Starting FRC at School with VEX Team?

[gblake]

Entering your rookie year of FRC as a HS senior, well prepared to guide/serve underclassmen as you all start a sustainable FRC team that has a solid business plan, that is an inspiration in its community, that will be fed by strong/nurtured programs for younger students, that can manage time well, that understands how to move from a strategy to a well-tested implementation, that is filled with students able to communicate well with adults, businesses, and peers, and that OBTW, builds and drives an OK robot ...

Well, that would give you an excellent shot an earning one of the World Championship Rookie All-Star awards.

FRC is about way more than the robot or the matches at tournaments. If you look at the big picture, your school's FRC team is starting right NOW, before you file the paperwork to get a team number. It's time to get busy getting things done now, not 2-3 years from now.

Along the way to helping your current coach be successful with his current plan, maybe suggest that your group should build and experiment with at least one legal FRC robot (have it inspected when it's "done") before the FRC team officially forms. See where things go from there.

Blake

[EricH]

Originally Posted by gblake

Along the way to helping your current coach be successful with his current plan, maybe suggest to him that your group should build and experiment with at least one legal FRC robot (have it inspected when it's "done") before the FRC team officially forms. See where things go from there.

Actually, I'd go one better.

Compete at a nearby offseason event with it. Basically, spend the time from Kickoff to that offseason working on it as time allows. The great part about that is that the offseason will likely have at least one certified inspector (so you can get a full inspection, just let them know ahead of time as most offseasons do a very cursory inspection), you get some play time to see how it stacks up, AND it'll be pretty cheap (as pre-rookie teams tend to be free or very low-cost at such events). Might cut into VEX time a little bit--offseasons tend to be fall events--but it'd be worth it to evaluate readiness to make the expansion.

[Kellen Hill]

Georgia's off-season event, GRITS, will be happening in October. The date should be released soon. Attending this event would give your group a good idea of what it takes to make the jump to FRC. I know of several teams that I'm sure would be happy to have you shadow them through the event. We would be one of those.

[Chris is me]

One thing I would add is that a rookie year definitely is not a "wasted year". It is very, very possible to have a successful FRC season your rookie year. It's possible to win regionals as the #1 seed, or even make Einstein your rookie year, with a little help. Especially coming from a team with several years of competition robotics experience. If that ends up being your only option, give it your all and you can do great things. The biggest thing you can do would be to get your team working in the pre-season to learn the lessons you would learn during your rookie competition year, and to get any experienced FRC people you can involved on your team.

Perhaps one way to sell the program to your advisor (and it may be too late for this year, but maybe not?) would be to try building a simple robot for a fall off-season competition. Reach out to local teams to see if you can borrow some of the big ticket items (a control system), then design and build a bare-bones, low budget robot that does only the most important tasks in the game. This year, it would probably be a robot that crosses defenses and scores low goals, which can be done COTS only fairly easily. If this goes well, your advisor may decide your team can be ready sooner than he thinks. If it doesn't, you've already started learning for when your rookie season does eventually come.

[Enthurzan]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

One thing I would add is that a rookie year definitely is not a "wasted year". It is very, very possible to have a successful FRC season your rookie year. It's possible to win regionals as the #1 seed, or even make Einstein your rookie year, with a little help. Especially coming from a team with several years of competition robotics experience. If that ends up being your only option, give it your all and you can do great things. The biggest thing you can do would be to get your team working in the pre-season to learn the lessons you would learn during your rookie competition year, and to get any experienced FRC people you can involved on your team.

Perhaps one way to sell the program to your advisor (and it may be too late for this year, but maybe not?) would be to try building a simple robot for a fall off-season competition. Reach out to local teams to see if you can borrow some of the big ticket items (a control system), then design and build a bare-bones, low budget robot that does only the most important tasks in the game. This year, it would probably be a robot that crosses defenses and scores low goals, which can be done COTS only fairly easily. If this goes well, your advisor may decide your team can be ready sooner than he thinks. If it doesn't, you've already started learning for when your rookie season does eventually come.

I'm think I'm gonna try this approach as I think its the safest / best way to pitch it considering we already have VEX teams and little space / tools.

[Knufire]

If you do plan to start a rookie team, I believe the single best thing you can do is find a successful veteran team in your area, and ask them to help mentor you through your rookie season.

With a successful VRC program, you'll have a great foundational base for a lot of FRC. However, there are many differences moving up to the larger-scale competition. The totality of established FRC knowledge is not very centralized, tips and tricks are located in a variety of sources. Having a veteran team you can rely on for some pointers in the right direction will save you a lot of time digging around.