From a Newton Volunteer
 

Hi all -

Since our team had a Dean's List Finalist but did not qualify for Championship, we decided to take a number of our junior and seniors up to St. Louis as volunteers. Most of us were field reset and four of the students were even able to volunteer on Einstein. I wanted to make a few comments on the whole experience.

First - if you have been part of a FIRST team and have not yet had the volunteer experience, I highly encourage trying it out. As field reset, I got the opportunity to watch nearly every game on the Newton field as well as getting a prime seat for Einstein. While the hours were long, being able to hang out with so many amazing people both on the field as well as during volunteer lunches and such was more than amazing. One thing that it showed me, above all, was that FIRST volunteers are some pretty amazing people. This is especially true of those that play pivotal roles such as Volunteer Coordinators and the like. These people continually demonstrate why FIRST is such an amazing organization. Take some time next season and volunteer. You won't regret it.

Second - my job on field reset involved standing behind the drivers, trying to keep a barrage of balls from killing anyone. . . especially Libby Kamen as she zipped by on her stylish Segway. I have some things that I learned from this position that you may be able to take into off-season events.

#1 - Screaming at the pedestal does not make it light up.
#2 - Screaming at the referee closest to your side of the field does not make the pedestal light up.
#3 - Screaming at the ball handlers on your side of the field does not make the pedestal light up.
#4 - Screaming at the human player from the other team on your alliance does not make the pedestal light up.

Beyond that - I was both uplifted and disappointed in turn at the demonstration and lack thereof of gracious professionalism demonstrated by drive-teams. I saw a number of amazing drive-teams who dealt with both rookie and veteran teams alike in a way that was exemplary. I loved every time I got to watch the Citrus Circuits and Simbotics Drive Coach coach their alliance to a victory. They were always gracious yet energetic. They encouraged rather than discouraged even when odds looked dim.

I was also saddened by the actions of some coaches - especially adults - who felt that they had a right to yell at their drive-team and other drive-teams. I saw clear examples of bullying that left me speechless and saddened. I saw rookie teams treated horribly and watched FIRSTers throw temper tantrums. I even heard coaches cursing out other teams - adults and students alike.

To those I say these simple words: Grow up. While I may be preaching to the choir here on CD, there is never any excuse to yell at anyone while on a FIRST field. I don't care if a ref missed a call or if the Human Player misses the pedestal light for a fraction of a second. I don't care if you lose due to someone else's mistake. You do not have the right to act like a jerk.

Anyway - as a whole - I think that FIRST continues to impress. The volunteer experience brought our team to a whole new level of understanding and I believe will help us next year as we continue to live FIRST loud.

Best -
Daniel

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Thank you. I respect you for writing this and appreciate the way you did it.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Daniel that was a very well written post. I refereed this year (at Queen City) and it was the first time in a few years I had volunteered at an official FIRST event. I had forgotten how different the perspective is when you are in a volunteer role and your team is not there. I gained new insight not only on how to play this game, but on practices I would like my team to emulate.

As for the negative interactions, alas those are a pretty consistent fixture. I have found that the number of people who act like jerks is still pretty small compared to the total of participants, but that probably makes their behavior stand out all the more. I am much more willing to forgive and forget when it is kids, but adults need to know better. While we should all try to remember that individuals are not their teams, teams should always be aware that their individual members' behavior affects how others see the team. And that one or two negative interactions take a long time to get over.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Thank you for this. I unfortunately saw teams yelling in all of the fashions you mentioned, ALOT, this season. It's sad and unnecessary. Once cursing is added in, especially from adult MENTORS, I am disgusted.

I understand that you've all put so much work into your robots and seasons, but unless it's a life-threating emergency or immediate safety issue, there's never a reason to yell. This goes for students, mentors, and volunteers. Yelling won't fix the issues, but keeping a cool head and working through things will.

As the OP said, as we go into the off-season, and next year, lets try to keep the yelling and cursing out of FIRST.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I wouldn't go as far to say there is never a reason to yell at an FRC event.

There is a way to yell that still is respectful and gracious to other teams and volunteers. It's very easy to get carried away and I have done that in the past but sometimes you just need to make sure you are heard in the drivers box.

