[archiver]

Posted by Mike Soukup at 02/27/2001 11:52 PM EST


Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Rolling Meadows & Wheeling and Motorola.


In Reply to: Re: Power Houses
Posted by Becky Allen on 02/27/2001 5:50 PM EST:



: #111--Is there ever a doubt that Wildstang will preform well?

It makes me feel good to hear that people respect & acknowledge what we're doing at 111, but I always cringe when I hear people say we're a "powerhouse" or words to that effect. I don't want comments like that to go to the heads of students on the team. The last thing I want is for any of the students on 111 to think that we're better than any other team. It goes against everything gracious professionalism stands for.

At our invitational, team 664 lost a caster & was hobbling around the field on 3 wheels, and doing a remarkable job considering the handicap. A student behind me started laughing because they were struggling to move in a straight line. I told him that the robot was broken and all he said was "oh." Instead of being impressed at the abilities of 664, he only saw their deficiency. I believe it's because he's new to the team and hears from vetrans and people on other teams that Wildstang is always a contender. From that he thinks that we're perfect and any team less than perfect is no good.

I wish he was around for our rookie season in 1996 (when I was a high-schooler on the team). It's fair to say that we were awful in New Hampshire. We completely re-designed the drive system on Thursday because it kept breaking. And I don't think we scored a big ball until our last match at Nationals. We were humbled.

I just wish I knew of a way to get the students on 111 to be a little more humble.

I almost forgot, thanks for the compliment Becky.

Mike