[TDav540]

Originally Posted by MikeReilly

I love the intent of the thread, to grow and nurture PCH, and teams in GA in particular.

As a longtime mentor (1771, 4509, and year off or two), the hours can be long, the most successful teams have the teachers/mentors who can spend the hours, or have a great balance of mentors to share the load.

Bigger picture, let's look at what IS huge in GA: football. Like it or not, GA is one of the top states in the US for football. Why? The feeder system: they start out as 6 year olds, many families even hold the kid back a year to get bigger. In addition, GA rules allow football coaches to get extra stipends in various ways.

As a teacher/sponsor, the cash is nice, but it really is cool to watch you folks light up with that FRC magic. The bigger thing: are we doing all we can to nurture the younger kids? I have also spent the past semester mentoring FLL, VEX IQ and VEX EDR, and they need the help in the younger years!

Look at the places where the top teams in the world are from, and I guarantee you that high school football is not nearly as popular (I'm looking at YOU Simbotics, my Canadian friends...). It's a long term investment, but that's why they call it a "farm system". Get out their and grow the younger crowd, it will pay off in the long run.

Yeah, they just have this neat thing called hockey. Youth sports are a factor everywhere, and while football is especially prominent in GA, the overall sports scene is not particularly worse than other areas in North America.

I agree with the whole idea of a farm system but I'm less sold on that being the defining difference. It really comes back to competitive culture, mentors, and resources. The mentors can build the culture and the resources, but all three have to be present to have a truly dominant team.