Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Assuming the majority of FRC teams are associated with a single high school, it appears that most such teams do not name their team the same as the high school's traditional athletic teams (Or else the athletic team names have gotten pretty quirky and bizarre!)

I'm interested in people's thoughts about whether matching the H.S. athletic team name (i.e. Panthers, Chargers, or whatever) is a good thing, bad thing, or not that important either way-- and why.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

I always thought it was cooler to not go with the school mascot/name, though I don't have much say as my team is district wide so we don't have a set mascot. The basketball or volleyball teams kind of have to be the panthers or cougars or chargers but it's cool to have your own identity as a team, though I can see why someone might want to go the route of the same mascot or name.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

I'm not a fan of the names being the same. When the name is different it forces the team to be creative and establish their own identity.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our school is Cinco Ranch High School, so the capitalized "CR" in CRyptonite stands for Cinco Ranch.

Our colors, theme, and mascot are completely unrelated to the school however.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

My school's mascot is a Wildcat and our FRC team is the "Omnicats." Also, all our VEX teams (5 currently) have cat related names that change from year to year. I think it's nice to be tied to the school in some way, and I would be fine if our FRC team was also the "Wildcats," it helps get school spirit up.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

My high school team was the Technokats formerly the Sciencekats. That name was related to our high school mascot the wildkat. Our colors were blue and red just like the the high school. I enjoyed being the same style as our high school because it made it feel more like we were another sports team.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Im a mentor of a rookie team from Bishop Ryan CSS whose athletic team name is the Celtics. We have *finally* come up with a team name, CeltX (like spaceX) which is a variant of the HS athletic team name. Our colors will be green and white like the athletic teams are. Name picking was not an easy process however, as some students wanted the team to have a name associated with the school and some did not (we had a name list of approx 40 names and finally were able to narrow it down!). In the end the majority of students/mentors/parents wanted it affiliated with the school indirectly, including myself an alumnus from a community team with no school affiliation. In my opinion a team name related to the school name OR athletic team will promote school pride within the students, which is a very important thing for them to have, as their FIRST experience and diploma will both be coming out of that school! Also it will make them feel more connected to their school, their peers, and other athletic teams. However, with a robotics team, naming it should not solely be a mentor/parent choice, it should ultimately be what the students want, within reason of course, as it is their team! :D So no the team should not be named after the school athletic teams unless that is the general consensus at picking time! :)

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our team (857: Superior Roboworks) began downstate as 221: Michigan Roboworks (and that's far enough removed that I don't know the source of that name). So, we're now named after our region but not the school (I consider us generally a one school team since we meet only there, but we have students from other schools).

The school's mascot is the gremlin (with no commonly agreed upon depiction) and the colors black and orange; the team has a yeti and the colors blue, black, grey, and white (more or less). Historically, we've not been very tied to the high school, with the stronger association being with the university. Because of this, it makes sense why our name is what it is.

As to the topic thread title: so long as your team name is distinguishable from other teams at your event (four teams named "The Panthers" would be confusing), I don't think the name much matters.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Although I wasn't around for any of it, from what I understand here is a brief history of our team (The Mech Tech Dragons):
We were originally The Mech Techs, a name adopted temporarily for our first year for a need of a name, with the intention of figuring out the final name before the next year. For on reason or another, the name got stuck and didn't get changed. The team didn't have much in the way of consistent branding branding (or even colors) during it's first few years. Eventually (not sure when) someone from the administration asked if the team would consider branding themselves more in relation to the school (green dragons); after lengthy team discussions it was decided to change our name to The Mech Tech Dragons. I'm not sure when exactly it happened, but at some point along the way we also adopted green and black as the team colors.

There are a few people on here who would probably be able to give a more detailed/accurate description than that, maybe one of them will correct me if I got something terribly wrong.

