[Wayne C.]

Isn't it interesting that if you took all the teams on that map you still wouldn't fill half of the Nationals this year.

That year was our first year - the year of Toroid Terror. Our robot, the Silver Eagle, was plywood, copper tubing and aircraft foam from FIRST because that is what we could work with using the hand tools we had. It blew out the Tekin rebel speed controllers regularly. The power drill batteries would fall out when we got hit hard enough. But it moved and was the pride of my guys. We later retired it and made it into a soda can hurler for demos to the grade school kids. Those guys are all past college now and in the engineering world.

I am proud to say that most of the 12 NJ teams are still playing and doing quite well. And we haven't given up on reviving the ones that fell by the wayside.

And the years have flown by- gee I'm getting old.

WC