Are some HS Team names inappropriate for FRC teams?

[BigJ]

"GP" means different things to different people.

Different grandmas have different opinions.

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by BigJ

"GP" means different things to different people.

Different grandmas have different opinions.

What does it mean to you ? Looking for some discussion here.

[Joe G.]

How you embody gracious professionalism as a person, and your attitudes towards your worthy opponents, matters a whole lot more than a name or logo.

But to me, professionalism means that striving to be anything other than your best is unacceptable. Names that reinforce this idea are just fine.

[mrnoble]

Some (very, very few) high school mascots or nicknames are inappropriate for high schools. Those ones should be avoided. (Redskins, for instance). Otherwise, what's the problem?

[PVCpirate]

Most FRC teams with this type of name are simply following suit with their school. I find that using the school's established mascot or a variation on it is a great way to get the rest of the school to treat the robotics team like any other team at the school, and not "those nerds that are always in the shop". I consider my team's decision to use a different name (before I was on it) from the school mascot as a mistake.

Regarding the names themselves, there shouldn't be a problem with a team calling themselves the Bears or the Velociraptors or the Raiders or anything they chose that isn't intentionally offensive to any group. I'm not going to judge a team based on their name, I'm going to judge them on their actions. I don't care if they're called the Fluffy Bunny Friends or the Velociraptor Bears. Also, I don't think this has anything to do with Gracious Professionalism, which is about doing your best work while being respectful to others, as I understand it.

EDIT: I read the thread you linked at the beginning, and this issue didn't come up.

[Abhishek R]

The poll choices are somewhat misleading. Lions and Tigers are do not have an inherent meaning to "conquer an opponent."

They have characteristics that a high school would like to have in their athletics and spirit - to be fierce, and have pride in the school, but nothing that says they have to "conquer their opponents."

[Bob Steele]

There is nothing wrong with wanting to win the competition. It is NOT somehow ungracious or professional to do your best on the field in order to win.

GP has to do with helping teams do their best on the field. It does not mean that any team should somehow NOT want to win. It also does not mean that a team would somehow sacrifice their own alliance to help another alliance win.

Gracious Professionalism is primarily about what happens OFF the field. On rare occasions it spills over to the field.

If we didn't want winners we wouldn't keep score and give trophies for winning.

I guess I don't understand how any school name (like lions or conquerors or whatever) would have any connotation that would not be GP..

I do think that some school names MIGHT be politically incorrect (as mentioned above "Redskins" is a good example")

Unless your school mascot is something like:

"The selfish whiners who never help anyone and are only here to see themselves do well without regard to other teams...." hmmm not sure what this mascot would look like but I could make a guess...

I think most mascots/names that are in good taste would be fine and fun.

My high school mascot was a Caveman....

I guess if there were still any of them around it might be politically incorrect in these days... (remember the ads a few years back?)

We never thought about clubbing other teams we played against into submission....

[IronicDeadBird]

I don't know what part of being GP says we can't play hard and play to win and have that mentality reflect in a logo or mascot.

Quick little edit:
If you are on my team and you are reading this just cause you play hard doesn't mean you can't shake your opponents hand afterwords keep it on the field or it will be addressed

[mathking]

I really don't believe that most mascot names are in any way inherently ungracious. Our team encompasses three high schools, so we consciously chose to avoid the color scheme and mascot names of any of them. Which was probably necessary, but definitely has also inhibited development of school spirit somewhat. We have been around long enough now that students not on the team generally recognize our black and yellow shirts, but I still get questions about why don't wear green (Three high schools, three different shades of green) or call ourselves the Shamrocks or Rocks (the other two high schools we represent are the Irish and the Celtics). If we were a single high school team I would have pushed for a Rocks-related name as a way to build team spirit within the broader school community.

[connor.worley]

GP doesn't exclude competition. GP is all about *healthy* competition. So unless lions, tigers, and bears like to kick their opponents when they're down, it's probably fine.

[Monochron]

There will always be a losers in competitions and in the real world, and that is a valuable lesson to learn. Striving to "beat opponents" is, I think, a very valid motivator in FIRST.
The way I see it we should aim to vanquish and destroy our opponents, but first ensure that those opponents are performing at their best.

[Whippet]

There are plenty of FRC teams who have the concept of dominating in their names ("Cockadoodle Dominators," one of my favorite teams from our regionals, comes to mind.)

Just remember that the way your team acts has a far greater influence on your perception in the FIRST community than any label you place on yourself.

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

"The selfish whiners who never help anyone and are only here to see themselves do well without regard to other teams...." hmmm not sure what this mascot would look like but I could make a guess...

*whistles innocently*

[safiq10]

In 2013 we struggled with the idea of changing our team name to something a bit more tame, but we decided to stick with and not enforce the idea of our team name. We don't know exactly where the name came from because no one, even our alumni can remember how we got it.

So I think that what truly matters is how your team presents itself. However if you have a name like "my robot is better than yours" you might wanna consider changing that.

[SenorZ]

Like just about every school with the VIKING as a mascot there has been talk among the staff that having a mascot that represents murderous hordes who raped and pillaged isn't a great idea. But it isn't going anywhere.

I think teams should find their own identity. Right now we're "Viking Robotics" and I think its boring more than anything (I mean, there are about 200 Viking related teams out there, all based on school mascots). Teams like Exploding Bacon, or the Cheesy Poofs, have fun and original names that represented the spirit of the team when they formed.

[dash121]

I see it as a simple question. Does your name promote yourself? Or does it flat out lash out at opponents. Most teams use their home school/ sponsoring organizations' mascot and that is fine but somethings could be done better. A team promoting competition is fine as long as they don't use it as an excuse to bring their opponents down or not be nice to them (aka gracious professionalism). It depends on how /you/ view your own name not how others. Our team name (Technical difficulties) came from our first year /always/ having technical difficulties 24/7. Soo just make your name personable and make it fun! Because being fun is most important in FIRST