Although we share a mascot and primary color with the school, our branding is still quite different and does differentiate us from the school. Being able to have a separate branding from the school while still maintaining a link gives us the best of both worlds. We are able to both keep a link to the school and easily fit in to the school environment, while also developing an independent and strong brand identity for ourselves (and managing to avoid the rather poor/nonexistent branding of our school)

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

My prule pic is of one of my teas logos. (2471 Team Mean Machine)
Our team has students from three high schools and is only loosely afiliated with one of them. When we started though, it was closely afiliated with ththe high school, and didn't have students from anywhere else. The name is related to the school theme, and we have the same colors as the school, but it has nothing to do with the sports teams' name.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

My team, 3184 Blaze robotics has had an identity crisis in its past, for the first year we were the "pyrotechnics" the next year we switched completly to the "Roborunners" (I have no Idea why I wasn't on the team yet.) Then, for our third switch we actually made a plan and decided on Blaze robotics to match our High School, we still made our own identity, by having a different mascot and team colors(we are orange, our high school is black and gold). We figured that it is hard enough to be accepted by the school, ask for money, get kids to join the team as it is. Just having the name gave us something our local community knows and recognizes this has only helped our team brand and recognition. We walk in local parades and people don't have to ask who we are, we skip that and move into the important stuff, what we do.
To the people who think associating with a high school is unoriginal, we have enough things to be creative about in trying to build a robot in six weeks. This is one less thing to fight upstream. And don't think of it as us and them, athletics and robotics, with that attitude you could lose out on some valuable team members. About half of Blaze is made up of varsity athletes from our high school, who found robotics because it was easy to identify with and would not alienate them.

*one thing to note however, Blaze is not a very common name, if your high school is a little more generic spice it up a little if nothing else to make sure no other teams have the same name. We compete with 3 teams named simply "Tigers" at 10K lakes in MN.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

I've actually got two stories...

My H.S. team is actually the one and only team the school directly fields (non-traditional school), unless you count FLL teams on occasion. We used a variation of the school colors (which are blue/white--team uses yellow instead of white), but the name was picked way long time ago, and trying to change it now would cause mass confusion. Actually, the colors took a while to lock in.


The team I currently mentor has students from multiple high schools, uses a name that references all of them AND the district, and uses colors that aren't really used by any high school in the district (one school is close, but maroon != red).


My opinion... the team should decide whether to have their name be close to or far from their school's name, or some combination of names for multi-school teams. Ditto for colors. Any WildStang members want to comment? I seem to recall hearing that they had an interesting choice.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

While there are certainly some great names out there that certainly aren't the school team name, at 3946 it was generally agreed that one of our goals was to change the culture of the school from the inside, and another was for robotics to be recognized as a school team, not just a club. Many of our teams and organizations are called "Tiger <something>" (e.g. our Navy ROTC's PT uniform reads "TIGER NAVY"), so "Tiger Robotics" was the perfect name. Our team shirts are a shade of green which is about halfway between the football and baseball team uniforms, as well.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

I think that the two should be the same. It has worked well for our Becker Bulldogs...

Err wait. We are not the Becker Bulldogs? What the heck does CIS stand for and who picked this ridiculous name that has no tie to our school or robotics team? Does ANYONE know what is going on with this team? Seriously - who chose this name? Mandatory large group meeting tomorrow.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

I always thought your team name meant that you didn't have any mentors. I was actually a little surprised when I realized you did in fact have mentors. :o

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Funny, my middle school was the "Beck Bulldogs."

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Wasn't me... I actually remember voting against it and for a much worse name. It turned out to be pretty fun to chant though!

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

1732 wanted to find a name that wasn't our school mascot, but we couldn't come up with/agree with one (we wanted to be named the "Jumping Jesuits" but it was nixed by the school), so we stuck with our school mascot of the Hilltoppers. I do not think we would have made that decision if "Hilltoppers" wasn't unique.

In the FIRST community, having a unique or memorable name can be extremely beneficial. But in your school community, having the same name has a lot of benefits (especially if there is a lot of school spirit or successful sports teams).

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

4464 is not associated with a school, so N/A.

449 does not use the school's official team name (which is "blazers"), but does use the school colors. We have occasionally borrowed the school mascot costume for competitions, though.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

955 uses CV Robotics, which is identical to CV football/basketball/baseball.
CVHS=Crescent Valley High School, which is shortened district wide to CV

The mascot is a Raider, and we use a modified raider logo for branding.

We used to name our robot Raiderbot (year since we started), but we are tossing that this year and going with a different naming scheme.

Our colors are identical to the school as well.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

We combined our school mascot, the "Trojan" with "Robotics" and got "Trobotics".

And while we proudly stuck with the name, my advice would be that every possible combination of "....botics" and "Robo....." has been done to death.

However it is only people in FRC that know that... in your community linking the school mascot to something robotical will help people make connections with both the school and what you are doing.

