[Francis-134]

There is no reason to not allow adult coaches onto the field. If the idea is to give students another chance to gain experience and become leaders, then that is fine. However, I believe it should be up to the team if a student could be best served being a coach or holding some other position. I find that being in charge of the pit, the scouting, or anything else going on at an event is much more important and a student can learn much more than from just being the drive coach.

One would assume that an adult coach has more experience and expertise than a student coach (if this is not the case, then the argument is not longer adult/student, but who is fit for the job). If a team is intending to do well, this experience can help tremendously and should not be wasted.

In the original post, the FIRST-aholic mentioned that they are able to find suitable student coaches every year, which is excellent. Not every team is blessed with such a gift. I have met many students who could have been great coaches, but simply wanted to be in the pit working on the robot, in the stands scouting or be a driver/operator/HP themselves.

From what I have seen, there have been no problems with adult coaches in FIRST. This my be my New Hampshire attitude, but why place unnecessary rules on something that just doesn't need them. If a particular team has an issue with adult coaches, they should be sure not to use them and let the other teams run their organization they way they want.