Sport or not?

[catsylve]

While I would like to say that defining robotics as a sport would help to put it on a level of funding and acceptance with the sports in our schools, I don't believe that this will solve the problem. We have an activities director at our school who is supposed to be responsible for ALL activities. However, if you are not involved in soccer, basketball, or especially football, you may as well not exist.

We cannot even get permission to use the gym without a tremendous fight. We bring more good attention to the school in a week than the sports teams in a month. I have tried from the beginning to help them understand that we are a team in the true sense of the word, but we are only viewed as an after school activity.

The point is that the definition of a sport or not is probably an outdated idea that holds many teams in FIRST back. It really doesn't matter. This program benefits kids as much as any athletic program. We do not promote the criticism and winner take all attitude that most sports do. Whether we define robotics as a sport or not will not change the lives of kids as much as redefining the sports we already have. Keep the integrity of your program uppermost and the definition really won't matter.