[Travis Hoffman]

For the record, I'm in the same camp as Steve. Gracious should not be a descriptor one applies to himself or his team. But that's not my key point.

I think a push to encourage kids to be more creative, unique, and independent when accepting an alliance pick offer will significantly reduce the frequency of hearing "graciously accept". Favoring this type of mentor attitude may eventually and pleasingly spill over into other areas of the student's participation on the team. I roll my eyes upon hearing many of the kids copycat this same tired phrase over and over and over and over and over and over and over (that's one "over" for each year I've been involved with FIRST). I think people on both sides of the grammar coin would agree that encouraging originality is a mutually-beneficial path to pursue.