[George A.]

Well not to toot our own horn, but I'm going to take Ed's advice and tell you why 11 deserves to win.

They started their program in 1997 with less than a dozen students, 1 teacher in the back of a wood shop. They barely had any tools, no heat, little experience, and even less support from the school/township.

Since then they have grown into one of the largest extracirricular activites in thier school. They have grown so large that their robotics program is the first class to fill up during registration, and they even helped pass a new school referrendum (sp?) to get the team a new lab to work in.

They also have started dozens of lego league teams, they hold the New Jersey state Lego League Tournament every year which hosts over 60 teams. Bill McGowan (their mentor) won Volunteer of the Year for the Mid Atlantic (Now New Jersey) Regional in 2003. They even hold camps every summer to teach kids FLL and Robovation. Team members go to elementary schools to get younger and younger kids excited about robotics, Also they have started a sister team (1302) and helped lead that team to success (finalest in Palmetto in 2004)

Aside from being fully immersed in FIRST they also give back to the community. They raised money for tsunami victims, and "adopted" troops overseas. They were asked by a local organization who helps people with disabilities to have the team make a device that would allows disabled people compete in sports. They do displays at schools and even did a demonstration at the local movie theater to spread the word of FIRST and at last word that demonstration may lead to several new teams' inceptions.

So that's just a piece of why I feel 11 should win, but with such competition like 111, 233, 365, 79, 48, 341, 694, 60, 342, 236...just to name a few it's going to be a nailbiter to the end.