Notifying the referees of a dead ball or a unlit pedestal can be a valid time to raise your voice. Sarah Le was the head ref at Dallas this year and she is a good friend of mine. There were several times I was yelling at the top of my lungs to get her attention, once for a dead ball and once for a unlit pedestal that ended up being a field fault. I am pretty sure she thinks that both cases were appropriate times to do this.

No one should be disrespectful and everyone should enjoy themselves but saying all yelling is a bad thing is way to far. All sports involve yelling because you have to be heard over a large distance it's not always a bad thing. Yelling can also be used to emphasis a point or as motivation. It's when it becomes disrespectful and negative that we have a problem.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Coming from someone with "in a complicated relationship with the Red Pedestal at hthe Virginia Regional" I did start to ask it questions after it wouldn't light for 15 seconds...

In all seriousness, there are differences in "yelling". If there is something that needs to be addressed i nthe very loud chaos of a match, I will yell. Not out of frustration, but because there is no adequate way to communicate it. In the first match on Archimedes there was a very bad field fault causing nothing to properly illumniate and we would have sat their for the whole match if coaches from both alliances weren't waving down referees on the corner to tell them somethign was up (we were already there for 50 seconds).

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

The Youth Protection Program (going live May 1) includes a code of conduct. Bullying will not be tolerated.

http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/youth-protection-program

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

As much as I agree with your post in general, referees do need to be informed when the pedestal does not promptly light up, and saying this politely at a normal voice level probably will not get the message across. I say this having refereed myself. Of course, context is everything.

The bullying of any teams, especially rookie teams, is inexcusable. "Stress" and "competitiveness" and whatever other stupid excuses people come up with are irrelevant. I'd like to see the harshest penalties applied to teams that do this, not teams that fail to get their inspection forms signed off by all the right people.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I want to start out this response by saying that #2 isn't true. The referees are the people that determine when a cycle ends. Letting a referee know that the cycle should have ended by now is literally the only thing you can do to get a pedestal lit up when you need it. Maybe it's not the correct referee, but that referee should be able to signal to another that hey, the cycle didn't end.

I am not going to sit here and say this isn't a real problem. It definitely happens. I do wish to add though that yelling is going to happen behind the glass no matter what. The lexan shield dampens noise so much, and you need to get attention so quickly, that projecting and raising your voice is the only way to accomplish this. I would not be so quick to interpret any "yelling" as badgering, bullying, or otherwise negative. Often times it is just about trying to get the attention of your alliance as quickly as possible to communicate information as quickly as possible.

I would also like to add that coaches have the right to interact with their own drive team however they want. It's up to the team how their drive coach driver dynamic works. The only place you can judge is in how drive teams interact with each other. If a drive team has practiced and agreed upon having a coach yell during matches, it's not your place to decide that the *internal* communication of that team is inappropriate. Inter-team interaction is a different ballgame though.

You're right in that there's no excuse to be a jerk on a FIRST field. I just have to ask you to put yourself in the shoes of a team, competing to win the World Championship, whose pedestal hasn't lit up. You've worked for months and put your heart and soul into your robot and team, and now you might lose your chance at glory because of a field problem. The first thing you can think to do is to get the attention of a ref. You project loudly and attempt to communicate to the ref your problem with the pedestal. This may be loud. I don't think this action is inherently unreasonable.

That is not to say there haven't been drive teams and coaches that were unreasonable - absolutely there were. All I'm trying to say is that every instance of a coach trying to get the attention of a referee using a loud voice isn't inherently wrong and is totally understandable in the intensity of the moment.

I don't mean to minimize your message, but I just want to say that there's a fine line here that people can be on the right side of.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Allen,

I do agree with this - I generally tend to use shouting for that form of loudness - though I guess in the end its both the same terminology. I saw many teams raise their voice to get over the din of the crowd as well as to get the attention of the refs. That was fine. The problem came about when others would raise their voices in a belligerent fashion.

I will say that Drive Coaches need to be careful though. I saw a number of teams who ended up driving more sloppily because they got distracted by a Drive-Coach who shouted when they weren't used to it. It really depends on the situation at that point.

