MAR Competitions

[Hoover]

I no longer mentor any team but when I did, one of my multiple roles was coaching for a MAR team. Being with the drive team I could see plainly when something was off. I am not a student so I'd have often have to stop myself. So I used the opportunity to coax one of the drive team or captains go to the question box. I thought of this in a positive way as exercise in assertiveness.

Let me preface this by saying that the Refs job is insane even in years where there isn't as much going on in the field. But this year its madness. If you've ever had your favorite baseball team lose because of one bad call by the umpire, do some Reffing for this years FRC event and multiply that risk by 100. If I were asked if I could help ref, I can't honestly say I'd have the strength of mind to do it.

Lets make this short...

1) One or two team captains would go to the question box
2) The ref staff was busy, then the final score would be displayed
3) The field was reset for the next match
4) The head ref would come over and talk (I'd give real money to have heard what was said)
5) The students would come back and say the score was already finalized and they can't change it
6) A staff member would come back to the pits saying that the refs decisions were final. We were advised to stop questioning the refs or they'd have to lodge a complaint against our team (that's what I thought was happening already but oh, well)
7) The question box is still there, though

So in conclusion, while I've seen some teams be successful in having foul/score adjustments, or being awarded a replay, this is exceedingly rare. We came to accept whatever befell us.

P.S. if I could make one change... If the finalized score overturns the outcome of the final displayed game play score, that they'd be obligated to have the announcer describe why it happened.