A new era for FIRST.....and mixed feelings

[Gary Dillard]

Originally Posted by Steve Yasick

I am the team leader from 85. I can give you a different point of view. We have been around for 9 years now. We did not qualify for nationals this year so we participated in 3 regionals. ...... We were on the wait list for nationals but didn't get the "call" when space opened up.

It was very hard for us to watch nationals! We wanted to be there so bad and felt like we came so close. I can tell you as the team leader that it is still a daily mission to help the team keep our heads up. The community outside of FIRST doesn’t understand. They expect us to be at nationals and think we "failed" or had a bad year by not being in Atlanta. I know we didn't "fail". I know we had a great season and I know we could have done well at nationals.




Steve Yasick

I really appreciate your post Steve - if we hadn't received an at large bid from the wait list I would have been posting those exact sentiments. We had terrible regionals but shined at nationals; I can't imagine staying home.

Does anyone know what sets the limit on teams? Is it hotel accomodations, pit size, number of matches? Isn't there someway we can get everyone there even if we don't compete?