The good news is that Spectrum has a pretty awesome drive-team and I didn't notice you yelling at them too much, Allen. :cool:

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I think our first or second match the pedestal wasn't lighting up and after 5 seconds, I was yelling upwards, because I didn't want to run to either side and "yell" at a referee in case I got in the way of our Human Player. So I just yelled to the FRC gods watching us, to reduce the delay. Our Human Player thought it was hilarious.....my voice currently doesn't think so.

I agree with the general sentiment of your post. It's hard to pull yourself away from a competition, it gets your blood pumping, but as a referee in FTC/Judge/General Volunteer, getting thank yous and having teams just come up to you and chat post-match, makes you know that it was just a 2 minute change of personality.

So even if you yell at other drivers or volunteers, and you think you're "appropriate" be sure to just give them a high five or shake their hand and show them your appreciation. Being on the field for the first time ever, I got the competitiveness, I totally understand, and I got carried away at times, but just be sure to make sure everyone's friends at the end of the day.

After all, staring at a blue banner isn't fun, but working with other teams and winning a match by 10 points, the in-the-moment feeling is really where it's at. Make sure you share that excitement when you're there and you're feeling it, trust me (as a volunteer/ref and now as a coach) I get it too and love to share it with others.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

As a participant on Newton this past week I would really like to thank all of the volunteers on Newton. We had a terrific time and everyone was very helpful and friendly. It was nice to put our name on the Newton sign and I hope someone got to take it home as a momento.

I want to specially thank the FTA's who were particularly helpful and cordial in getting everyone connected to the field. You were terrific and it was nice to know when our team took the field that you would be looking out for us and for all the other competitors so we could perform on the field.

Thank you so much for spending your time helping all of us to have such a great time and compete like crazy!!! It was exciting and it was a great experience for everyone! We love you guys!!

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Unfortunately, I had to try to answer a question from the students on my drive team this year: "Why can mentors be drive coaches?" The team had very bad experiences with several mentor drive coaches from other teams - they felt disrespected, belittled, and ignored. That's something that should never come from a mentor involved with FIRST. We all want to go out there and win, but we should never be doing so at the expense of one of our alliance members.

I will say that poor interactions much less severe than encountered this weekend have caused my team to cross highly ranked teams off our pick list at past events.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

4464 would also like to thank the Newton volunteers for a fantastic experience this year - everything went very smoothly for us and all of our interactions with event staff were pleasant.

I'm saddened to hear of bullying and cursing on the part of FRC drive coaches. We all have to remember that, ultimately, FRC is not about winning the competition. It is about inspiring young people to pursue careers in difficult subjects and forging greater cultural appreciation for those subjects. That sort of behavior is actively detrimental to these goals.

Fortunately, we did not have any such encounters. All of the teams we participated with were friendly and gracious, and we hope to see them again next year.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I'm from a program of mentors who have historically supported the mentor drive coach train of thinking.

If you have a mentor that is so emotionally invested in winning a championship that they disrespect or discourage the students (their team or others), that is a personal problem, not a problem that stems from allowing mentors to be drive coaches. That same personality will do the same thing (albeit less noticeably) in the design meetings, pit area, etc.

In general, the average mentor should have more emotional maturity than the average student, and be able to be a positive voice in the drive team. A good mentor drive coach watches for aggressive behavior from other drive teams or mentors and works to diffuse them. In my short time in FIRST, and as a mentor drive coach this season, I'd say we're at a 90%+ "good mentor coach" level.

Even if it was only high school students, if I have a team of freshman driving, in an alliance with a strong willed student drive coach, who is coached by the same mentor you're trying to weed out... that senior is likely to act like an equal jerk to the mentor coaching them.

So kudos to bringing it up. The scenario needs to be taken with a grain of salt, as in every competition tensions rise and people behave less than perfectly. However, this behavior affects everyone differently, and we need to be sensitive to the fact that as important as that qualification match may seem, the way to get the rookie team to give you their auton ball isn't to be a bully. Whatever the outcome of the match, acting like a jerk to get a win will never pay off in the long run.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

As the drive coach, I try to be clear with other teams: I'm not yelling, I'm articulating with emphasis. I mix in plenty of encouragement before and after, even if we get an unexpected loss.

