[GaryVoshol]

One line from JVN's blog struck me: "If you think that about our team, you don't know our team."

That has been my experience in the past. Sure, I envied the top powerhouse teams - I think most people do. Yet it was envy tinged with awe. How could they do all the things they accomplished?

When you get to know teams, you realize how they came to the position they have. It's not from luck, from the good fortune of having everything handed to them on a silver platter. Teams work hard to get their sponsors, their equipment, their resources. I got to know Karthik about 5 years ago, when there was controversy about the "twins/triplets" robots. When he explained their motives and what the cooperation between the teams had accomplished, it made sense. It wasn't something "unfair" as many people had claimed; it was just another way of inspiring students.

I also know how isolated incidents can lead to bad impressions of a team. Something a team did many years ago struck me as being terribly wrong. I held bad feelings for that team for a long time; if they won an award I remembered back to that incident. It was only a year or two ago that I got to know the team mentors better, and realized that the team didn't have a bad attitude. Maybe it's time to talk to them again this year, and resolve things that started for me in 2006. Maybe people that have current issues with teams shouldn't let them fester until they break open in anger and insults.

Regarding the April Fool's joke last year, we had no idea the crowd would react that way. We thought it would cause the team to sweat for a couple of minutes, and then we'd all share a good laugh, as had happened with other pranks in prior years. Had we known the reaction would be so negative against the team we would never have done it. I immediately went to the team and apologized, and if I never apologized publicly please accept this post as that apology.