seniority as a factor in drive team decision

[Caleb Sykes]

This thread is an offshoot of the "How is your team picking it's drive team?" thread.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=125252

How does your team factor in seniority when deciding the drive team? I realize the options are not as clear-cut as above, so please reply with specifics.

EDIT: The poll question should be "How does your team factor seniority into the decision of who will be on the drive team?". I believe that there is some kind of character limit on poll questions. Sorry for not noticing that.

Something that isn't taken into account in the options is that while many times teams choose the best person for the job, regardless of age, most of the time the maturity and knowledge most teams look for in drive team members are mostly found in upperclassmen.

[bEdhEd]

I make my team go primarily by drive team experience.

As I have stated elsewhere in the thread linked by inkling16 , these are the requirements for our Team A drive team; Team B is less regulated:

Coach:
Must have prior field experience (Minimum 10 live matches)
-Can be Mentor or Student (if mentor is new, he/she must attend as coach during an off season event prior to regionals/districts/championships)
-Can act as a leader not only for our own team, but for alliance members as well
-Is willing to constantly consult the scouting director on match predictions and strategy suggestions
-Is able to adequately describe strategies to other teams through the use of strategy mats/boards

Driver:
Must have prior field experience (Minimum 5 live matches)
-Is able to control the drive system and other auxiliary systems and can maneuver/orient the robot to any direction/part of the field to fulfill strategic goals
-Is willing to work with the Coach to develop strategies
-Must be able to effectively communicate directions to the Co-Driver when needed, and can follow the directions given by the Co-Driver

Co-Driver
Must have prior field experience (Minimum 5 live matches)
-Is able to control the main scoring mechanism and other auxiliary systems and can use the scoring mechanism to increase point yield.
-Is willing to work with the Coach to develop strategies
-Must be able to effectively communicate directions to the Driver when needed, and can follow the directions given by the Driver.

Human Player
Prior field experience not required (Recommended 5 live matches)
-Is able to perform all necessary tasks as human player
-Is willing to work with the Coach to develop match strategies
-Must be able to effectively communicate directions verbally or symbolically (body language, hand gestures) to the rest of the drive team during a match, and must be able to interpret and execute verbal or symbolic directions given by the rest of the drive team.

[MooreteP]

First year team members are not eligible to be on our drive team.

But we do many off-season events where we try to put as many of our team members, especially newbies, "behind the glass".

I think that seniority is important and team members who have shown a consistent commitment to the team should be rewarded.

Sure, there may be rookie phenoms, but really, it's not about the robot.

[AdamHeard]

973 has had a first year student on drive in every single season since I've joined in 2008.

[bEdhEd]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

First year team members are not eligible to be on our drive team.

But we do many off-season events where we try to put as many of our team members, especially newbies, "behind the glass".

I think that seniority is important and team members who have shown a consistent commitment to the team should be rewarded.

Sure, there may be rookie phenoms, but really, it's not about the robot.

We do a similar thing with our off-season events. We do our team testing in the fall for new and returning students, and from our results, select the team for the off-season event. If they do fine in the event, we keep that team for the upcoming season.

[dellagd]

Our team doesn't factor seniority into the decision. That being said, we do factor in plain ol' experience. As a team that accepts 8th graders, good performance at off-season competition (or on-season ones, preferably) will easily outweigh someones age. Given two similar drivers, I would definitely want the one I know won't freeze up on the field and can effectively listen to the coach.

As an even bigger attest to this, I've been the coach for the past two years out of a team that has a good percentage of upperclassman, and I'm a sophomore now.

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

973 has had a first year student on drive in every single season since I've joined in 2008.

Interesting! Is this a coincidence, some reason to do with dedication, better coach/driver dynamics, the tiny size of 973, the necessity of 70 lb freshman to load discs, or what?

[BurkeHalderman]

On 3266 we place a priority on students who had been on the drive team last year or we feel have earned a spot, not necessarily seniority. We consider the drivetrain operator as the most important member of the drive team. We have had driver tryouts every year but we've had the same driver (me) for the last four years, just because I had the most experience "behind the wheel". Our decision on driver this year will be based around the student's knowledge of the robot, their commitment to the team, and how well they perform under pressure.

We use the human player position kind of like a grooming tool for future drivers. We want the students to get a feel of the competition and match play up close before they get to operate the robot. This student(s) is usually the one driving in the offseason.

And we've had the coach every single year. One of our original members now three year mentor.

SO long reply to simple question, but generally seniority plays a small role but is not the only factor. The student's commitment to the team and knowledge are the deciding factors.

[JohnSchneider]

To draw a sports parallel, the last 2 heisman trophy winners have been freshmen.

Sometimes raw talent > experience. And drive team is definitely one of those areas.

[Anupam Goli]

In the ideal world, we'd love to have our most talented students drive, regardless of age and class, but it's simply not possible at times for us. We can't send all of our underclassmen to our 1st regional this year because of the school system's liability rules when teachers take students on long distance trips. We only have one driver who would be covered under the school's insurance policy, and if we rent a van, we can only drive 15 students. Needless to say, we're a bit stretched out at competition, but due to our team's size, the 15 most important students to the operation go on the trip, and often times the students will be fulfilling multiple roles (drive team will be doing pit crew stuff, scouters may be in the pits, Coach might be scouting, etc.) so we need some experienced members to handle the immense amount of work to do with a smaller base of people.

[Tom Line]

We always have a primary drive team and a backup drive team. Generally speaking, I like to see it when the primary has the best driver, period. I do not want a senior on the backup drive team, because I expect the backup driver will be the future driver when the current one leaves.

That doesn't always work, and we haven't really followed it as a policy, but it's what I prefer to see.

[Aetas]

It seems like our team factors in a lot of things other than seniority, since we have had diverse drivers quite frequently. The thing is, it's usually whomever shows the most commitment. There's no use for someone with "raw talent" to be on the team as a primary driver if they cannot be counted on to show up. Regardless of this, the drivers with the most talent do seem to be the ones that are also seniors, due to commitment level and such by maturity.

So essentially, seniority is important on our team to an extent, but not necessarily the only thing.

[Brennen3828]

I don't believe in Seniority at all. There can be some Seniors who doesn't do any effort and thinks they should be in charge and I totally disagree with that. In Team 3160, age is not a factor in our workplace. We have some leaders in our team that are younger than most others. I believe that whoever have the most experience and the most dedicated for being a lead role. Not by Seniority.

[who716]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

Something that isn't taken into account in the options is that while many times teams choose the best person for the job, regardless of age, most of the time the maturity and knowledge most teams look for in drive team members are mostly found in upperclassmen.

Most times is a fair assumption although I was a freshman member drive team . The best person for the job is the one that should get the job