Max Age for FRC Participants?

[IKE]

Originally Posted by bduddy

Technically, there is nothing (aside possibly from child labor laws) preventing a FRC team from being composed entirely of adults, and hiring for pay students off the street to drive the robot.

(I'm curious - has there ever been an FRC team such as this? I'm not talking about another mentor/student-built debate, I'm talking about a team that didn't even pretend to have students as the focus or major element.)

I heard rumors that way back in the day some teams operated close to this model, but I am talking before 2000, and just rumors. I also heard that Chairman's Award and Woody Flowers awards were mechanisms to help promote a change in the culture of FRC.

In modern FRC (say after the start of 3v3). I have only heard of a few that would approach such a model. I knew of some friends that ran a team, and had difficulty getting students to stay engaged. They moved the team to a couple different schools as the students tended to lack regular participation. The team went under, and much of that leadership started a new team, that eventually merged into a new school, and now is a well integrated school/Kids/mentors. Their goal was to engage kids, but due to logistics and other factors, it took a while to actually reach that goal, and would have looked like adults doing robot and recruiting kids to compete with it at times.

I will say when I started FRC in 2002, I thought a lot of the machines were built by adults. Over the years, and especially once districts started, I got to know the teams better and found they had different mixes of mentor and student involvement.

I Michigan, where it has been easier to start a team for may years, I have come across several teams that were a single family. Often a parent and a child are the drivers behind the team, and then a couple friends recruited to help round out a roster. Some of those simple teams have evolved into some incredibly well known teams. Others tend to drift off once the student/parent graduate.

[Andrew_L]

What interests me is the idea of a driver who starts at an unnaturally young age (~7 years old) and drives until the FRC-legal maximum age. If that's 24, you have a driver who will end his or her career with nearly 18 years of driving experience.

Of course pushing boundaries like this is against the goals of FIRST as a program, and wouldn't be the best course of action, but just imagine how great a driver with 18 years of experience would be...

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Andrew_L

Of course pushing boundaries like this is against the goals of FIRST as a program, and wouldn't be the best course of action, but just imagine how great a driver with 18 years of experience would be...

I imagine there's a point of diminishing returns here.

[Andrew_L]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I imagine there's a point of diminishing returns here.

The question is if it's after 4 years or not.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Andrew_L

The question is if it's after 4 years or not.

Kacey says our daughter can't drive until she's 12.... I didn't even bring up her being in FIRST or driving at all...

[Andrew_L]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Kacey says our daughter can't drive until she's 12.... I didn't even bring up her being in FIRST or driving at all...

Daughter Heard driver and Dadam Heard Coach is gonna be the most adorable dynamic duo on the field. Just need FIRST to allow non-humans on drive team so Punky can be human doggy player.