But what I would suggest is that whatever name, colours and logos you choose... STICK WITH THEM. Your team will develop a reputation based on the character of the students, the quality of your robot, your presence in the pits and stands and your presentations to the judging panels.

Many judges and volunteers come back year after year... we get to know teams, probably better than you might expect, and that is almost always a positive. If you are going to change your image than make sure you have a good reason, follow a logical process, document the process and explain it to the judges.

Finally, whatever your team name is... find something that makes you unique. Our first ever FRC award was for our innovative use of plywood... so we built on that angle using plywood as key structural components of our robot every year. We won at least two more awards that cited our use of plywood, and when I retired from the team and joined the judging panel, I discovered that not just other teams... but many judges... would make a point of coming by our pit area to see what we had done with plywood this year.

As a Canadian team competing primarily in the states, we made hockey sticks a key component of our design. When I introduced myself to the other judges, they didn't all know who Trobotics was, or who 1346 was... but they sure knew who the team in the red shirts and black pants with plywood and hockey sticks on their robot was. (It was the Canadians, eh?)

Choose whatever name you want... but don't count on your name to make you stand out. It is the overall package that will establish your reputation.

Jason

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our team is not associated with a single school. And the name is nothing like our schools. Monsters != Vikings, Warriors, or Knights

I know 548 (Robostangs) are associated with their mascot/school (Mustangs)

Waterford Mott Destroyers (WMD) is associated with their school

I can think of more that are not associated

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

We're the Aztecs but our team added an H to the end to get Aztechs...

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

When our team started we opted more to tie in with our town/community of Windham, New Hampshire which is how we came to be The Windham Windup. We knew we didn't want to directly use the school's jaguar mascot in our name because of how many teams throw "robo" or some other tech word before their mascot. It wouldn't be unique to us which is why we tied in elsewhere for the name but included the jaguar in our logo.

We also didn't use the school's colors of navy & gold but opted for close relatives in the color wheel of black & yellow. No one particularly liked the school's colors and we knew we wanted to wear polo shirts for a more professional look however the shop that did our shirts also serviced the school so we would have had the same shirts all the athletic coaches wore which wouldn't have gone over well. :)

I personally think schools care more about colors and care less about the name. It has been mentioned to us but our colors are so close its not a big issue.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

1444 was originally associated with a high school whose mascot was the Lancer. So we decided upon the "Lightning Lancers" for our team name and used the same colors (black and gold). We have since left the school, but retained the name and colors. There has been some discussion of changing both, but there is a decent amount of "brand recognition" associated with our name/colors, so it doesn't really make sense to change.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our team, 1108, is called "Panther Robotics", our school mascot, but because "Panther" is probably the first or second most common team mascot, there are at least eight teams that are variations of panthers and robots. One is across town in our own metro area.

I've heard kids in the past be very disappointed with our name. Something more creative but still with ties to the school would be my recommendation.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Team 230 has often been asked where we got our name, a.k.a. "What the heck is a gaelhawk?" The Gaelhawks name comes from a combination of the high school mascot, the Gael, and a well-known product from our originating and continuing primary sponsor Sikorsky Aircraft, the Black Hawk helicopter.

Gael + Hawk = GaelHawks!

I think the sponsor tie-in is a good one that is maybe not seen as often. We also use the school colors of orange and black. The combination of those colors and "Gael" as part of our name definitely help make us part of the school's team community. Of course, our tshirt cannon at the pep rallies helps too. :D

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Agree with your full post. I'm pretty sure we are the only AngelBots around, though. We chose to adapt our team name to our school mascot in 2009 so that we could help our students feel like they were part of the larger community, and help our school support our team. We have continued to "theme" each year differently, though, because we have so many artistic and theatrical students. We may eventually settle into our school colors and team uniforms when I get tired of the annual process.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

West Windsor-Plainsboro School District has two high schools, North and South.

Team 1923 was originally based out of North (The Knights). At the time, we were Royal Knights Robotics. Blue and grey, the exact same knight logo as the athletic department ...we matched the school pretty well.

Fast forward a few years and we end up offering membership to students from South (The Pirates). We were told by the District we were not allowed to use either school's colors, logos, or other branding - one, because that would 'show favoritism' and they wanted it to look like a unified team, and two, we had just moved to build outside of district property, and weren't really affiliated with the schools anymore... so we changed up the look.

