[Mark McLeod]

I want to thank Deer Park H.S. and administration, and Chuck Berg the team leader in particular for organizing and carrying off such a great event Saturday. We had a grand time and all our new team members are really excited and eager for the new season after being given the chance to Triple Play!

There were very few field problems, all minor, thanks to the volunteer services of the Field family who drove down from Connecticut and New Hampshire to help out, Gary – field setup and smooth running, Nancy-pit admin and Eric-scoring. Setup on Friday as well as tear down after the event went rapidly with many other teams helping the Deer Park students and adults. 12 schools/teams were in attendance including two rookie teams, Freeport and Comsewogue, using robots borrowed from the veteran schools of Miller Place and Plainview-Old Bethpage.

We had 9 seeding matches, very rapid fire with the number of teams we had competing. A lot of freshmen on all the teams got the chance to drive. In addition to the freshmen only rounds Deer Park announced, we all cycled our freshmen through as match drivers during the regular rounds as well. When it came down to the Finals the six teams were so evenly matched that it took four matches to decide, and even then the final score had a difference of only three points. Trophies were taken home by the Finalists of Team 270 our hosts of Deer Park H.S., Team 353 the Pobots of Plainview-Old Bethpage H.S., and Team 527 Plainedge H.S. Dragons (our partners in winning the 2005 LI Regional).
The winners were Team 514 Miller Place H.S., 358 Hauppauge H.S., and 369 William F. Grady Technical H.S.

My thanks to teams 514 and 369 for building great robots and being terrific partners!