[Nate Smith]

Depending on how far away your regional is, one thing to consider is how my team in high school handled this problem. We sent the drive team and a couple mentors(usually from the sponsor) down on Thursday for unpacking and practice. The rest of the team came down on Friday for the actual competition.

The championship is another matter, however. Depending on how your team tracks participation, I have seen teams set a minimum number of hours that a student must participate in order to be able to attend the championship. If your team members have to pay part of their way to Atlanta, that may do some of the filtering for you, as some may not be able to afford the expense. I would recommend, however, that you provide some sort of individual fundraiser to help team members offset the amount they have to pay...