[brian.enke]

Congrats to all the teams competing in the Colorado 2010 regional! What an incredible experience. I saw many examples of gracious professionalism throughout, but I'm so glad team 1245 (Monarch) won the gracious professionalism award this year.

For those who don't know the backstory, winning team 2036 (Fairview Black Knights) nearly couldn't build a bot this season after losing the use of their workshop and sponsors. David Clark at Monarch High graciously offered to share their facilities with the Knights. Going farther back to 2005, my team 1584 (Nederland Pirates, also in the winning alliance) wouldn't have even started a robotics program if not for David's incredible assistance. Flash forward to the quarter finals this year, when team 1584's driver console battery just up & died for no reason... there was team 1245 again, loaning us a fully charged battery so our PirateBot could continue in the competition.

Monarch rules! And they even found time to build a great bot this year too.

As for teams 1592, 399, and 1977... yes, absolutely, next time let's meet on the same side of the glass. You guys were awesome, as were the # 2 alliance and so many others. You gave us everything we could handle... and it's too bad all three matches were affected by fluke circumstances (the stuck ball under our PirateBot in the first match, and 1977's mechanical problems the next two matches. T'would have been great playing three matches with both teams at full strength... what a shootout that would have been!

1977 (Loveland) - a word of advice - try to use this setback to your advantage next year. Two years ago, our PirateBot stalled on the field repeatedly because we kept tripping fuses - we didn't use the right gauge of wiring to our motors (bad Pirates, arrrrgh). We went through a lot of soul searching after that and worked hard over the summer, training our students in Autocad, electrical, programming, omnidrive, etc... and they built a very nice bot last year (4th place). Then disaster struck again - we had high hopes for doing well in the tourney but a gearhead seized up in the first match, knocking us out completely. We didn't even make it on the field the second match. In fact, prior to this year, we were 0-5 in tournament action because we were either paired right away against the PinkTeam and Robonauts (233, 118, yikes) or we suffered some sort of catastrophic robot meltdown at the Worst Possible Time. These things do happen... use the experience to drive your team's efforts to new heights next year.

1540 and 2036, our loyal alliance partners... you guys rule too. Couldn't ask for better teammates. Good luck with your fundraising... see you in Atlanta!!!