With  the coming and going of Stop Build Day (aka the Day Formerly Known as Ship Day) another long and strenuous FIRST build season has come to an end. There were many challenges facing the team this year from breaking in several new students to having to adjust to sharing workspace with  other robotics teams. In spite of the many worries and concerns of the mentors the team manged to build another beautiful and efficient machine once again as I knew they would. I had faith in the abilities of Carlos, Jack, Vin, Lil' Jeff, Mark, Pete, Mary, Carl, Dan, Ron and especially our most important mentor Jeff Huspen would see the team through the trials and tribulations of the build season. Without them the team would never have lasted this long.
While building the robot is a source of excitement and pride the team is even more excited about the potential of the new students who have eagerly taken the challenge of FIRST to heart and have expressed interest in doing off season events that can only help the team grow and this is before the regional which is usually the hook that catches their mind. If the new students mature and grow into the leaders we see in them then the X-Cats will grow even stronger as a force in the FIRST community and that is even more exciting than building a competitive robot any day.