For South Champs, I'm going to borrow some words I said about potential winners for this year's Championship Chairman's Award:
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Originally Posted by cadandcookies
1311. They are a team which has made incredible progress towards developing and implementing a model to make FIRST available, sustain-ably, via educational programs in their state. This is in addition to starting 30% of the FRC teams in their state, and all the other trimmings of a traditional "Chairman's Team." If you want measurable impact on their community, 1311 has it in spades. Watching their video and reading their essay, the clarity and realism of their vision is impressive. If they don't win it now, they will once they're even further along in implementing their 21st century education model. Anyone interested in team sustainability should talk to these guys and read their essay-- they've clearly put a ton of thought into the problem and I think a lot of people (including, potentially, FIRST HQ) could learn a lot from them.
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Originally Posted by cadandcookies
3132, Thunder Down Under. In terms of scale, this team beats everyone. They've worked with their sponsors, school, and FIRST to create a sustainable FIRST program that embraces under-represented groups in their country and around the world. They've built FLL, FTC, and FRC up across their nation and are helping to expand their model around the world. Reading their essay is mind boggling for how much they've accomplished. FIRST for everyone, everywhere, isn't just a phrase in their Chairman's essay, it's clearly at the core of this team.
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I would definitely say that those two are the leading contenders in my mind for the South Championship Chairman's Award. I'd expect each of them to rise even further this season, and have been combing social media for more info on what they've been up to. They've both continued to impress, and I would bet on one of them winning the big one in 2017.
North Championship is a bit hairier.
I have a hard time putting any team head and shoulders above the rest compared to South Champs-- there are a lot of very good Chairman's teams (1511, 503, 1885, 525) that I could certainly see pulling out the win, but I can't honestly say I would bet on one or two over the others. I need to get a better handle on what each team has been up to in the offseason in order to have an opinion I would consider well-supported here.