I am a good teammate if my teammates respect me. I am a great teammate if my opponents respect me.
If my teammates respect me I have been a team player and contributed the best of my skills to the team. If my opponents respect me I have played fairly and with good sportsmanship.
This is so often true with robot competitors. The more we can do to promote that VEX robotics Is a family of competitors who are all working for the same things -learning and self-challenge, the more we will see this respect at our competitions. My proudest moments as a coach have been when I have seen my students helping other teams.
Winning when both sides have a fair shot is much more rewarding. A couple of years ago a team in the Finals at the NH/VT VRC State Championship called a timeout so their opponent could finish repairing their robot. A spectator near me commented, âI donât understand that. They could have easily won if they hadnât called the timeout.â This person was clearly not a member of the VEX community, because every one of us understood what the team was doing! And I am certain, the opponent in this case respected that team!
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@David_Kelly I love this post! It is so important to keep in mind that we first and foremost want our students to grow as human beings through participation in competitive robotics (or any other competition). I can recall a situation when I was principal where some parents were upset because they felt that the combination of students that were on a team were not going to be be competition winners, and I had to have this conversation with them about putting the learning first - turns out, they did well in competition anyhow, and Iâm sure it was for that reason!
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Oh wow, this is great! Love this. My teams first year we came 2nd last on the leader board - when the alliances came to chose partners for the finals, the top team pick my team as their alliance partner, as they said they were the best team to work with. My team remembered this and now often pick the teams that they liked to work with, no matter what their position is. Itâs not always about winning, but about being successful.
@Maree_Timms this is so true! There will be fewer official âwinnersâ than âsuccessfulâ teams at any event - and keeping in mind that âsuccessâ is not necessarily synonymous with winning is an invaluable lesson to be able to foster with students! Iâm about to go to my first VEX Worlds, and I am so curious to see how the alliance partnerships play out 
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