The worst is when the drive coach next to you is freaking out one of your drivers because the other coach is freaking out at his own drivers.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

^ This. For my really young team, this was extremely frightening. We were on the sidelines watching and our driver said "I really hope we don't have a match with that team, the coach scares me".

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

As someone with a pretty unique perspective, there is a lot I want to say on this matter, but being on mobile, it will take far too long. As many have said, I feel mentor coaches should be removed from all of the programs. Often times the mentors do bully the students, even if unintentionally. I have been a student coach (2005) and feel students should be the coaches. I have had other adult coaches yell at my students before. I was the alliance captain. I regretted choosing them after that. The past 3 years, I have also reffed. This is the first year with this much yelling and banging, mostly because of the pedestals. I would also like to point out, that many times refs didn't score a cycle because the ball may not have been fully scored, not always the case but it happened. There was also delays, and dead ball problems. Referees were asked to do more this year than ever before, and it sometimes had negative impacts, but the level of yelling was a bit much.

As I have mentioned to others, and others here on Delphi, please volunteer. Especially if you think you can do so much better of a job. I would love for many of the referee haters this year to go pick up a tablet at an off season and then rethink what they were talking about. Overall, remember that these people are all volunteers trying to make your event better, and your experience a great one!

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

As a mentor coach (and former driver), I strongly disagree. At 4464, we've decided on mentor coaching precisely to lessen the stress on the students; if a match goes poorly, it's the coach who takes the criticism, not the drivers. We do not feel that it is best to have a student in that position.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

As someone that tends to come across as rather cross when I yell to (not at!) people, it is very, very easy to have "communication" yelling misinterpreted as "angry" yelling. Which definitely isn't to say that during my brief stint as a human player during the 2012 season I didn't notice a select few coaches and drive teams that dealt with each other and our drive team in a manner that didn't seem particularly gracious or professional.

So, from an observer's perspective I think it's really easy to misinterpret yelling, especially when there are some people that are genuinely being problematic.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Good point. We had a specific instance of our freshman driver getting picked on by one of his friends because he "lost the match". Keep in mind, we're a young team and this was more out of ignorance by the student than malice. Even though, in any instance of criticism by the team due to driving or strategy issues... I would take the blame for inability to implement strategy, or the lack of practice time given to our drive team.

This year, because most of the driving was done by a single driver (the freshman), we let our senior act as a "Jr. Coach", whereas I was basically there for support a few feet behind. He was quite a bit more vocal than me, and we actually had a few instances where I needed to tone him down where he was a bit too aggressive when speaking to volunteers or other teams. Amazing kid, but a lot more emotionally invested in the win as a senior that is graduating, than me... who was more concerned with development of driver and HP as well as projecting a positive image of our team.

Once again, there is no right answer to this question. I think we all agree on what behaviors are ideal in this situation, and each team can work however they choose to achieve it. For all the other mentors out there observing this (including myself), let's not be passive. Don't just make a blacklist of teams quietly on the side, which is basically passive aggressive... be big enough to go talk to that coach afterwards. You don't have to be a jerk back, but let them know that in their passion for (winning, getting the ref's attention, keeping the rookie from doing auto, etc) you think they really hurt a student's feelings. Encourage them to apologize or to watch for it in the future.

99.9999% of FIRST'ers are good people with good intentions that make mistakes. Maybe they won't do the right thing, but at least you can sleep better at night.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Having been a coach in both a student role, and a mentor role, there are advantages and disadvantages to both. It's easy for a mentor coach to walk all over a student on their own team, or a different team. There are a few overbearing mentor coaches here in MAR, and I've had to deal with a few of them as a coach (sorry, don't mean to insult you guys in any way).

One thing I've noticed is that a good mentor coach can also protect his/her drivers against other, possibly overbearing coaches. This is not an idea situation, and really should never happen, but often is the case.

Guys, this is a friendly competition. Not little league. When winning matches trumps everything, we start going away from what FIRST stands for.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Somehow this thread became :deadhorse: quicker than the thread about mentor coaches posted yesterday.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

G136 & G137 will be introduced in 2015

G136: Technical fould for yelling or showing disrespect to Field Reset Crew.

