Calling all students and mentors from the CHS, NC, and PCH Districts

[notmattlythgoe]

# events per year your team attended in the Regional system.
2

Time to drive to the Regional(s) you had attended and if your team had to arrange for lodging because of the drive.
1.5 hours and 3-7 hours depending on the second event. WE arranged for lodging at both events.

Time to drive to both of your District events and if that included lodging for one or both of those events.
30 mins and 3 hours. We arranged for lodging for one event.

Did your team qualify for the DCMP. If they did, the travel time and if lodging was needed.
Yes, 3 hours, and lodging was arranged.

Finally please tell us the specific things that you like or dislike about the District or Regional system.
I have been a supporter of VA switching to districts for many many years. There is nothing worse than a team spending $5k to attend an event after spending 6 weeks building a robot to play 8 times and then go home just to repeat the next year. Even if a team elects to only sign up for a single district event they are getting a 50% play increase for the same cost.

The system allows for several stages of iteration on the robot. We went into our season planning on having a low goal breaching robot that can climb for week 1. We succeeded with the low goal breaching bot but the climber did not work as well as we would have liked. For week 3 we got the climber tweaked and working. Then for the DCMP we added a high goal shooter at the event. This system is only going to grow teams and make the areas more competitive.

The system will also open communication lines between teams as you see the other teams more and more. By opening communication resources and lessons learned can be shared.

The downsides are more time and more money. But as I said, this can be alleviated by only signing up for a single event (however I really hope this is not the route people choose). The volunteer base will grow, this is a growing pain that every single area will go through with the switch and will get better as the years go on.

But if you can't tell by my post, I LOVE DISTRICTS. This is what this sport should be. High school sports are not played in convention centers and college arenas, they are played in high school gymnasiums. This gives more exposure to the community and will help grow and support the teams. I am very happy to see that the overwhelming majority of teams are voting for districts over regionals.

Originally Posted by Peyton Yeung

Dislikes: Playing the same teams every event (we're playing against the no 1 ranked team in Indiana this weekend 3x and last year we played against the no 1 seed 3 times at the same event as well), having to win major awards 2x to qualify for worlds, small/cramped events with limited air conditioning[/b]

I have emailed Frank and asked about official inter-district play being opened between the districts. With MAR, CHS, and NC all right next to each other this seems like the prime location to pilot this. Teams could compete at any district events they want but earn points towards their own DCMP. This would help alleviate seeing the same teams over and over again. It would also allow teams on the edges of their districts(like 1629) to travel to events that are in other districts but may be closer than any of their own districts events.

Franks response said that this has been brought up to the district leaders and was voted down. If this is something that you may be interested in doing please talk to your own districts and try to convince them that this is something the teams in your district could benefit from. I will be talking to Stan about it in detail. Frank said the topic would be brought up again to be discussed.