[Stephi Rae]

Chris already addressed some of 1983's situation, and he didn't even see the difference between our first and second years. We had one year with no mentors, just a coach who is amazing, and our second year we have at least 6 or 7 dedicated, amazing mentors. We won a regional both years. The first year we won with the #1 alliance as the 3rd pick, working with 254 and 1425. 254 is one of those NASA teams. We worked side by side with them, and they had just as much fun as we did. This year we captained the #3 seed alliance to win the MSR. This robot has had significant mentor input, and some of the parts were shipped out to sponsors, like the ladder being cut and holes made as well as carbon fiber claws manufactured. We are having the same amount of fun, in fact probably more fun. Yes, there might be a mentor or two in the pit to help with repairs, but students work on it as well. The mentors have more knowledge. They are necessary. You can learn by watching them do something too, so that you can try it next time.

I can definitely understand your frustration, in fact our team had some frustrations with the new mentor support at the beginning of the build season this year. There is an "ideal mentor-student medium" out there somewhere, but those sorts of things rarely happen in life. The best I can do is just worry about my own team and how we should function and conduct ourselves and how we can help the teams around us.

One last thing, is that when cliches such as these seem to pop up so often, there tends to be a reason behind it. They may be cliches, but I have seen them happen. They had to become cliches somehow, I guess.