[Jon Stratis]

We promote robotics as a "winter sport", and stretch that definition a little by running all the way to the end of April. Students get involved with other things - tennis, soccer, golf, baseball, to name a few. I know my team has lost students to these other activities during our week-6 regional and Champs as it is (for example, one of our best builders the past few years is also a star in golf in the State, and we lose her as soon as that season starts up)... pushing it back even more would only make the problem worse and introduce additional conflicts for people.

As much as many of us treat robotics as a year-round commitment, a large number of students and teams can't treat it like that. We need to work to keep it within a single, typical sports season as much as possible, with off-season activities helping to spread it out for those that have the time and energy to do it year-round.