[Tom Line]

One of the biggest improvements our team made was consistent scouting. It took some butt-kicking (by the student leaders) and some consistent pressure (by the student leaders) and a vastly improved scouting system (again by the students). That resulted in the students 100% handling our alliance selections.

This year has been a "break through" year for the team. We lost a lot of seniors last year and a lot of underclassman have had to step up and learn to be leaders. It's never a pretty process, but they've been up to the challenge and done a good job.

Probably the best feeling I got was when they actually un-invited the mentors to the alliance picking. They felt they could do a good job - and they did!

The point of all this? Not one bit of it was robot related. While the kids DID build probably 90% of our robot (even learned to weld aluminum, etc), that is actually the smallest and least important part of what they've done this year. Anyone can learn to drill and tap. Learning to be a leader is something that few people can do, and it's tremendously exciting to see it happen.

Go Team 1718!!!!!!