Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Stratis
The reason, simply put, is Ryan  He is far and away the most passionate recent grad MN has had, and has done amazing things with Bison Robotics. He's the one who brought us all the volunteers. |
Great leaders definitely inspire the people around them, and it sounds like Ryan is a great example of this. I applaud Bison Robotics for what they do, traveling that far to volunteer is definitely a sign of true dedication to the program. I hope that other universities in the area follow this example as well; everyone is in agreement that more events are needed in Minnesota (regionals or districts), and more volunteers are needed to go along with those events.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wlaroche
There are two things that are never brought up in these conversations.
What about out state teams that will have to travel for both distinct events. ...
The other thing I never hear about is you have 2 practice matches on Thursday, and if you get inspected early, you can be in the backup line and play more. So realistically they are not just getting 8 plays. Yes I understand 8 in qualification plays.
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Yes, there are a small group of teams that districts do make life harder for. 5188, for example, is located about 10 minutes from the Illinois border. Prior to districts, 5188 just competed at a local regional held in Terre Haute (Crossroads), and competed at the World Championship. When districts came in, Crossroads disappeared and all of the district events were held closer to the population center of teams (Indianapolis or Lafayette). All of 5188s events are at least an hour away from Terre Haute.
I know similar issues affected teams in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, hopefully some of those active on CD (857?) can comment on their experiences before district events were added in the UP.
I have heard that one goal when attempting to plan out where district events are located is to ensure that no team is outside driving distance for both their district events. The difficulty of this is highly dependent on the geographic size of the district, which is a consideration when initially forming the district area. If the area is too large, you do lose some of forcing more rural teams to travel several times.
On the topic of practice matches, district events also have pits open for a few hours on load in day where teams can get inspected and get in the filler line for practice matches as well (given the field is ready).