[Gardner C]

I am troubled that you students were subjected to verbal abuse at Peachtree. Peachtree has always had the reputation of being one of the friendly regionals and I hope it always stays that way. I understand the frustration of “the have verse the have not’s” and struggling teams competing against obviously adult build robot but that’s another topic.

Your robot this year and last year were not beautiful but they border on engineering elegance, which is a lot better. I know, I inspected both of them. But that not the important part. When I ask your students how it worked they knew, and could describe it in great detail and answered all questions. Believe me, that was not always the case.

The other aspect is beautiful robot don’t win matches, good strategy and good driving does. We competed against you in finals last year and the semifinals this year and you beat us both years. No complaint, you had better machines, better driving and a more effective strategy. You deserve to win. They were great matches, great learning experience and lots of fun.