[Squillo]

I am so tired of hearing the "make it like sports, everyone loves sports, everyone understands sports, we'll attract more kids with sports..." refrain.

EVERYONE does NOT like sports. EVERYONE does NOT understand or get inspired by sports. I, and most of my friends (adults and teens), and most of the kids on our team throughout the years, do NOT like/understand/get excited about sports. Especially team sports like basketball, football and hockey. (Personally, I like individual sports like swimming, gymnastics, and equestrian pursuits, but that's just me.) And we (especially the kids in high school) are constantly told (directly or indirectly, by friends, family, school faculty and staff, and the media) that there is "something wrong with you" if you don't love sports, either as a participant or a spectator. Too much sports-relatedness runs the risk of alienating the kids who might be just wanting to get away from that pressure and find SOMETHING to do that is NOT sports-related.

And, in my experience being a mentor for the past 6 years, the kids who have gotten the most out of the team, and been actually interested in math/engineering/tech and designing/building/programming/driving the robot, were not any more inclined to try or stick with the team when (or because) the game was "sports-related."

In fact, our experience has been that if you attract the kids who will only be interested because of a sports-based theme or game, they soon lose interest when they find out that they actually have to think, do engineering-type work, build and program a robot. Sure, there are kids who like sports AND have the skills and interests to do well on the team, but those kids tend to stick around even when it's NOT a sports-related game.

About the only 'draw' I see for a sports-themed game would be with the general public, and maybe sponsors. But I really don't think that you're going to attract HS kids, who will put in the time and work necessary to really benefit, and stick with the team for more than one season, by having a sport-themed game. And you may, in fact, drive away kids who don't care for sports, and are tired of being constantly urged to go out for a sport, to attend sports activities, and to care about spectator sports.

So while I do like the catchphrases "the varsity sport for the mind" and "the only sport where every kid can turn pro," I don't think we should go overboard with the sports-mania and require that every FRC game be 'sports-related. Personally, one of the things I LOVED most about Stronghold was that it was NOT sports-related, yet was still competitive, fun to strategize, design for, build for, and play, and had a theme that made sense and was likely to attract kids with a bent for doing what we do.