FIRST as a sport?

[JaneYoung]

Building robots is what the teams in FIRST do. In the process of building robots, the teams that understand the full impact that FIRST can have, build a team. Engineers that participate in FRC are role models. They reflect their understanding of FIRST by their actions and their attitudes. If engineers ‘just build robots’ – then that is what they do. If students become members of the team and they ‘just want to build the robot’ – and their role models only build robots, then that is what they’ll do. If the engineers/mentors are the coaches and they ‘just build robots to compete and win’ – then that is what they will do.

It is an attitude.

FRC has been around long enough now to have engineers that were high school students on teams. It has also been around long enough for college graduates and engineers to become a part of the business industry, creating businesses or becoming employed in businesses that support robotics and benefit teams in FIRST. As these members of FIRST develop and mature, they have the opportunity to carry the philosophy of Gracious Professionalism with them into their real world. They also have the choice not to.

FIRST was founded by visionaries. FIRST teams are a place where vision can be encouraged and developed. Teams can also be a place where vision can be limited or distorted. There is a lot of freedom in the FRC teams to develop, organize, work, and compete according to their vision of who and what they are in FRC. That is also true for the individuals that have grown through the program and helped it become what it is in 2008. That is also true for the community of FIRST.

The teams that win the coveted Chairman’s Award will always be far out-numbered by the teams that win the robot competition. We can be assured that the teams that win the Chairman’s Award ‘get’ the vision, the mission, and the goals of the FIRST founders. We can’t always be assured that the teams who win the robot competitions – do or will.

Engineers wield great power in FRC. College students who are pursuing their engineering degrees and achieving their goals, while remaining involved in FRC and FIRST, make an impact and will continue to do so with strengthening power. It is up to the members of FRC and FIRST to decide where this is going to go and if the values of our founding visionaries will remain intact.

One of my concerns is the rookies and the first, second, and even third year teams. They have to have the support of everyone involved in FIRST in order for them to stick around and develop. Wayne Penn posted a thread that was a challenge for the FRC teams to help the rookies. It was called, Hybrid Challenge, No Robot Left Behind. As FRC continues to grow and spread, we should think of more innovative ways to help the newer teams take root and keep the veteran teams from going under. We can be visionary and proactive or we can be limited and watch teams struggle and sometimes die.

I’m not as interested in rock stars as I am role models who compete hard and have the vision that the HoF teams have. If we have that, everyone can shine and sparkle – together.