[FBHS_Robotics]

I will preface this by saying that I am not affiliated with any FRC team. I am an FTC guy. By their very nature the two have very different issues as it relates to UIL. I understand the discussions that have been going back and forth about mixed teams, non school teams, etc. There is a lot of discussion about the exclusion of home school kids, private school kids, etc. While it might not be "fair" that is how UIL works. In addition to robotics, I am the sponsor for our UIL Computer Science team. If a home school student comes to me and shows a love for learning programming and wants to be a part of the team, I have to tell them no. That's how it works and it won't change.

If TAPPS wanted to start a robotics competition, I doubt they would let the public schools join them. That is how it works. By choosing to be a home school student or a going to a private school, a student gives us their right to compete in events sponsored by organization focused on public schools.

Now with that said, I will transition to the FTC issue I see and I ask for feedback/discussion. In UIL every other team competition, only one team per school is allowed to compete. However, for UIL robotics, there is no limit on how many teams from one school can compete if more than one school meets the requirements. Back to my Comp. Sci. analogy. A CS team is made up of 3 students....If I have students and can make the best 2 CS teams around, I can still only send one to UIL Competitions. Why is robotics being handles differently? If the intent is to promote robotics and increase participation, how is allowing a school to send 5 or 6 teams going to do that. It won't. And before any of my colleagues play the "if you want to go get better card", let me again go to every other UIL event. Multiple teams from one school are not allowed to compete. If a school could field 2 state champion level debate teams, they can't send them. If a school sends multiple teams to invitational and/or practice meets and they win every award, they still can't send them to even a district level event. One team per school is the rule for every other team UIL event. Why should robotics be any different? UIL is using the FTC game for his state event, they should limit participation to one team per school. If a school has 7 or 8 high caliber teams, they can advance through the normal FTC process and go to Worlds. Taking teams that have already advanced to Worlds and saying those are the teams get to compete for the UIL State Championship is, imo, unfair to other UIL schools that have programs and weren't able to advance.

Ok, climbing off of my soapbox for now.