[MamaSpoldi]

Originally Posted by dsmoker

Okay, I've been biting my tongue here, but as one of the teams that is competing in Hartford and has already qualified for the district championship, I feel compelled to chime in (no big surprise to those who know me) to explain why we decided to do three district events this year.

We're a team of somewhat limited financial resources, and when the district model was announced we saw it as a great benefit to us. Normally, we're able to do one, maybe two (in the past couple of years) regionals. That's it. But with the district model, and three events being in our home state, we could do two events and add a third at very little cost. When we decided to register for all three CT events, we did so NOT KNOWING and WITH NO WAY OF KNOWING that we would qualify for the district championship. Our thought process was, simply, with no way of knowing that, and given the minimal increase in doing the third event ($1,000 registration, since all the events were local for us and the school provides transportation), why not do as many events as possible so our kids can enjoy the fruits of their labors?

So here we stand. Registered. Fee paid. Yet qualified for Boston. What would you suggest we do? Not show up? Forfeit our $1,000, because FIRST isn't going to give it back? Show up and throw matches? Try not to win any awards?

Our view is somewhat different. In fact, at our meeting last night, we were talking about how we would like to actually HELP teams earn qualifying points by helping them win matches. That's the flip side of the coin. It's not just about taking points away from teams, and has NEVER been about that for us. It is also about helping bubble teams earn points that might get them to Boston. If we can do that, for even one team, we'll be happy.

Oh, we've got stuff of our own we want to accomplish in Hartford. We're still tweaking our shooting, adjusting our strategy, wanting to be the best prepared as we can for Boston. And isn't that what it's about?

Thanks for explaining that, you took the words right out of my mouth... I could not have described it better. Team 230 feels EXACTLY the same way. We planned for the 3 local CT events to give our students the most play time for the money and also hoping that we would qualify for Boston. It most definitely was not a ploy to "take points" from other deserving teams. We also hope to work with and HELP teams that may be struggling a bit to improve their performance (just as we did in Groton and Southington) as well as playing with them on the field and hopefully winning a few matches with them as our alliance partners... and as we have many times in the past we are happy to help other teams learn the ins and outs of scouting as well. Please come by our pit if you need help and we will do what we can to share our knowledge and experience.

Gracious professionalism and coopertition are about working hard and competing hard as well as helping other teams so that they are also at their best. I don't know about anyone else but I don't recall Woodie ever mentioning that it included bowing out of the competition or throwing matches.