2010 New Jersey Regional

[Graham Donaldson]

So there's way way way way WAY too many people to thank for this NJ Regional (my first as a college student), so I'm just going to give some shout-outs to the really special ones in my mind:

First, not to the teams, but to the VOLUNTEERS! Especially the ones running the field - Sarah, Mike, and Pete are there year after year, and they always do a fantastic job. Week 1 Regionals are very tough to run, and when you've got an arena full of students, parents, and coaches pressuring you to get the field working and dead robots running, it's even harder. Somehow, they manage to do it every year, and I don't think we give them nearly enough credit.

Obviously, the next has to be to all the teams for showing why Jersey is such a fun and competitive regional year after year. I'd like to give an extra thanks to all the teams that made elims so fun to watch (even when we weren't playing - the matches were all awesome!), but an even bigger thanks goes out to teams 25 and 3059! Though we missed 103 this year, it did give us the chance to get picked by 25 (which we were ecstatic about) and then add 3059 to the mix. It was a great alliance and a great playoff series and we are so happy we can finally say we've won a regional.

I'm going to give a special little shout out to 3059, who as a rookie team built an awesome little bot that did everything we asked of them. Guys, the fact that you were able to pull through and score so many points for us when 25 was bogged down and double-teamed is awesome - we CAN'T thank you enough. We'll see you in Atlanta, and can only hope you enjoy it as much as we did our rookie year - there's nothing like it.

Thanks again to all the other teams that competed and I didn't get a chance to name, as well as (again) the countless volunteers who help make NJ run so smoothly.

See everyone next year!