[Chris is me]

I'm our team's student drive coach (we call it "strategist" so I might be saying that all through the post). We have an all-student drive team on our team by policy; I think it's because our mentors feel it emphasizes that this is "our time to shine" or something. We have a "strategy panel" of mentors and students to review post match plans (and in exceptional cases, such as qualifiers versus 1625, pre-match plans), but inter-team strategy and the actual match is left to us.

I like this arrangement for our team for a number of reasons. I like that it puts more students in a leadership position. I like that it helps with the strategist / driver dynamic; we can pick the best combination for the job of people that "get each other" and work well together, rather than fitting the drivers that work best with a particular coach.

The best thing about it, though, is that it puts us in a position to make mistakes. Competition strategist is a position where you will make mistakes, and making mistakes is the fastest way to learn. I have personally learned more about tactics, communication, and teamwork through my role than I can even imagine, and I can assure you I would not be as satisfied with my final year in FIRST if I wasn't able to do this. Being an FRC competition strategist was a life changing experience for me.

At the same time, I've wondered if we would have done better of our old strategist, who was absolutely legendary, was allowed to be in the position even though he's now a college mentor. Looking through the matches we lost, I can point to 3 errors I made, and I can't help but think if he were strategist we would have been 2nd seed in Minnesota, or 2nd seed on Newton Field. Ultimately, though, I was personally much more inspired by being thrown into the pressure cooker and told to go than if we were x-finalists in Atlanta.

I imagine the job would be better for the drivers if a team leader were up to the plate with them, though. The guys I was screaming at were older than me and team veterans; as the "new kid" it was at times awkward. A leader is needed for the role, that's for sure, and it's a lot more inspiring for the seasoned veteran coach to go "you did good, kid" than for me to hi-five the drivers and go "hell yeah!"

FIRST is about inspiration. I honestly think that students are much more inspired the more involved they are, but it's different for every team.