[mandrews281]

As a mentor (and field coach) for 281 and on behalf of the whole team, I wanted to thank those out there for their congratulations. Chairman's Award... I still can't believe it. We were (and still are) absolutely beside ourselves.

We were also the robot that broke in the winning alliance. We were wondering after the third quarter final why we couldn't seem to shoot. When we came off the field the answer was obvious -- we had snapped a steel shaft on our ball feed in half. After spending a couple minutes trying to get it apart for a quick repair, it was obvious we couldn't go with a working shooter and didn't want the alliance to waste its timeout only to have a non-shooting robot out there, so we pulled out. Great job 2815 filling in and helping the alliance to the win. It felt a bit weird being out there with the alliance in the finals, and the only thing you can do is cheer them on; but that's what we did. Thank you teams 2640 and 2059 for having the confidence to pick us for your alliance.

This was our first regional of 2012, and I was surprised by the even-ness of the competition and standings, so congratulations to all the teams at Palmetto.

Also, thank you to all the folks both in-front and behind the scenes who organized and put on Palmetto regional. Even if you think you only had a small part in the event, consider yourself thanked. You helped put on an awesome event.

Finally, has anyone posted the group team picture of the 4 team winning alliance and the chairmans team picture? It all happened so quickly, I'm not sure we have any (I certainly don't).