Wisconsin Regional Thanks and Congrats

[Katie Reynolds]

The Thanks
Tyler Olds and Ryan Dognaux -- you guys rocked!! What a great MC/Announcer team. Thanks for making the regional such a fun time, with your mad announcing skills!

The referees - Frank, you and your team were outstanding!! It's great to see such a great and fair ref team. Thanks for calling the matches fairly, and working so hard all weekend!

All the volunteers -- Thank you for putting on such a great regional! In my 7ish years of FIRST, I've never been to such a smooth-running regional. You guys did a fantastic job! We had such a fun time, and we'll definitely be coming back next year!

All the teams who were there -- Thanks for making the 2007 WI Regional such a great time. Your team spirit and enthusiasm made for a great time. We'll see you all back in 2008, right?

The Congrats
Team #93 -- You guys are amazing, as always. Thank you for providing lunch for not only us, but our rookie team as well! And congratulations on winning the Sportsmanship award! If anyone deserved it, it was you - you guys rock!!

Team #269 -- It's high time you won the Chairman's Award -- congratulations!!

Kev Kolodziej -- Ahhh!! Congratulations on winning Woodie Flowers!! As soon as they started talking about the winner, I knew it was you. It's about time, too!! I wish I had your energy when it comes to FIRST -- how do you do it??

[AndyB]

That had to be, by far, the best regional competition i've ever been to. I hope we see all of the rookies back next year.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Katie Reynolds

Tyler Olds and Ryan Dognaux -- you guys rocked!! What a great MC/Announcer team. Thanks for making the regional such a fun time, with your mad announcing skills!

Thank you Katie, and Tyler as well, but a big thanks to every single person who attended the Wisconsin Regional - all the teams and volunteers who worked so hard to make it a great regional, thank you. I had an amazing time being full time game announcer for the first time ever!

So many good teams, especially rookie teams, at this event, this regional is clearly a cut above the rest.

[Sean Schuff]

Thanks for the congrats Katie! You are a living legacy of what we want our team to be about. Graciousness above all else. You've carried it with you to the great white north - you make us proud!

I would also like to thank everyone involved in making the second Wisconsin Regional a smashing success. All of the volunteers had smiles on their faces and were there when you needed them.

Tyler and Ryan - what a great team you make. You kept it lively every step of the way. Nice hat, Tyler!

John Budish - you did it again! Another awesome regional in the land of cheeseheads. Thanks for listening and explaining. You are one of a kind. Now how do we get the name changed?

Frank and the rest of the reffing crew - you guys did the tough job with a lot of class. I haven't seen that many "belly checks" since Raising the Bar!

THe Fondy Fire - Team 2194 - your energy and enthusiasm for FIRST has re-energized our team. We can't wait to work with you in Atlanta! Way to go rookies!!! Thank you for allowing us the privilege to work with a team that was hungry for the challenge and fun of FIRST and already gets what it is all about.

The safety crew - for listening to my rants about machine use in the pits. I hope I didn't offend anyone. I just wanted to undestand "why".

Kevin Kolodziej - congrats on the Woodie Flowers win. You never cease to amaze me in the numerous ways you find to share your enthusiasm for FIRST. The entire community is fortunate to have you around.

Alumni of team 93 - mentoring teams 93 (that's right - we've come full circle), 171 and 857. You get what FIRST is all about and your sharing it with others. You are always welcome to return to your roots!

Team 93 mentors - I can't thank you enough for what you do for our kids. Your patience and dedication are second to none. I can't wait for West Michigan and Atlanta - we're going to have a ball!!

Sean

[Kevin Kolodziej]

What an event!! The 2007 Wisconsin Regional easily ranks up there in my top 3 events of all time. The competitiveness, graciousness, and all around energy was just amazing.

Ryan, Tyler, and Bill, you all did a phenomenal job! Thanks for coining our new catch phrase, "What's better than robotics? More Robotics!"

To the regional planning committee: you all are great to work with and really know how to put on a great show! The social went off without a hitch, as did the entire event. When do we start for 2008???

To all the rookies: WOW!! Incredible job, guys! 10 of the 24 teams in the eliminations were rookies, and all did an amazing job. You all should be proud of yourselves - I sure am!

To all the teams I inspected (my first time!): Thanks for not giving me any tough questions or decisions! You all were very cooperative and fun to get to know for that short time. I found it rather ironic though that everyone I inspected I either coached with or against in the matches the following two days!

To the refs: I don't think I've ever seen a more animated crew before! Belly checks all around, highly visible pinning counts, flag waving to end all flag waving - you've inspired me for my reffing jobs coming up later this season.

Congrats to 269 for a well deserved Chairman's win. I must admit, the Ultimate Protection Squad was on the edge of their seats for the entire description of the award as we are quickly learning to follow in your footsteps. We hope to see you in Atlanta - let us know if there is anything we can do to help!!

