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Originally Posted by Jim Schaddelee
Be from Michigan this is a little hard to say but, I think we need to step up our game.The idea that Michigan teams are the best might be bit arrogant. If I am correct we had zero teams in the finals this year, and only 2 on the Einstein field. Here are my thoughts on what is going on.
I believe in the past districts helped our teams by allowing us more matches and gain more experience but, this advantage is going away.Also based on the number of teams we have I think our districts are getting watered down. I can not tell you before the season we need to go to "X" district if we want to play with the best teams. And if I could I am not sure we could get in due to having home districts. which I totally understand is done to save teams travel expenses.
My point is this ,If you what to be the best you need to play with the best.and learn from the best.Currently we play with the best at State champs, but by then its to late to make improvements. So, Here is my ideas. How about a "super district" event early in the season were the best teams based on the previous year get a invite to come and play. How you pick the teams I don't know but it needs to be based on performance. I think FIM has done a great job in building a great number of team , Now that we have them how do we get better?
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If you check with Bob from your team, I have talked to him about an event I am attempting to pull together for this summer to address this specifically. I have talked to MANY mentors across Michigan and everyone is on board.
Pretty much every team I know that went to the World Championship from Michigan made it to the elimination rounds at the World Championships. I do not feel Michigan is getting any worse, I feel Michigan is getting EVEN better.
To prove my point, you can look at the variety of teams winning the Chairmans Award. There were three brand new teams winning the Chairmans Award this year and doing awesome things on their teams. Competitively, we continue to have the best State Championship Event in the World. I have seen teams that did not travel to the World Championships that could have won a regional in another area. Especially, after the extensive scouting our team did this year. I would argue that michigan is still the powerhouse it has always been and we are leading FIRST into a new era of competitive robotics. The growth in Michigan is tremendoue due to unwaivering support from all teams to start teams, mentor teams, volunteer and just plain be awesome.
As for a Super District, I predict we will begin to continue to spread into possibly another teir of competition similar to the Sports Model with 64 team regionals in the future. This is way more feasible with the number of venues that could support this size regional. Then we would have a model similar to sports with District (32-40 teams) -> Regional (64 Team) -> States 102 Team.
So, coming from someone in Michigan who is really excited for the growth and will continue to support teams in my area to get better, I think we have a bright future and I look forward to working with other states to adopt this model that has been working tremendously.