[EricH]

I think you're approaching this from the right point of view. You recognize that you aren't a student and that you don't want to get in the way of the current student leadership.

I'm going to offer some cautions here: Your team's mentors may still see you as a student; as a mentor, you aren't going to be as able to kid around with your friends who are still on the team. If the team hadn't asked, I would have suggested staying away this year for that reason--but, because they asked, they think you have something to contribute. And that means that they're looking to you for some guidance.

Your job will be to both keep order and to actively participate. How much the balance is is going to depend a lot on how your team is set up for mentor involvement--hands off, hands on, in the middle...


I would, if I was in your shoes, act as a moderator for a student-driven discussion of game strategy (including ranking strategy), and then play devil's advocate using the rulebook to make 'em think a little bit more about practicality of the strategy. Or, I might try to identify a strategy and then see if they could come up with something better BEFORE presenting it. And, if someone asks for feedback, then some constructive criticism may well be in order ("I see your point with this strategy, but the last time that sort of thing came up it was ruled out quickly, so is there a way to do the same thing without doing the exact same thing?").

In short, keep the discussion on course and productive, and if necessary get more heavily into actually doing the work.