[Greg Needel]

Thanks all for you kind words of encouragement. I am a strong advocate of giving credit where credit is due, and while I did have alot to do with the success of this team there were many others who played a big role.


First : Sarah Grenier, is my team co-leader engineer extraordinaire. She has had many years of FIRST experience starting in NH on a HS team in 1995, going to WPI with 190 and then working as an engineer at Intellitek on team 40. She deserves a ton of recognition, as we could not have accomplished nearly as much without her. She posts on CD occasionally under the username Gren737

Teachers: Mr. Price, Mr.Baker, and Mr. Mason, you guys rock, having numerous teachers that split the responsibilities involved with running the team helps keep people from burning out, and they do the job of team admin, great!

Parents: If you saw us in Atlanta or St. Louis you would notice that we have quite a few adults on the team. As it turns out FIRST in TN is addicting and almost all of our students parents on the team are involved and have attended meetings, competitions, and events thought the year. Most of our kids are freshman and sophomores so having a strong parent base is crucial for our success. Thanks for everything.

Sponsors: Everyone knows that we have a terrific partnership with DeWALT, and I feel that this relationship will continue to grow for many years to come. The engineering managers "GET" FIRST and are great advocates for the team. In the future teams everywhere may get a chance to feel the impact B&D/DeWALT in the KOP or otherwise. I would also like to add an appreciation to both NASA and PTC, both of which contributed a large portion of our teams budget and made our team possible.

Most Importantly the kids on my team. It was their enthusiasm and willingness to try something new that made this all possible. I am sure that they will all take something away from this year which will stick with them for the rest of their lives.

We have also received support from other teams, which helped us during the build season, before the team even founded, and all throughout our process of reaching our goals. (shout outs to team 340, 1712, 148, 16, and 768)

Thanks all and we will see you at IRI and into 2010.

Greg