[brinsy625]

this year at UTC regional, on the last day of competition me and a couple of my friends decided to paint ourselves orange & black (school colors) and have our team number written on our chest and back. This idea was a fairly big hit from expressions ive seen among judges, participants, spectators, students, and people of all ages.

So that being successful, we decided to do the same thing to our travel competition whcich was this year in Las Vegas. Thursday and friday we were painted orange and black, and many people including some judges, LOTS of students and adults/menotrs liked our spirit and enthusiasim. The two days went by without anyone saying negative to us except for that we canno be in the pit areas without a shirt... okay a little annoying, especially while trying to interview teams for scouting, but fair enough, so we did not re enter the pits.

Now Saturday the final day of competition comes up, and we decide to do something a little different, half orange, half black, split right down the middle with the number painted on our chests and back. The part of the number on the black side was orange, and part on the orange side was black. Now Im describing this because it took a while for the three of us to do, longer than the previous days.

So we walk outside and after cheering for our team me and my friends were pulled aside by a member of the staff from first and told that we need to put shirts on. They had never said anything to us previous to that day and on that day teams should probably have the most spirit. We were given two reasons which I personally found very dumb. The first being that, "Body painting is good for football, but not qquite for FIRST." Football fans paint hemselves to cheer for their team which is exactly we what are doing here...ITS SPIRIT, GIVE ME A BREAK!. The second and my personal favorite of the two was,"It does not convey the image of FIRST." Im sorry but isnt FIRST about being yourself? Isn't FIRST about being Spirited and enthusiastic about your team? Look I'm not complaining at all because honestly one person saying that to us when so many others appreciated and encouraged it does not really make a big imprint in our minds. so we put on shirts for the mean time but during the quarter finals semi final matches. we werent going to let that phase us and take away our spirit.

I say this not to whine or complain, or beg for attention. I say this because I want to hear your responses to the matter. and also if you have pictures of the three body painted guys from the regional in Hartford or Las Vegas I would really like to see them. so please post your replys