The MidKnight Inventors are black and silver, with their own logo - we keep the K in there as nod to our roots - and their own branding package for fonts, alternative colors, etc. that keeps it neutral between the two schools. As a result, students from both high schools are proud to wear their team gear around town.

With such a large team now (and MidKnight Minions, Mini's etc. through younger programs) the logo's become recognizable in our area. I was in line at a coffee shop in my team hoodie, and a woman said "Oh, my friend's son is on that team! What part of the robot do you work on?" Wow. That's the dream right there, isn't it? (Not the part where she thought I was a high schooler, but you get my drift.)

TL;DR: Branding with the school is great if you're the only school involved, but having your own identity can really help.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Personally, I like having a distinct theme apart from the other organizations at our school. Cinco Ranch is pretty big, fielding a little under 4000 students, so there are a ridiculous amount of student clubs and organizations. Our colors are maroon and white with the cougar for mascot, so it seems like band, orchestra, choir, academic decathlon, all the athletics - they all have maroon and white shirts.

So when you see a black/neon green shirt in the crowd, it's almost instantly recognizable :)

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

That's if you missed the neon green hair...

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

John,
WildStang is a combination of the original two schools that began our long history. The Wheeling Wildcats and the Rolling Meadows MuStangs. We now accept students from any district 214 school and home schoolers in our district. Long live the tie dye!

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

I'm from the Windham Windup from Windham NH, despite the school's athletic name being the Windham Jaguars. The boosters club does not financially support us, so we felt no pressure in having the same name. We have a different logo too, but it keeps the Jaguar in it, helping with team and town identity. We keep the high school logo on the robot on the sponsors panel because we are associated with them, and they do help us fund our trips.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our team name uses a sponsor tie-in too. Because we aren't associated with a single high school, our name is derived from the mascot used by our primary supporter, the University of Virginia. We also use their colors, blue and orange.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our school athletic team name is Bears. There are teams already using that name in FRC (hi 247!) and our students didn't like the variant that was suggested: RoBears. I can't fault them for that.

They chose to be called Average Joes before I even showed up for a meeting. I liked it then and I like it now. :]

Especially when the results are above average!

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

We are RUNNYMEDE ROBOTICS.

The school is Runnymede Collegiate.

We're creative. ;)

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

We're Shaker Robotics, from Shaker High School. Our mascot is the blue bison, which is the same as Shaker High's athletic mascot. I guess our logo is cooler though.

We tried to think of anything better and less boring our first two seasons. We couldn't. We were almost "Terminal Velocity" once...

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our high school mascot is the Marauders, so we stuck something technical in front that wasn't robo- or -otics and turned into the Mechanical Marauders. Though we share a name, we developed a gearlike marauder head (the "gearhead") and use black and yellow as our colors, not the maroon and white that is in my profile pic. It helps us tie into the school and the community, and also lets us make a lasting impression and retain our own identity.

Side note: making your shirts black means that any pit grease/grime/dirt doesn't show up as easily at competition, and helps to maintain a clean uniform look, though tie dye and other colors certainly do pop.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Though, your team is at least named after your town.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Before using a high school team name for your frc name, do a quick search on blue alliance and make sure there aren't other teams with that same name.

Our school mascot was a tiger so we just keep the tiger and redesigned it for robotics and got the name TechTigers. But, we have different colors than the school because if we were a school event, we wanted people to know that we are robotics.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

;) Gonna go the whole thread without mentioning 624's original team name?

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

My team's name is a homage top both the high schools mascot the Joseph C. Wilson High School Wildcats and the sponsor Xerox. Thus we are the X-Cats.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our high school mascot is a tiger. From 2001 to 2006 we did not have a consistent name and changed our look every year. We had a tiger image on our shirts one year - I think it was 2002. In 2007 we became the Swartdogs. It was a name our students had wanted to use prior to that honoring our lead mentor Kenton Swartley who founded the team as Team 332 in 1999. Kenton said he would agree to the name if it were an acronym. Immediately one of our students said Students Working Around Robotics Technology. We've been the Swartdogs from then on. We are very proud of his 16 years of dedication and how this has all led to many FIRST teams in this area.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

My high school's mascot is the Knight, so we decided to take on a Monty Python twist. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there is a scene where a French Knight yells "You silly English Kuhnigits," which gives us our name, the Kuhnigits. Every year our robot is based off a character in the movie: Cave Beast in 2014, Killer Rabbit in 2013, Black Knight in 2012, and more.

