Team 217 - Thunderchickens

[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Karthik

The Thunderchickens are one of the best run teams in all of FIRST. They arguably have one of the most intelligent student groups of any team in FIRST. (The "ringers" as we've dubbed them) Each year they astonish me with what they accomplish and have probably done more to inspire my methods of mentoring on 1114 than any other team in FIRST. So yeah.

I would like to argue that point. By no means am I going to call their students unintelligent, but I believe that how well a team doesn't necessarily have a direct correlation to the intelligence of the students. Yes a team that does have smart kids is going to do better than with students who are lacking that feat, but if a student from another team was put in a position with as many educational resources (sponsors and mentors who know their stuff) as a thunder chicken student I am 100% confident they would still do well.

For example Team 397 has never won a regional, but that doesn't mean our students aren't as smart. Our students just realize that we must build within our limitations and since there are only 5 of them this year we physically could not put together a thunder chicken machine even if we put every day all day into it. We came up with all sorts of strategies and designs that we see being used, but because of our financial and labor limitations we know we couldn't do it.

I agree the thunder chicken students are smart, but I think that there are many less privileged FIRST students who are smart, and it saddens me that they don't all get the recognition that students like those on the thunder chickens do.

I would also like to comment on one of Baby Cakes comments:
"The driver on the team when asked if he was excited at the cass tech district said " not really, i know we are going to win it"."

I sincerely hope that this is not true, because if it is I am actually disturbed and offended. There is a fine line between pride and arrogance, and I'm sure the mentors of team 217 know how to deal with such issues because that is a terrible reflection of an excellent team. I will leave it at that.