G137: All team members are expected follow gracious professionalism, mentors and other adults from a team must exemplify gracious professionalism. If they don't set an example to students from their own team or alliance or opponent teams, they will be escorted out of the arena immediately and barred from entering FIRST competition arenas for 3 years.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

The issue of adult coaches who are inappropriate with their students or other teams is a concern for FIRST. One of the most important benefits of FIRST is the opportunity for students to interact with and learn from adults. These adults must always be conscious of their behavior and realize that they are role models and being watched at all times. If adults are putting winning ahead of gracious professionalism, they have missed a big piece of the importance of FIRST. It does not matter if it is their own team or another team, inappropriate language and ungracious behavior is not something that should be accepted.

FIRST Team 525 had a great experience at the Championships and really enjoyed working with lots of great teams on Newton. At the same time, we experienced some of the inappropriate actions first hand. Our drive team took turns wearing a go-pro for matches so others could get a view of what they were experiencing. Unfortunately, we will have to edit out sound from one of the matches due to the inappropriate language of an adult coach. I fully intended to discuss this issue with the coach involved but regretfully did not find a good time and place to do that. We all need to help hold each other accountable for our behavior in order to maintain the high standards we all expect as part of FIRST. Thanks to the OP for bringing this issue up.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I am a mentor coach and have been for 10+ years now. I think every team should decide what is best for them. There is no perfect solution.

I will mention something though... from a recent event.
Next to me was a very vocal coach... yelling and being very animated.
On the other side of our drive station was a young team...with no adult mentor.

After a very animated and loud and physical match in which my fellow mentor coach was all over the place and actually had been yelling at the young team I went over to them after the match and put my arm around the driver and told him that he had done a terrific job and to remember that the other coach had not meant anything personal from his actions. I shook all of their hands and congratulated them on great field play and told them I hoped they did well in their remaining matches. They left with smiles.

To be fair, the other coach had warned us that he yelled and I actually personally liked the enhanced vitality of the match. I would never choose to yell at anyone. I would raise my voice only when a matter of safety was involved. I honestly don't think he was bullying but it could have been interpreted as that by someone who did not know his motives.

I have seen student coaches yell too and be animated and use language which I would deem inappropriate.

Mentors and students who act in the coach position are all role models for their team and for other teams. We cannot forget this... none of us.

Sorry about pummeling the deceased quadraped...

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I will preface my response by saying that the volunteer staff on newton was one of the best that I have ever interacted with at an FRC event. The FTA was simply Amazing at his job, and understanding in ways that I don't know if I have the words to explain. The field reset volunteers I interacted with (usually those on the field) were all amazing and seemed to say the right thing at just the right time before or after a tough match, which I am extremely grateful for, and from what I can remember, other than one incident, I didn't see any issues with the pedestals, or the balls being cycled into play. The queuing staff, especially the lead on the blue side was simply amazing, and had the patience of saints.

With that being said, I believe that we were guilty of yelling at the pedestal, in the direction of the referees, in at least one instance, specially in our second (?) semi final match, where 971 cleared a missed auto ball through the low goal, but the ball just sat at the goals exit without being removed.... No one seemed to notice it, and our pedestal did not light, at which point we did everything in our power to get someone's attention. Thankfully the FTA walked into the driver's station and said very calmly "stop, just stop. Take as much time as you need to reset your robots, this is a field fault." I have never seen someone so calmly diffuse a situation like that in my 9 years of FRC, and am still in awe. In this case, making those on the field aware of the issue may have saved us a semi-final exit, or a least a full replay.

With that being said, if we were one of the offending teams (I know we were in the incident above) then I sincerely apologize. Our intent is not to belittle anyone's efforts through yelling or talking at a high volume, but in the heat of the moment, when a missed ball could be the difference between ending a season and not, mistakes are made.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Wonderfully put Daniel...here is my response.

#1 - True, but its pretty funny if you think about it.
#2 - Mostly True? I would say the majority, but not all of the time, if your pedestal isn't lighting up right away, your refs are probably either aware, working on it, or some silly-head left an extra ball on the field and it wasn't lighting up for a reason. There were many factors at play.
#3 - Definitely true, and they don't deserve to be yelled at....period.
#4 - True again...though maybe it'll help pass the word that everyone already knows?

