2009 Greater Toronto Regional

[J Flex 188]

For those that don't know Shawn (soon to be Mr. Lim to his students), he is a person of the highest quality, calibre, respect, integrity, humility and plain old, good nature and character than any other person you can find in FIRST, or pretty much in the world at large. The fact that he put up such a detailed post at such an early hour when a firestorm was brewing and taking the blame himself attests to that. I first got to know him 5-6 years ago when he came back from university to mentor and when he was my drive team coach in 2004-2005. He's also been a boss, advisor and most of all a friend to me since those days.

The great thing about the GTR or CR as I still call it is that you run into alumni from various teams, but especially from 188 everywhere you go. The other great thing about the GTR is that these same alumni have spawned multiple other teams, including 1114, whose main mentors I can say have the same characteristics and mental attitude as Shawn.

I would just want to highlight one more thing for the CD community at large to know . As soon as the boos started to rain down, I saw a team member from 188 who had been a grade 9 student during my first year of university and helping 188 post-high school stand up and wave emphatically to all those around him, not on his own team, with a passionate look on his face to stop the booing immediately. That single moment should stop any and all speculation as to the reputation of 188 for respect for the game and what FIRST stands for. You may be able to teach the ideals of FIRST and of GP to everyone and anyone, but getting them to live by it, as some as said, may prove to be a more difficult task. But what I can safely say is that everyone on 188 does understand this and spreads it as best as they can.

This was a fantastic regional to attend and I sincerely hope this controversy dies down to a point where it is forgotten. It is not human nature to "act like a robot" and forget everything in the heat of the moment, behind the robot, there are human minds and faces and we have to let them cool off the same we let a robot's motors cool off after a hard set of matches as well. Congratulations go out to all alliances and all teams that participated in this regional!