeah, since we allianced with them, we got the rundown (if I remember incorrectly LMK): Each year they take 32 kids from each grade level (32 freshmen, 32 sophomores, 32 juniors, 32 seniors) and only the 32 seniors attend the Championshp, with the others also attending the regionals. Because of this, their drivers every single year are "rookies" but I'm sure they practice quite a bit back home. ;)

Re: Galileo 2009
 

Yes,
after talking with Amir from 1717 and his students, I mentioned how they teamed up with our friends 368 in San Diego in 2007 to get to the finals.
The students had no idea what I was talking about, hence, they have new students every year.

Re: Galileo 2009
 

Thanks again for all the recognition. Our team really appreciates it, and is extremely proud about getting mentioned by all these great teams! Anyway, a short breakdown on how our team works-- we pretty much have a four year program, with the freshmen to junior classes learning some basic concepts (namely basic compsci, AP Physics, and some hands-on engineering stuff) and then we're pretty much "thrown in the [FIRST] fire" when it comes to senior year. The team usually just takes along a total of 10 or so juniors across two regionals to experience what it's like to be at one, leaving the majority pretty clueless when it comes down to it(including me this year!) It does make for a great year, though. :D
And sorry about not having a clue about past events! I wish we could have experienced some of the comps last year... But it definitely happened to us a couple times this year-- one of our favorite teams was extremely distressed when "our team acted like we had no idea who they were"... we didn't :P