Listen guys, its pretty simple...there are about 20 people watching the game at one time per match...seven of them are referees. Its not hard to figure out when the pedestal is or isn't lighting up, because the human players are so darned quick to get out there and reload the robot. I can't tell you the number of times I heard a fellow volunteer yell out "PEDESTAL" before a peep even came out of a drive crew. There are tons of factors as to why a pedestal wouldn't light up, and none of them really warrant yelling at anything but the pedestal itself. The dead ball thing you may have a point with (at first), but by the end, the refs had that down too.

As for the coaches yelling thing...things get loud behind the glass, yes. Every time I have coached, I have warned my drive crew that I do get louder and repeat things, but thats where it ends. What Daniel is talking about is way more malicious than that. I have seen coaches absolutely screaming their heads off at students of their own teams, other teams, volunteers, and FIRST staff. I have seen kids walk off the field crying or just wheeling that anger to other people. In my eyes, there is no place for it in this game. We all want to win...I get it, but this is not some professional football game...its a high school robotics competition, meant to inspire students, not make them cry. Get with the picture.

I'd rather have my students walk away with a joy of playing hard, having a fun time, and feeling inspired...even if some calls didn't go our way, than win a blue banner on Einstein. Of course, thats just me, and maybe thats why I've never coached on Einstein. Then again, I've seen a ton of amazing coaches who do it right on Einstein as well...

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I know there was one match at one of our regionals where I said "XXX Pedestal" (I don't remember which color it was) loudly, and had the ref standing about 10 feet from me hit a button on the tablet, glance over his shoulder, and say "thanks!" as the pedestal lit up :) I don't think the alliance had started yelling yet.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

While I agree with just about everything that's been posted above, I want to point out that the yelling issue isn't restricted to adult mentor coaches. I've seen student coaches yelling at other students and even at adult mentor coaches, which is equally disrespectful. The problem isn't one of mentors coaching vs. students coaching. I think it's a matter of having the right personality type in that position, someone who's not just a good strategist, but can handle the stress that necessarily comes from being behind the glass in a manner that doesn't manifest itself negatively.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I did say most of the time. Nobody's perfect :)

Heck, I was also one of those refs who botched it up once at a district....and it resulted in a replay.

I'm just putting in my two cents because I was next to the field every week this season...I've picked up on a few things.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I saw that match, and watching the FTA come behind both stations and give you guys the time to reset was awesome. And a great example of how making the field personnel aware of the issue can save the event some trouble.

I tend to agree with the 'sometimes you need to be heard' thing. I am a female drive coach with a soft(ish) indoor voice. If you've ever talked me at a FIRST event, chances are I'm at least pushing my voice a little just to be heard over the music. My voice does not carry well in loud arenas, even from the human player box to the ref right next door.

When our team was having pedestal or comms issues at our events, I had to raise my voice to get the attention of the ref/FTA. Was I raising my voice at the field staff? Certainly not. I was making myself heard. Could it have been interpreted that I was upset at the person? Sure, because I was raising my volume. It certainly wasn't intended that way, and much like others in this thread, I apologize if I've ever come off that way.

There is never a reason to scream & shout in anger at volunteers or staff or other teams, but there are certainly reasons to increase the volume of your voice at events.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

As an adult drive coach on Newton, I do have to agree with others that you have to be careful calling someone raising their voice as someone who is aggressively yelling. I know that in nearly every match I have to raise my voice to communicate with others and even sometimes my own drive team though they are 8 inches from me.

I will of course agree that 'bullying' and especially cursing is not to be tolerated. Ever. We were in matches with one drive team in particular that didn't stop yelling from the start of the match to the end of the match. Several instances of "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!?" at the top of his lungs. It was obnoxious and the team was instantly put into a category of teams that we would not pick for our alliance if given the chance.

With a couple exceptions, I have to say the Volunteer crew on Newton was awesome, especially the FTA. He was running around like crazy tracking down balls and was instantly at your driver station if your robot had an issue. Does anyone know his name or could tell me how to get in contact with him?

