Shelf Life Of A Team

[Ryan Foley]

Originally Posted by Mike Martus

All of this is true. If any element fails the team is sure to fail. For FIRST teams to get engrained in the school system school systems will need to decide to make the coaches a paid position like the basketball and football coaches.

We (team #47) are starting our 9th year. There are always struggles but we have managed to survive and look to the future. FIRST is a great educational program.

Not 100% true actually. To remain an active team, yeah then its most often true, sometimes not. To remain a strong team, no you dont need all of that.

Take my team for example.
2001 year, we were active, 15 seniors and 1 freshmen (me), JJA as a sponsor (Johnson and Johnston Associates).

2002: No more JJA, only remaining member left was me, went inactive. Saw 2002 game, really wanted to still be a part of FIRST so got a new team together and took our 2001 bot and modified it to play the 2002 game.

2003: team of 17, again inactive. Team was given a challenge of building a robot that can open a door, and succeeded in less than 6 weeks. Pretty strong team (for TRHS). Built 2 robots that could play the 2003 game over the summer, in 2 weeks (yes using some old frames, and 1 old drivetrain)

2004: Team of 25. Team was split in 2 during the fall for a training challenge, each having to build their own full size robot (complying to all 2003 FIRST rules) that could play a game I created. 7 weeks later, 2 of the best robots we have ever had are complete. And we are once again active, with a really strong team, the best we have ever had (including 2000 and 2001, our other active years)

2002, 2003, and for the training challenge this year, no engineers, no machine shop (and 2002 had no veterans but me). Only about $100 to be used 6 or 7 weeks to build the robot, for all 3 years.

Not trying to brag or anything, All I'm saying is this. The only thing a team needs to survive is people who want it to survive.