[natejo99]

As a student who has attended champs twice previous to this year, I was slightly upset when our drive coach made the announcement that our team would not be partaking in the airplane throwing this year.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is the most responsible decision we could make about the issue.

Thinking back on the amount of paper (not necessarily in airplane form) and other trash on the dome floor and in the stands in 2014 and 2015 that had been thrown from the upper levels of the stands, I understand that cleaning that up must have been an absolute nightmare. I understand that some people may consider it "innocent fun", but it stops becoming that when airplanes are hitting people, the field, and even robots out on Einstein. There are plenty of better things to do to occupy yourselves in the stands while waiting for Einstein matches to start, and those options are much less disruptive and much more respectful than throwing garbage from the stands.

I did notice that the amount of airplanes (that I saw at least) thrown this year was much less than the past 2 years. The issue hasn't ceased, but it's getting better. As much as I would like to think that the FIRST community would realize that throwing paper airplanes is disrespectful and dangerous, I think that the only realistic way for this to stop is to have Dean make an announcement that the practice is no longer acceptable, which is an announcement that I think should be made next year.