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Sounds like your talking about Rob Jenkins (aka Suoerman as he's known in Michigan). He was flying around like that at MSC too. One instance 4967 tore off the side panel door on the field and Rob reached into the field and snatched it away from the robot. Rob and hos wife Marijie (aka Wonder Woman) are two of the reasons why FiM is such a success.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I was a volunteer on Galileo, and I want to say the our FTA Liz was also amazing, fixing every issue and tracking down balls as well. It was my first time volunteering, and I met so many incredible people. Liz is on the top of that list.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Definitely one of the best FTA's I have ever seen. He is very calm during problems and was able to tell us exactly what we needed to be able to fix a problem with our robot.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Ed, I think you're right, since I witnessed him do the exact same thing during one of our qualification matches - gate cover slid down and out of place at some point during the match, and next thing you know, he runs around the field, reaches in, and puts the cover back into place. I mentioned it to him later on, and his response was something along the lines of "All of you work way too hard to have something like that ruin a match, if I can fix it, I will."

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Daniel,

Thank you for the kind words. Coaching at FIRST events is a very refining experience if you let it be. It takes a lot of energy, passion, humility and self control to coach at a high level, especially with Aerial Assist. I am no where near the level of coaching quality where I would like to be, and I continue to make mistakes and have to apologize for my actions. I am continually grateful that my students have me as their Drive Coach.

Also, I will second that Rob Jenkins is the MAN! That guy was amazing to work with, and definitely has a "Teams First" mentality. Makes me want to play in Michigan ;)

Daniel, I saw you working the Field Crew and recognized you from CD, but never introduced myself. I'll have to find you next year!

-Mike

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I wish every FTA were this fantastic. That's truly above and beyond the line of duty. It's no wonder FiM is so fantastic with volunteers like that around.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I joked with Rob afterwards that he would have dived onto the field and wrestled with the robot to get that gate from it. I think it's safe to say Rob is the toughest FTA in FIRST.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I say this as someone who's reacted immaturely to what's happened on the field, though I haven't directed it at volunteers (I used to have to pull myself aside with my mom to cool down, and am much better at controlling my temper now).

Disclaimers aside, I think we - students and mentors - need to remember why we're here. Does it suck when a ball isn't on the field for twenty seconds after a cycle ends and none of the referees notice, like what happened to my team in a match we lost by three points? Definitely. But taking it out on the people who are there to help and inspire people sucks a whole lot more.

Perspective. It helps. We make matches out to be more high-stakes than they actually are. Participation in FIRST is what nailed me my near-full-ride, not the fact that my team went to Championships once or had a X-Y-Z record. Winning and losing are parts of the competition, but winning is not the reason we compete.

That being said, I understand how raised emotions and voices in the heat of the moment can lead to disrespect and miscommunication. The most important part is how we work to prevent it, and how we resolve problems as they arise.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Though I didn't volunteer at STL, I did volunteer at a bunch of events in New England. Yes there were animated coaches running around with their heads cut off, but in the heat of battle, adrenalin will overtake even the meekest person. I"m OK with that. What I am not OK with is students yelling at each other after the match doing the blame game, or hearing swearing during the matches or adult coaches still yelling at their drivers. I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS! I will approach them & let them know they can't argue/swear & if it happens again the Ref will be notified.
We aren't here to make the event horrible for others & we all must remember that. I only spoke to 2 male students in Boston who were yelling at each other in front of the female member. Here's what I say to all of them "We are here to have fun, make new friends, learn something new and smile". Next time I saw that team the 2 students came up to me & shook my hand & thanked me. We all laughed and enjoyed the next match. For those who have been to these events & seen me, you know how I am; Mr. Happy, smiling & dancing all the time. I hope it rubs off a lot!

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I noticed the exact same thing from the stands!

The Newton FTA was phenomenal!

Please, whoever this was, send our compliments!!!

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I was wondering what happened to that. Staff changes and no communications since September or so made me think it was gone.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I believe a few emails have been sent out from the desk of our FIRST president, on top of there being multiple seminars at championships this year and the man in the (theoretical) big chair himself, Don Bossi.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I'm just a FIRST fan/sponsor this year since my kids that were in FRC have moved on and my mentor husband has had to take a break from FIRST due to work requirements.

