[EricH]

Originally Posted by eedoga

If I might make a suggestion...Have your mentors call FIRST to see if there is a local team that can mentor you guys. Rookie year is hard.

I have a couple of suggestions:

1) The proper person "at FIRST" is the Senior Mentor or Regional Director for your area. (From the link later in this post, there's a link in the paragraph above the colorful bar to get you to the RD contact info.)

2) Knowing that there currently isn't really a veteran team in the immediate vicinity, you have a couple of options:
2a) There is a veteran team in Rohnert Park (about an hour to an hour and a half north, for those that are unfamiliar with CA geography).
2b) There are a fair number of veteran teams in the San Jose area (about the same distance south if I recall correctly). Teams like 254 (one of the three defending World Champions) and 1868 are down that way.

3) You could also use http://www.usfirst.org/whatsgoingon by selecting Teams for Rebound Rumble in the FRC box and searching in California. A city search ought to give you some idea of the closest team; if their number is under 3900, then they have at least one year of experience.

4) You can always ask for help right here on Chief Delphi. You might get more than you asked for, but that should be perfectly fine with you guys, right?