[Mr. B.]

William,

Being the Lead Mentor for FRC 11 & 193, I can tell you that in our case in 2013 FRC 193 was not considered a Rookie Team in the eyes of MAR/FIRST. We were however able to obtain a Rookie KOP from FIRST since on the operational point, they were a "rookie" team and needed the basics to get up and running. We operate 11 & 193 as two separate teams, we help out when needed but both teams operate independent of each other. We're very fortunate that our FRC 193 team is mentored by MORT Alumni who have come back to help our program. It's allowed us to provide a very unique opportunity to our students and in just one year of having this JV team in place we have already seen the benefits for FRC 11.

Had MAR/FIRST allowed 193 to be considered a Rookie Team in 2013, we would have declined as that would have been the right thing to do. We went the route of adding 193 to our MORT family due to the shear numbers of students we have participating and too many freshman/1st year students were not getting the full FIRST experience.

Good Luck in 2014!