Also, I haven't seen 1986 post, so I will add in their name. Their school mascot is the Titans, which they changed into Titanium. Their FTC team is then Aluminum.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our name was inspired by the athletic teams.

There are two high schools in our town, simply called Newton North and Newton South. Newton North calls its teams Tigers, and South calls its teams Lions.

The robotics team may be the only team/club/activity that spans both high schools. So when the club was formed six years ago, Ligerbots seemed obvious.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

I think Shaker is an awesome name for several reasons. The Shakers made world famous designs of outstanding quality, simplicity and durability in their buildings and furniture that are a high mark even today. That is a tradition that any robot builder should be proud to shoulder. And, even if folks aren't aware of the history of the name, "shaker" can instill awe. As in, shaking the ground, or, making one's opponents shake. So wear it proud, 2791!

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Ok ok, you got me. Time for a story, though this is before my time so everything may not be perfect.

So a long time ago, we were originally the C.R.E.W. The Cinco Ranch Engineering Wizards. Oh boy. That didn't stick around too long, so after a trip to championships one year I think someone decided it was time for a change. I believe we were inspired by Team 180, SPAM, and their superman theme. We thought that would be cool, so we ended up with a superman theme as well, except based around his weakness, Kryptonite, in which we substitued the K with a CR, for Cinco Ranch, to make CRyptonite. Now we go around with this punk superhero style with the spiked hair and radioactive green on everything, from our clothing to our hair to the lights on our robot. That's all I know of our imagery history sadly : /

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Since our school is a half day career center that students from many schools attend, the school itself doesn't have a mascot...

However, after redoing the display/trophy case in the front of the school (and sticking our logo prominently in the middle), we have started discussions in regards to making our team name the school mascot.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

That's a really cool way to think about it. I like the name a lot better now! Hopefully we can also develop a reputation for quality, simplicity, and durability... (Need a bit of work on that last one I think!)

We always just made jokes about "building robots by candlelight / without electricity".

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

How many Spartans and Tartars and Saxons and Warriors are out there? Looking over the list of FRC teams nation/worldwide, it gives a sense of distinctively to name yourself something a little unhinged from the school.

Go TorBots!

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our team name, ShockWave, is very loosely related to our schools mascot, the Crimson Tide. Our logo is rather different visually from the Tide Guy (attached below) or the G that most of our school uses, but our color scheme is similar besides the fact that we have yellow, a brighter red, and we use a lot more black. Another logo idea that our team considered was a red-filled version of the Tide Guy, clutching a lightning bolt, and an alternative idea for our name was the Crimson Capacitors, both of which are much closer to our schools mascot.

I missed this discussion rookie year, but personally am glad that we went with something as different from our school mascot and imagery as we did- even though our school mascot is already pretty unique. It has helped to make our team highly recognizable within our school, and the vast majority of the feedback has been positive.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our team, the FireBears, has nothing to do with our school's athletics department, which is the Roseville Raiders. In hind sight, it might have been useful to be the Raiders so that we could reasonably claim to be a sports team, and get the perks of that, but the Raiders isn't a name that stands out at all. FireBears? That stands out. Also, fun fact, the name was voted on, so if FireBears hadn't won the election, we would have been the Electric Bananas.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Originally our team was run out of Case Western Reserve University, even though all of its members came from our school (HB). At that point we were called TeamHB (super creative, I know. Not sure about mascot or colors back then though...).

Fast forward to the fall of 2010 and we lose the space at CWRU, which is when we moved back into our school. However, that same year we ended up changing our name to have no relation to our school whatsoever and we've been The Fighting Unicorns ever since, with blue and pink as our colors.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

When founded in 2006, McKinley Tech HS in Washington, DC was known as the Phoenix, as McKinley Tech was shut down, remodeled, and reopened in about 2004. Evidently, the alumni complained about changing from the original name for athletic teams, the "Trainers," so the "Phoenix" was abandoned by the school. The school colors were silver and maroon through out this period.

