[jwallace15]

We haven't started our drive team tryouts yet this year (there has been an emphasis on driver practice this year with our actual robot, so we've been frantically scurrying to design and finish our robot. We had to miss some meeting days for bad weather so we're already behind), but I can talk about how my driver tryout experience went for last year.

First off, our driver tryouts are private. No students except the one trying out are allowed in the room (our woodshop). Our team leader and lead programming mentor were the proctors of my tryout. I started out by getting 2 minutes of free practice to get accustomed to the controls. Then I was told to drive our robot (a rolling chassis with similar speed characteristics that the actual robot would have) back to the driver station and to disable it. 2 chairs were placed in the middle of the room, and I had to drive a figure eight between them (forwards and backwards). I had 2 attempts at each direction, and the fastest time was the one scored.

Next, our 2012 robot was brought in, and I was handed our manipulator controller. Our team leader took control of the chassis driving, and I had to suck up balls and tell my team leader where to line up to take shots into our basketball hoop (without the aid of a camera. After all, what if it gets broken in a match?).

I then went back to the chassis joysticks and guided the robot to pick up and shoot some more basketballs.

On a different date, a 20 question rules test was administered. This tested our knowledge of the match rules, as well as some frame perimeter and height rules (like the height restriction in different areas of the field).

There was also a separate test for human players; frisbee throwing accuracy.

After all drivers showed their skills at the controls and took the rules test, the backup and main drivers were chosen by our team leader and a couple other team advisors. The results from the tests are considered, as well as character and grades (we are required to submit grade checks for all of our classes; the benchmark is a 75% or above in all classes. If a student receives a grade below that, they are required to attend a disciplinary hearing and are placed on academic probation. The severity of the punishment depends on the grade).

(on a quick side note, we don't have student drive coaches. It has typically been our team leader, but this year we are introducing a new drive coach; a mentor who served as our driver in 2011. He's also a mentor to our scouting and strategy team)