National Championship or National Chairman's

[WEHickok]

You asked for comments from someone from Team 67 as to winning the Championship and the Chairman's Award on the same day.

First I will say that to me the Chairman's Award is more satisfying. It puts our team into the FIRST Hall of Fame. What an honor to join the twelve teams already there. We have worked hard for nine years to be a great FIRST team. That is our "Recipe for Success".

Winning the Championship was great...Not too much time to savor that before the Chairman's was announced. But if it were not for a great move by 503 at the end of the second match on Einstein, who knows what would have happened. Any of the four alliances in the finals could have been Champions. Luck, or fate, or skill, just happened to go the way of our alliance. We had an alliance last year that was capable of winning the Championship, but we fell from the bar in the finals on Newton and broke eight joints...the wheels would no longer line up. That is why I think that the Chairman's Award is better. You can have a great robot and something wierd happen to your alliance and you are out. If you have a great team and win the Chairman's Award you are in the Hall of Fame forever.

By the way, what would you expect of someone that has spent the last eight years of his life chasing the Chairman's Award?