[DampRobot]

We basically select two people from mechanics and one programmer to be on the drive team. The logic to this is that the programmer can try to do something if the robot is not working during the match, and the mechanics guys know how not to break it.

The people chosen to do drive team are usually the people that have put in the most time. They know the robot and the code best. We can usually tell who will be on the drive team before the robot is even built, because they are made obvious through their dedication.

I would caution you on doing some sort of try outs, especially without investing a lot of practice time in the people who are chosen to drive. For an off season competition, we chose to have someone new drive, and had tryouts to select the lucky freshman. We preformed terribly at that competition, largely because the person selected seemed to have gotten lucky at the "tryouts" and not practiced with the robot since.

I would caution you on relying solely on driver tryouts to chose drive teams. Dedication to the team and practice time on the robot is, in my mind, worth far more than minimal skill or getting lucky. Even if someone is a naturally gifted driver, they need to put in the time and effort to be really effective. That said, I would recommend choosing one drive team as soon as it is feasible to begin practicing.