Interview with DH: How the Tournament went

ME: What were the boys like when they arrived at 7:00AM?
DH: They were all very excited, enthusiastic, and loud.  They are boys.

ME: What did they think of the other team’s projects?
DH: They saw one of the better team’s robots, and I think it spurred them on to make instant upgrades to their own robot and program, which turned out to be abit of a problem.

ME: In what way a problem?
DH: Well, my job is testing things, so I knew there would be trouble with them not making  any tests, and all the programs being different.  So I was trying to make them stick to what they had so they would know it when they ran the robot.

ME: And did they have trouble?
DH: Yeah, they had some trouble especially on the second run after all the changes had been made and before any of the boys had had much practice.  So for the 3rd run I told them not more changes, just practice what you have.

ME: Tell me about the tag game outside.
DH: Well the gym they were in was very loud with the contest, music, crowds, the boys had been in there all day, and they were gettitng a litte bit hyper, and some tempers were flairing up, so uhh, after the second run, we had an hour and a half before the third run, so I took them outside were it was quiet and cool, and let them run for about 15, 20 min, to run off some of that nervous energy and calm down.  It seemed to work, they were a lot less jumpy after that.

ME: How did their 3rd robot run go?
DH: That one seemed to go very well, one of the programs that hadn’t worked before ran flawlessly, there was a lot of enthusiastic clapping

ME: Who was clapping?
DH: Oh the team and the local spectators, the parents, and especially me their coach.

ME: How did their project presentation go?
DH: They said it went OK, though I was not allowed to be there during any of the presentations.  They didn’t get called back to present again, so I guess it needs some improvement for next year.

ME: What did the other parents do that you particularly appreciated?
DH: Well, P did what he’d been doing all year: show up and really help me out hearding the boys around.  And T helped out to doing the same thing, and 3 other parents volunteered for the pit area guards.  Sh and Sh made cool tee shirts fo the entire team.

ME: Are you going to do it again?
DH: I did some figuring: between B being able to do this for the next 4 years, then M being old enough for FLL, then our new one, I may be doing this though the year 2021.

ME: is there anything else yo want to say about the experience?
DH: Yeah, Lego robots are cool, and I intend on making my own robots now that the competition is over – just so that I can better understand them for next year.  It has nothing to do with that they are fun to play with.  Honestly.

ME: Yeah, Right ;-)