Choosing Drivers for the Long Haul

[moogboy]

I muscled my way into a spot on the drive team during my first year on the team (Rebound Rumble, I was a junior). Basically, it worked out that before one match, I established the strategy with our partners and didn't have time to explain it to the drive team, so I took the operator spot and kept it for the rest of the season.

That was not the right way to select a drive team member.

For Ultimate Ascent, from the beginning of the season everyone was promised the chance to try out for the drive team. Crunch time came, and partial drive team tryouts happened. It was painfully obvious that certain other students on the team desperately wanted to drive the robot. Their entire existence as contributing members of the team was built on a foundation consisting of little more than "I want to drive the robot, and if I work hard then I will get to drive the robot." I was in an extremely awkward position as co-captain of the team. The position was mine. It was essentially decided that I was going to be the operator, and the tryouts for operator would not happen. The matter was put to a team vote and I voted to have tryouts, and lost.

That was also not the right way to select a drive team.

My first year, we had a freshman on the team who left the school at the end of that year in part because he did not get a spot on the drive team. Granted, one could very easily claim that leaving over a spot on the drive team is a very petty thing to do, but that's not the point. Everyone who listened (and everyone who didn't, for that matter) knew that he wanted to drive, and he never got the chance.

So in selecting drivers for the long term, all the bad vibes I just shared need to be avoided. As of this time, the only way I've seen teams effectively deal with it firsthand is to hold complete, fair driver tryouts and/or pass the reins at off season events to rookie drivers and see what happens. It's important that everyone on the team understands the process, and that the process is maintained.