[MentorOfSteel]

This is an interesting thread. As a FIRST newbie, I was surprised when I learned that it was legal to have a mentor in the coach position during competition. I was even more surprised when I started going to competitions and saw the number of teams that take advantage of this rule and the level to which some mentors get involved in the execution of the actual game. I was also surprised to read about the aggressive role that Amir Abo-Shaeer takes as described in The New Cool. My first year in FIRST and FRC has been full of surprises, but frankly, this is one of the less pleasant ones. I am against having adults in the coach position. This discussion so far has been excellent and has presented compelling arguments on both sides of the issue. I do not have much new insight to add, but I will try.

The arguments for having adults on the field that I am most sympathetic to are the ones about being there to help the students handle the stress, to protect the drivers from the ire of their fellow students, to intervene when competitive impulses start to erode sportsmanship. These are noble instincts, however I think a mentor can manage these issues without actually being in the coach position. I agree that it would be easier to manage them from on the field, but "easier for the mentor" does not necessarily equate to "better for the team".

The arguments for having adults on the field that I am least sympathetic to are the ones about making the team more successful and more competitive on the field. One of my guiding principles in making mentoring decisions is this: the drive to win should never come at the expense of taking opportunities for growth away from the students on the team. Of course having an experienced adult running the show during the match will improve the odds of winning, but it also deprives a student of a unique experience to compete and make snap decisions in a high pressure situation with thousands of people watching. For me, it is an easy call to make. Maybe this means that my team will never grow into a perennial winner, time will tell, but I can live with that. There are other ways to define success.

Finally, I think that some of the responders were a bit rough on the original poster and the assertion that having adults on the field goes against the principles of FIRST. It is true that there is nothing explicitly written in the canon to support this opinion, but it is still a reasonable opinion to hold. Everyone seems to agree that FIRST is about training and inspiring the technical leaders of tomorrow, it is not much of a stretch to conclude that putting a mentor into _the_ leadership position during match play is antithetical to this higher level objective. The best way to create leaders is to give them opportunities to lead.

-George