[EricH]

Originally Posted by gblake

Along the way to helping your current coach be successful with his current plan, maybe suggest to him that your group should build and experiment with at least one legal FRC robot (have it inspected when it's "done") before the FRC team officially forms. See where things go from there.

Actually, I'd go one better.

Compete at a nearby offseason event with it. Basically, spend the time from Kickoff to that offseason working on it as time allows. The great part about that is that the offseason will likely have at least one certified inspector (so you can get a full inspection, just let them know ahead of time as most offseasons do a very cursory inspection), you get some play time to see how it stacks up, AND it'll be pretty cheap (as pre-rookie teams tend to be free or very low-cost at such events). Might cut into VEX time a little bit--offseasons tend to be fall events--but it'd be worth it to evaluate readiness to make the expansion.