[Steve W]

I can only speak with the knowledge that I have with our team. Team 188 has been around a long time. The first year that I was involved with the team was 2003. I believe that that was the first year that we had done multiple regional events. The last event we went to was West Michigan and this was the first regional we had won. To this day we have attended 2 or 3 regionals a year and have come close but we have yet to win a second regional. Our team is competitive and we always seem to make the elimination rounds but we still have not won.

Working hard to raise money we have earned our way to multiple events. We are always competitive but we also don't put everything into winning. Our team is always willing to help any team that asks. We share what supplies we have, invite teams to our school to build, spend time at events helping others. We are also a team that does not have a lot of equipment. Come by our school and you will see our students with normal hand tools and some mentors cutting with the table saw. We have no engineers (yet, come on Shawn) on the team but we have experienced mentors with varying skill sets. The students are amazing. They see what others have and instead of complaining work hard to be just as good as other teams.

We also draw from the experience of other teams. Our drive base is based on that of team 25 who graciously sent us their plans and gave us their blessing with our project. Some of our best friends (and team 188 alumni) are from team 1114. Even though we seem to continually get beaten by them we strive to prove ourselves better. We also have no problem sharing with them or any other team. This is what makes FIRST so great. Having money does not mean that you will win. Going to multiple regionals doesn't mean that you will win. But I will tell you that the more regionals that you attend, the more friends you will make, the more inspiration you will receive and the the more chance that you will see that you have been winning all the time, you just didn't notice.