2009 Long Island Regional

[pschre]

Team 806 hadn't been to Long Island since 2005, but my whole team unanimously agreed after this weekend that we should come back much more often! I join many others in commending the field crew for facilitating 11 qualifying matches for everyone. The robot inspectors were pleasingly thorough, which made my kids feel more accountable for their work and glad that they followed the rules, and I even learned something new about the pneumatics layout from Pat Foley.

All weekend, my team greatly enjoyed the atmosphere in the pits and the friendliness of the "home teams." We didn't feel like outsiders or even in the minority even once. I also consider this our best performance in the 8 year history of our team. It made my weekend to see our driver as happy as he was when the judges removed the penalty in Quarterfinal 4-2 to force a 3rd match. When we went on to lose QF 4-3 by one point, I couldn't have been prouder of the smiles and gracious professionalism that my team maintained. Finally, thanks to 2161 and 270 for being great partners and easy to work with.