[Bharat Nain]

This FIRST-a-holic's viewpoint is that adults should not be a part of the drive team as coaches. Does your drive team consist of an adult? What are your reasons?

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As one of the volunteers at the Michigan Districts, I got an up close look at the different drive team participants. While some of the teams use students as the drive team mentors. Most still use adults as the drive team mentors.

I'm curious, is your drive team mentor a student or an adult and why?

I'm a firm believer that there should be NO ADULTS on the drive team. I believe that each team has at least one mature student (we can find 2 each year) that can lead the team on the competition floor. An adult mentor should be used to mentor the drive team student mentor but should stay in the background. This is another opportunity for a student to learn skills that will be useful in the business world.

I believe that it is time for FIRST to change this rule. Most teams will need to be forced into letting the students take on this important role. The adult drive team mentor is the same as letting the baseball coach be the pitcher or the football coach be the quarterback. It's time to let your robot team mature and use students as drive team mentors.

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