[Sgraff_SRHS06]

My high school (which usually dominates in sports like lacrosse and ice hockey) has been strongly behind our team. Because Chesapeake is so close to our school, faculty and administrators outside the robotics program have made it on a regular basis to the regional. In fact, the high school's administrators were the ones who got us involved first when Das Goat (165) was formed in 1998. The physics teacher who runs the team did not like it because it was not cohesive enough and split off a year or two later.

Our county Board of Education has been behind the team since 2005, even though they don't sponsor the team directly. They have been willing at points to foot the entire bill to get us (err. the team) to the FIRST Championship if we won.

The team does not have its own class, but it does have its own computer lab in the science wing and its own shop in the tech-ed side (which is shared by the few tech-ed classes that are still left at the school (because most are at the vo-tech school right across the street)) equipped with soldering equipment, several drill presses (including a brand new one), and a storage room full of supplies and tools. Even though the administration changed right after I left, the new one still strongly supports the team because he sees all the progress (and other positive stuff) it has done.

If I am not mistaken, in the midst of a successful season for the football team (a winning record for the first time in a long while), the 2006 robot actually became a part of the homecoming game: showing that it is now truly a fabric of the school.

It's actually ironic that there is so much support for the FIRST program here (and so many sponsors willing to step on board) because the parental community overall is not that involved with the school.