looking great for your rookie year! There sure is plently of ways to go about a pneumatic catapult. The biggest problem was finding that sweet spot for every mounting point. In the early stages of our catapult we didnt get the ball to go very far or very high. After days and days of moving the pistons and pivot points we thought we had found a good position. it was about 5 feet away from the goal and the ball just barely made it. the following day one of the team memebers asked to move the pistons a certain way. once he did i wasnt so sure it was going to work until we fired it. from about 5 feet away the ball was tossed way over the goal. at that point we found our perfect setup. we still yet to find the correct distance but we sure know it works. Hope you all do well and have a great time.
also one of our mentors was helping us build a sping piston which consisted of one 2" bore piston. the piston would be already extended 2" to allow pressure to build and then a small lock piston would retract, letting the main piston extend at an incredible rate but still have the same amount of force behind it. I might be wong but at 60psi the piston could reach a max of 33fps whic is incredible. we saddley didnt use it as it was incredibly bulky and heavy. we still kept the design as it may be useful in the future.