[Zyik]

You have to remember that FIRST isn't just about the students. It's about students and mentors working together and learning from each other to create something beautiful. So, with that in mind, I'd like to say this about 973.

Normally, 973 spends a couple of weeks hammering out a design and ends up way behind, using the practice day at regionals to finish up building. However, this year, for once, we were ahead. We got our general robot design withing the first few days, as opposed to the first few weeks. We managed to finish the bot before ship date and got several days of driving it around to practice. We also have a design that, I at least believe and the practice matches appear to agree with me, will do well, far apposed to how we normally do.

This is primarily thanks to one mentor. He's been a constant inspiration, keeping us on schedule, and generally helping in every department, from programming to machining. Without him we would be back in our old habits and the robot would be far from finished, let alone ready to be in its crate already. He doesn't just hand out an answer, he shows you why his is better using math and logic, something that our mentors don't normally do as most of the time we are so far behind schedule we have to rely on the "I'm a mentor so I know better" reason. So, not only has our robot improved with the addition of him, the teams overall knowledge has as well.

In other words, thanks Adam Heard. We wouldn't be where we are without you. You may be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but we owe ya.