Reflection 2005 Season

I learned that anything is possible with dedication.

As most of you know by now, we had some communication issues, and at kickoff we had a sponsor, a high school, some facilities, and mentors...

but no students. I personally thought we had no chance, or that we would end up with 3 kids and a horrible machine.....I was wrong.

Finally, we had a call out meeting the Thursday of week 2. We had 19 or so kids show up. We ended up training these kids who have never seen a FIRST competition before, designed it in the next 2 weeks, built a robot in 10 days (actual construction), finished and submitted an animation entry, wrote a chairmans award (for the NASA grant) and even got our own website up and running. We had a slow start at Boilermaker regional, but by the end we got the hang of this and even walked out with the Rookie All Star Award, qualifying us for Atlanta. Midwest regional we ended up as the 8th seed, ended up being the 6th alliance captain and highest rookie seed. Last weekend we walked out of there with a 5-2 record, 21st seed and inspired kids who before this didn't know each other, but now are all good friends and worked very well together.

To sum it up, with what little time we had, this team became a true team and I'm proud of everyone, and this proved that anything is possible.