[Kit Gerhart]

I am starting my 7th year with TechnoKats. Both our team and I personally have had some highs and lows over those years, but overall, it has been great.

We have had our ups and downs in regards to both competitive success, and in regards to how well we worked as a team. We had a very rough year in '97, where we didn't do very well in the competition and had too many "people problems." mainly among the adults. I came very close to quitting the team after that year.

I'm very glad I decided not to quit. In '98 I got my first chance to be a competition coach which was a job I had wanted from the start, and we won Nationals. Winning Nationals was by far the most exhilerating experience I have ever had, at least related to a competition, and I have had some success at other types of competition (model airplanes) at national and international levels. I think a big part of what made our team's winning FIRST so special was having 10,000 noisy spectators out there during those last few matches. Maybe being part of a team rather than competing as an individual also added something to the experience.

Now that I've said all that, while nothing beats winning, if you have a good team that works well together, you can learn and have fun, even though not every team can win. I'm starting my 5th year since the year I almost quit, and we have 5 or so other adults who have been with the team for at least 5 years, including our lead engineer and lead teacher.

One constant is that we never have as many people as we'd really like, either students or adults. We have had a number of engineers show up a time or two, but when they learn the realities of what is involved during the "build season," they disappear not to be seen again. Still, things always seem to work out, and unless something very unexpected happens, our team should be around for a long time to come.