
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Among 10 athletes, there are 2 veteran athletes and 8 new athletes. Now, 3 people are to be selected to participate in a team competition, with the requirement that at most 1 veteran athlete can be selected, and the number of ways to select the team without including athlete A is $\boxed{77}$.

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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