Since that last thread in 2013, there has been nothing to phone home about in South Carolina. The occasional regional win here and there, but no growth (even a loss of teams as some fold, some move to FTC, and some pole-vault the Savannah River to escape the regional system), a loss of places to play nearby as neighboring states went district, the Palmetto Regional sends a disproportionate number of its banners out of state, and no team had won a Regional Chairman’s Award since 281 did it at the 2012 Palmetto Regional.
So what just rolled back into Laurens, South Carolina today?
Palmetto 3 Seed (7-2-0)
Palmetto Regional Champions (first pick)
Palmetto Woodie Flowers Finalist (Rob Sheffield, the team’s second WFFA)
Rocket City 2 Seed (9-1-0)
Rocket City Regional Champions (captain)
Rocket City Regional Chairman’s Award
An unprecedented-for-South-Carolina FOUR BLUE BANNERS – even the two teams who’ve made Einstein from South Carolina only had one coming in.
As a graduate of the summer intern program up at Bosch Rexroth with Mike Bryan and someone who got to spend a bit of time around the garage it’s great to see the team doing really well this year. Hopefully we (1102) will see you guys at Champs!
I can definitely say that I wouldn’t be the engineer I am today without some of the lessons I learned while working with Mike.
4451 is consistently excellent. Great program, great people. Whether we (3824) are playing with or against them, I always feel a sense of camaraderie. I fully expect to see them on Einstein one day. Major congrats to them on all the well deserved blue this year!
Billfred, Thanks for the kind words. We are a bit overwhelmed at this point. I’ll list several keys to this season after Houston. For now, I would like to thank our terrific alliance partners 4020, 5022, 364 and 7072. It’s been fun being part of a series of firsts for these teams as well.
Oh definitely. By the way, we prefer playing with…
Mike Bryan has spoiled me in the years that I was with 342 and 4451. He is the standard to which all mentors should strive. It’s easy to get lost in building a bot, but the one thing that is never lost on his teams is building the character of the students. I still find myself parroting things to my students that he taught me 15 years ago.
Now if only I could find a sign shop to sponsor 581 so we could have half the style that Mike puts out every year. Maybe some metallic red glitter flames …
I used to lust after 342’s glitter vinyl jobs. Nowadays, they’re shockingly accessible for FRC-scale jobs if you have the patience, a Cricut or Silhouette, and someone with Amazon Prime for the vinyl. Heck, 5402 in 2017 got the glitter vinyl going with the aid of the wonderful Liz Smith. Wasn’t much great about that robot, but bah gawd those sponsor panels were on point.
Of course, this means we’ve caught up with 342 circa 2007; as 4451 shows, there are levels to this and they (as well as sister team 6366) have been discovering new ones.
I had to look them up on TBA around the end of the day on Thursday at Rocket City last weekend. I felt like I was familiar with most of the teams going into the event, but was quickly so impressed by their team/robot/everything I saw from them, I wondered how I didn’t know of them already. Turns out 1466 and 4451 haven’t had any overlap in events since I started coaching in 2015 (except champs in different divisions). Certainly a team I’ll be watching going forward.
A big shout-out to 4451 from 4020. Just in case people weren’t convinced of your ability at Palmetto, you had to back it up with another win at Rocket City. Congratulations! And then Chairman’s too? Wow! I guess the pressure is on us now at Smoky Mountains. Maybe we’ll find a way to form an alliance with another South Carolina team and enjoy some more success. Best wishes at champs and beyond.
Looking good Billfred.