Finally, thanks to everyone for the MANY MANY congratulations and well wishes for my Woody Flowers Award. It was a surprise, to be sure. I just hope I didn't confuse everyone since I was wearing the wrong team's shirt when I accepted the award

[Orominuialwen]

A huge, huge thanks goes out to Team 2077 from all of Team 1306. My team didn't realize that the team social would be around 2 miles away from the arena and our hotel. We had just planned to walk to it, but when they heard that we had no transportation, they very generously offered all the free space on their buses to our team. Almost all of our team was able to fit (the rest were able to ride with some of our mentors who had brouht their cars to Milwaukee). This was one of the best examples of gracious professionalism that I've ever seen at FIRST. We owe 2077 a lot for saving us from a 4 mile walk in the rain at night.

We'd also like to thank Team 2220 for being our cheering buddies in the stands. They were always really enthusiastic and loads of fun to hang out with. We still cheered for each other even when we were on opposing alliances during one of our last matches on Saturday.

I'd also like to thank all the mascots of the teams that were in all the rounds of the finals for putting up with my team's crazyness. (We were in the stands right behind the blue alliance) The mascots were always willing to cheer with us, especially Team 93's wormy apple and Team 2175's fighting calculator. They were even willing to sign one of my teammate's pants! (He plans to wear them to school tomorrow )

A big thanks to all of Team 1306's amazing mentors. An article about them debuted in a local magazine the day we left for Regionals. They deserve every bit of praise we can give. We have parents of current and former students, teachers, employees of sponsors, and even former employees of sponsors. We'd be be nowhere without them.


Finally, thank you to everyone who made the 2007 Wisconsin Regional such a great experience. Although my team didn't do as well as we'd expected, it was still a great way to finish off my fourth and final year as a student in FIRST. (Mentoring next year!)

[devaaki]

Thanks much to Alliance 3 leader, Extreme Engineering (171), for picking us. It was good playing with you guys in the last two qualifying matches, as well as in the quarter finals.

Also great job CORE (2062) - you guys had great ramps that worked well... too bad they were just a little slow Awesome job on Rookie All-Star, and good luck and have fun at Nationals.

Thanks to Arrowhead Robotics (706) for giving us a piston that saved our robot.... Good luck!

[Kevin.Core]

It was absolutely amazing, this was our rookie year at the WI regional. I want to thank everyone for making it such a life altering event. I can't believe what knowledge and teamwork came out of this and an incomprehensible amount of life lessons we have learned in just this short 6 weeks. We were placed 8th and we put our heart and soul into this competition and FIRST and luckily it payed off, we achieved the Rookie-All-Star award! Guys again itt's been such an honor, we will see you at Nationals!

p.s. how about that last match the last split second, blue alliance was able to lift fondy to eake out a win 61 to 62 I believe. WOW astonishing.

[Ricky Q.]

Wow, wow, wow. Just when I think FIRST cannot get any better something new and amazing happens. We had 22 rookies and 11 second year teams out of 52 total, it was just awesome to see the amount of teams working together and being inspired. Thanks to everyone who made the 2007 Wisconsin Regional a huge success.

To the planning committee, this is a great group of people that works very hard year round to make such a great event happen. It is a privilege to work with all of you.

On a special note, congrats to Carla Meyer, the 2007 Volunteer of the Year as our volunteer coordinator. She came into FIRST last year not knowing what it was, and put together all the volunteers for our first regional. Oh, she was pregnant too and had her baby the month before the regional. She did an amazing job again this year bringing together all the people we needed for an even bigger event.

Thanks to all the volunteers that come and help us, especially from out of the area. Frank, Tyler, Ryan, Brant, Mark Koors, and others...you guys were great.

To all the students from teams that served as VIP Tour Guides, THANK YOU! You make my job a lot easier, it is great to have a bunch of willing and enthusiastic kids to take people around.

Thanks to our alliance partners, 1714 and 1103. You had the confidence to pick us even though we were seeded 50 of 52, some better luck and things would be different.

Kevin K - Congrats on your WFA, it is an honor to call you a friend. Our relationship started when you were driving for #71 and you beat me at Midwest in 2002. I'm glad we have gotten to work together since you have come to Milwaukee. You are truly an inspiration and a great mentor. Without you, FIRST would not be the same in WI. Thank you and congratulations!

And finally, congratulations to my team, #269, for our Regional Chairman's Award. I am not usually one to pat myself on the back, but this is more of me congratulating all of those who have come before me and worked with us to make this team what it is today. Ever since we became SE Wisconsin's first team back in 1999, we have worked very hard to spread the word about FIRST and how great it is both within our school and the whole area. All of those efforts have fed into others and culminated into what we have today, several FRC teams in SE WI, VEX Teams, LEGO teams, a WI Regional, enormous community knowledge and support, a Project Lead the Way curriculum in the school and so much more. And we have a self sustaining team that continues to produce quality kids. I am so proud to be involved with such quality people. Thank you to everyone that is involved and has supported #269.

The Wisconsin Regional was a blast, see you in 2008!