Quote:
Originally Posted by rsisk
Another beneficial aspect of the adult coach is the institutional knowledge that stays in the team as students come and go during their high school years.
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This is
huge. Mentors ensure the continuity--for every sub-team--in order to guide greater improvement and inspiration year after year. I know our drive team wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as if we couldn't fully build on this every season. I've worked with many good student coaches (I've been a student coach, as well as a student driver with both). But after 7 years behind the glass, there really is nothing more inspirational or educational for an
alliance than working with a powerhouse adult coach.
For myself, easily the most beneficial FIRST opportunity I've ever had is in learning how to interact with people--applied to kinds of people in all kinds of situations--from great adult coaches. I've taken those lessons to spheres of life, to other continents. As a student, nothing else comes close to this behind-the-glass lesson. It was far and away my most formative experience in FIRST, and we weren't even good enough to do it very often.
So to each to their own, for sure. But if say, 365, 341, 25 or 2729 (I'll force myself to stay local, but there are many more) are considering tossing their adult coach out of the box, I would just like to say: while the position can certainly go to a student at team prerogative, you are touching the lives of several more students every time you take the field. This is, like many other interactions in FIRST, in a way that can really only be managed by a strong mentor.