[jwfoss]

The best advice I could possibly give you is to not go at it alone. IMHO the real key to having a very competitive rookie year is to have experienced mentors to support the team. One mentor, even a "FIRST superstar" is not enough.

This past year was my first year mentoring frc2168, myself and another former frc229er (Clarkson University Alumni), joined up to see how we could help. Yes we brought alot of experience but the hardest thing was getting everyone on the same page. Explaining the roles of different people at competition, the importance of robust design, simplicity, and strategy. The culture change we helped to create made the team much stronger. One of the first things one of the head mentors said to me was "we're kind of like a 3rd year rookie"...

I can definitly say that this was the most tiring year i've been involved in the program. Don't spread yourself too thin...

Establish the correct ideals right away; and the rest should fall into place.