[FRC Blog] Two Championship Survey Results and Path Forward

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I don't have anything of statistical significance, no. I did text a few members of my senior class on 116 if they remember who won in 2007, and none of them did (with the exception of me, if that counts). One of them had even returned to mentor 116 afterwards.

I can safely say that the majority of the members on our team remember who won champs a number of years back. When I started mentoring in 2012, our team had only been to champs once, but I was impressed at how many students knew who the alliance captains and top teams had been back for a number of years. And our alumni members appear to retain much of that knowledge.

Of course now my sample is biased, but I've developed substantial contacts with both students and mentors across Northern California. The knowledge of the students I talk with about the competitive history is impressive.

And I'll give the counterexample from my own sports experience. I used to follow track & field closely (and still compete after 40+ years.) I may not have been able to immediately recall who won a particular championship 2 years before, but I could with just a little prompting. And regardless, I cared a great deal about the competition as it happened. Kamen's reasoning is faulty if he's using recall ability as a standard for caring about the competition. It's a false metric.