[dachickindapit]

Team 67, as far as I know, has always had an adult coach. I agree with the posts in this thread that point out that the age doesn't matter, the qualities of the coach and their ability to function in that position do.

I think that a lot of the aspects of coaching (especially in selecting a coach) have to do with the interaction between the (potential) coach and the students, especially those on the drive team. I know our current coach works very well with the students. He may be intimidating the first time you meet him, but he's an awesome guy who really has the respect of the students. In turn, he respects the students, which, in my opinion, helps him in his coaching. If a student is treated like an adult, they will be more likely to act and perform as one, in any function on the team. He is intense on the field, but he is knowledgable and fair, and has quite a bit of experience now in the coaching position. Another thing that helps is that he's been with the team for several years now. He knows how FIRST functions and if there's a question that arises in the middle of the match, he can use his resources from experience to advise how to address the situation. Along the same idea, I know of a team that showed this concept -- they used one mentor coach for the season and a different one for offseason. The differences in how they viewed each of these mentors made a huge difference on how they played.

To those who are rotating coaches: how does this affect your consistency? I know in the past, we tried alternating between two coaches, and it ended up being highly confusing.

*Disclaimer: I was not on drive team in high school. I was head of the pit crew, so I did have significant interaction with them, however. I also know that I don't think I could perform the job of coach anywhere near the level of several of our other mentors, if I could do it at all.