[Mike McIntyre]

What an amazing end to the season: so many robots improved so dramatically, it's hard to believe that most matches at West Bloombfield were scoreless ties! I congratulate all of the teams that worked through the design problems and the hard times and found reason to celebrate in their engineering successes. Lake Orion had the winning robot, but the Dragons were not the only winners:
--Did you know that Cranbrook TOTALLY rebuilt their robot in the FINAL TWO DAYS; looking at what they accomplished, I was blown away. They didn't have all the bugs worked out by finals, but if you had seen, like I did, the pile of parts laying on the floor Thursday night, you would realize the enormity of their accomplishment;
--Did you know that Avondale's Killer machine (the SMC award-winner) was made primarly in a student's garage by a small dedicated team?
--Did you see all the clever mechanisms on the rookie robots? Did you notice that all of the rookies could score!
--Did you notice that several teams (like Pontiac Central and Rochester Adams) went from having totally ineffective end-effectors to being able to score with deadly efficiency, all in just 2 weeks?
--And who could help but stand and cheer when their team's creation scored that first ball!
Above all else, though, I'm proud of the outstanding display of good sportsmanship and gracious professionalism that was evident everywhere at the tournaments. There certainly is cause to celebrate!