I was at a regional event this year and saw a mentor coach who appeared very mad, and was yelling/shouting and actually banging on the driver's station "glass" during a match. I was shocked and saddened.

I have attended 12 official FIRST events in the last few years and probably 6 off season events, and have NEVER seen anything like it. The team we were a part of was pretty set on student coaches; the mentors didn't want to take a drive team spot away from a kid that had poured his/her heart and soul into the team. That decision served this team well, but I realize each team is free to choose what works for them.

I do not know the circumstances behind this mentor/coach's actions, but unless he was fearful for someone's safety, (which didn't appear to be the case,) shouting and banging on the driver's station glass should get you removed from the event, and maybe even from FIRST all together.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

For what it's worth, banging on the glass was actually a suggested method of getting the referees' attention during matches in few specific instances. I did not see exaclty what happened in your experience but it might have been for that.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Again if it was a dead ball or a unlit pedestal it seems pretty reasonable. Again no reason to curse or be disrespectful but unless I have some other way of telling the head ref that we need a new cycle banging on the glass and shouting was the only real option this year. Refs have even said to do that at driver's meetings during the season. I'm not defending this action because I don't know the details but again things may seem a lot different from the stands then they do on the field. The volunteers are doing their best but sometimes they need a little help to get a faster cycle, it's often not meant to be mean. I have a lot of friends that ref this game and it's incredibly hard, if I was a ref, I would want to teams to help me get them the most efficient matches we could, that includes banging on the polycarb and shouting if it is needed.

I'm a VEX ref and I have students and mentors yell at me to count pinning and other things, sometimes they are right and I'm thankful because the other option is I miss a call which I never want to do. Sometimes they are wrong and I politely tell them that's it's not pinning. Rarely do they ever say anything offensive.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

The FTA that I saw doing the majority of the on field monitoring on Newton posts here under the name alectronic and is one of the people who developed FRC District Ranking System which was used by the PNW District to keep interested parties up on the points teams have earned and what they earned them for.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

That's Alex: good guy! Rob Jenkins was the lead FTA of Newton and the one people saw running around like Superman. They seemed to work together great!

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

As an FTA I rarely post on the forums. We are in a difficult position where we want to avoid speaking officially as lead FRC volunteers so it is generally easier to remain quietly in the background.

That being said, one of my closest friends told me I needed to read this thread last night and once I did I had to say something. The outpouring of thanks, appreciation and respect was really amazing. During the event I had multiple people thanking me for my efforts. I just want to say that this wouldn't be possible without all of the incredible volunteers I was lucky enough to work with on this field. Also, the group of teams that made up Newton was fantastic - everyone played hard and really showed a lot of class and grace under pressure. The amount of effort and hard work that it takes to make it to the World Championship deserves at least an equal effort on our end. I hope that I was able to provide that this weekend - the volunteers and teams that I had the honor of working with on Newton (and all season for that matter) were inspiring to say the least.

Congratulations and a huge thank you to everyone that helped to make Newton 2014 a success. I hope to see everyone back in St Louis again next year!

Sincerely and gratefully your FTA,
Rob Jenkins

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

You rocked it, Rob! You were a definite inspiration for me to maintain my energy level throughout the event.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

It's either really dusty in here or someone's cutting onions. I LOVE MY VOLUNTEERS!

-Tom

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Seconded. I thought Liz did an amazing job! The best FTA I have ever seen on a field. In general I thought that Galileo ran very very smoothly and I had good interactions with everyone.

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

Liz is fantastic! She's done FLR for years recently and this year was a huge help at the inaugural Tech Valley Regional and now can been seen at an event just about every week.

She is definitely one of the best!

Re: From a Newton Volunteer
 

I have join the others here in commending Liz for her efforts. In addition to being our FTA on Galileo, she was also our FTA for MAR Champs and at the Greater DC regional. She did a great job of making sure field issues were taken care of, pedestals were lit after cycles, and that balls flying out of the field were given right back to human players. An amazing job all around, all season.