PreRookies, Mentoring and the future of FIRST

[Wayne C.]

As you all can see elsewhere- yesterday at Montclair Mayhem we competed with three Pre-Rookie teams using borrowed robots to play in the off season competition. This idea is not new but is turning out to be the next wave in development of new FIRST teams at least for our region.

Let me digress- the idea first emerged last year when Baldwin HS of NY brought a pre-rookie to Brunswick Eruption. They used an old Baldwin robot and basically just came to have a good time. And we made sure they did. And last fall they made their own robot.

So we have this Senior Mentor named Kloberg..... and we got to thinking. And our RINOS recruitment program started inviting schools from the region to come to the NJ Regional with students assigned as chaperone guides for the visiting schools. And, of course, those same guides are now the ones acting as field coaches for these new guest drive teams at the off season events. It trains the rookies and trains my team to be leaders and future coaches.

Yesterday team 25 had 3 robots at Montclair. All three made it to the top 8 seeds- two with completely rookie drive teams. We know that in September these kids will be back with their schools ready for their own robot seasons. Team 555 and 56 also had pre rookies on the field.

There are 6 more teams waiting, and lots more that don't know they are waiting-yet.

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Part 2- Despite having many teams claim to want to be mentors, we have now checked all the websites in the FIRST world and we find only 7 teams that have programs oriented towards helping and starting rookie teams. Oddly, most are in the Northeast. We are in process of contacting them now and soon will be looking to create something uniform there.

So I put this out to all of you- we've heard of Dean's homework over and over. We think we are doing it here in NJ. What kind of organized efforts is your team doing? And if there isn't one, would you like help getting one started?

WC