Gracious Professionalism of 498, 696, & 80

[Penny]

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THANK YOU to 498, 696, and 80 and the head ref! Your show of gracious professionalism at the AZ regional was incredible. You much deserved the Sportsmanship Award!

For those who don't know, 330 developed problems with the controller after the first match in the final round. Some of our team did an incredible job in swapping in a new one in an extremely short period of time -- but we had exceeded the 6 minute time-out period. We were up and working just after the announcer had explained that our alliance would play with only 1 robot (what are the chances of a 3 robot team having 2 malfunction at the same time?). The ref could have disqualified us from competing in that match, but he allowed 498, 696, and 80 to decide if we should play or not. They allowed us the chance to play and their show of gracious professionalism demonstrates the spirit of FIRST.

The chance to win or lose on the playing field and not due to technical difficulties is competition at its best. Thank you for the chance to show what Beach Bot could do!

Penny Ross
Vice Principal of Hope Chapel Academy and Beach Bot Mom (team 330)