The robotics team was already known as the "Phoenix," which, we thought, fit the robotics team, as we were always rising from the ashes of the previous season. We altered this to "Firebirds," got official, written permission from GM to use the Pontiac Firebird logo for our team materials, and changed our team colors to red and black, adding in orange, yellow, and white where necessary to add flames to our logos.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

We have 2 schools and the team names are only vaguely related to the athletic team names.
We have the Cowboys, and the Indians.
We are the Pi-o-neers. Kinda sorta in the same old west theme, but with geek cred.

That being said, the athletic department gives robotics team members a varsity letter if they meet the criteria.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

The town of Goodrich likes to tout that we are the only school in the country to use our school's mascot: The Martians. We are named after the soldiers of Mars, the Roman God of War and Agriculture. The school's choice dates back to the early history of the 1900s when Goodrich was a school in a farming community and wanted to recognize the Mars.

The team name was chosen long before I was on the team, but the reason it was chosen was because of the relationship the school has to the name. The logo with the grinning Martian head that we have used since our beginning and the green color is unique to the robotics team and were chosen and created to give the team a strong brand and a unique color that stands out among all of the teams in our competitions. The school's mascot is a helmet with the word Goodrich incorporated into the helmet and has recently became a constant fixture on the team's robots.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

I posted a few days back, but there was a new development today, almost certainly NOT prompted by this thread...
During our penultimate pre-reveal build session this evening, the mentors were seriously discussing the possibility of team JERSEYS, in addition to the t-shirts. We went so far as to suggest that each team member be given a large natural number for his/her jersey. An offline discussion I was in even suggested giving coaches and mentors fractional, irrational and/or complex numbers. I doubt that we'll actually follow through with any of this, but we really are intent on branding ourselves as a "real team" of our high school.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

We play pretty tight to the identity of our school...where by "school" we mean "the University of South Carolina".

Past teams I've been on have varied on this--where it's been one school, they stuck with the school's identity. When it was multiple schools, they did something else.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

I voted based on my high school team 498, which has had a pretty close tie to the athletic mascot most of their history. The school mascot was the Cobras and for the first few years the team was a couple random names (Mr. Roboto, Radio-Active Pajama Monkeys, R.P.M.) but we made an effort in 2004 to try to fit more closely with the school mascot. That year we were the Armor Plated Serpentines and one of our students created a robotic (or armored) Cobra logo that we used on our shirts. After too many questions of "what is a serpentine?" that year we changed the name to the Cobra Commanders in 2005 and have had that name since. We fit the main school color of columbian blue into our team colors of blue, black, and yellow.

I think that having a closely related logo and team name helped with keeping visible in our school, and probably led to a little more recognition from people who may not have known the school had a robotics team. Having our own variation of the mascot though helped to keep the original touch that many FRC teams are looking for. It also helped that Cobras is a pretty uncommon mascot in the high school athletics world.


My more recent team 167 has always been a multi-high school team so there has been a conscious effort to avoid using any of the high school's mascots or team colors, especially because the two main high schools are the only public ones in the city and are arch-rivals in athletics. The team has always had the same name dating back to its founding in 1998, since they were the only team from Iowa the lead mentor suggested "Children of the Corn" to pay homage to the state. It has stuck and no one really talks of changing the name since it has been that way for so long, though the logo and team colors are in a pretty constant state of flux. I think this is the way to go for multi-school or community teams, finding something clever about the region or team history to use for the name.

Well our schools mascot is the blue devil, our other sports teams are the blue devils. We originally named our team blue devil builders, however when we tried to register for competitions our team name was one character too long. So we named the team Trident robotics in order to keep with the schools theme.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Mission Hills Grizzlies / Iron Kodiaks

A variant

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Our School: Newport High School
Our Mascot: The Knights
Our Team Name: NRG (Newport Robotics Group)

We use different variations of Knights (usually mixed with a robot) in our shirt designs and use a castle/knight theme in our bits. Our mascot is a student is a Knight costume... "Knights" does not appear in our team name anywhere, but we certainly use the mascot extensively.... We also flaunt our school colors (red and yellow).

I believe that an association with the school colors and mascot helps us to be a better part of the school community. When we do get non-robotics students to our matches, the can quickly find/identify us and can generally recognize our robot so they know for whom to cheer - even if they barely know what's going on. It also helps with outreach and fundraising in our community.

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Re: Should FRC Team name = HS athletic team name?
 

Patriots
Patribots

It seemed like a no brainer honestly.