yep.... team 1104, Axtell TechnoEagles here.... i think the kansas teams really shook the place up.... we were a rookie team, and we were in the standings most of the day around 15th. didn't make it to finals, though. really wish we had, but, that's life. i think overall we had a good robot... it stacked, it went under the bar, and we could push ANYONE we went up against. we helped tons of other teams, heck, i programmed a couple other robots for people (remember the wilsonator? that was one of em lol) and ended up with the rookie allstar award on friday. i come from a town of 150 households, the ENTIRE highschool has about 70 students, max... i think the fact that we did so well really shook up our town, woke some people up. it doesn't take a lot of money or tons of brains to do something innovative and educational as competing in first robotics... just initiative and a little motivation. i'm headed to college after this year, but i plan to mentor axtell's team next year, if we manage to get NASA's grant. if we don't get it, there's no way we can do it... our school literally doesn't have the finances to buy books in the library, let alone come up with 10 grand to support a robotics team, but i think we should be able to get the grant. several people are interested in joining next year, and most of the students that went are bragging to other schools and all their friends... i think FIRST is starting a great thing, and the fact that it's getting around to small schools like axtell's is wonderful. if it wasn't for this competition, and nasa for the grant, none of us would've ever been able to have the contact with technology and engineering that we were able to experience building the robot, affectionately labeled the "NerdBot" due to peer criticizm... but i know jealousy when i see it
anyways, thanks for everybody that helped our team out, and for any team that mentors a rookie team or takes the initiative to start a new team.... it's really a great opportunity for us (students) to get involved in something besides sports.
Matt Torrey
Senior, Axtell High School
Programmer, Webmaster, Techie, PR Team 1104