[smurfgirl]

It depends what works for you, really... if you have a very student-run team, you might want to have students have the final say in driver selection. The mentors/adults can probably be more objective, though, since it's not their friends they're dealing with. The more objective you can make the selection process the better.

We redo the selection process each season, but often people end up driving for more than one season because they are the best fit for the position more than one year. I definitely think it makes sense to allow everyone interested to get a chance each season, but it would not be surprising if the most qualified person is the same for more than one year. You don't want to switch your drive team too frequently (multiple times per competition season, for example), though, because they won't have had as much time to practice driving or play in competition, and you also risk other teams losing familiarity with your drivers.

Practice is an incredibly important factor in success at the competitions. You want your drivers to have an innate feel for the robot so that they can operate it smoothly and focus executing your strategies, rather than trying to figure out how to pick up and maneuver the game piece for the first time. Successful teams may often have hundreds of hours of driver practice. The more you can practice, the better, especially if you can closely simulate competition (with other robots pestering you, full-size field, loud music, spectators, etc.). Since you're in CT, attending the Suffield Shakedown and other informal scrimmages/playdates with other teams is a great way to get some of this practice. You can also do it in your meeting place by getting a backup drive team operating a previous year's robot and playing defense with loud music in the background. Whatever you can do will help a lot.