Scouting: Diamond in the Rough

[Adam Freeman]

Originally Posted by EricH

I can remember one. Second pick of the #2 alliance on Newton in 2005 was team 503. Both the other teams (330 and 67) wondered why they were not picked until then, but were more than happy to pick them. They had a very reliable scorer that wasn't the fastest or flashiest, but they had really good strategy to go with it. This was shown in the second match of the Einstein finals--they left a cockeyed tetra cockeyed because the goal was already owned by one below. One world championship resulted.

Ahh, the days before the serpentine draft. 503 was #4 on our alliance selection list.

I believe 330 was the 2nd seed, selected 67 with the 2nd pick....then 7 other teams were selected before 503 was selected by our alliance.

I remember marking off the teams, hoping that 503 would be there for us. When they were, I signaled to our student on the field, she discussed with 330's student (I am sure 330 was thinking the same thing) and the pick was made.

We asked 503 to protect the back row, while 67 handled the right side, and 330 handled the left side. The strategy worked incredibly well and it 503's performance was well beyond what was expected of them.

If the matches were available to watch, 503's performance was on par with both 67 and 330. No way they should have been available for our alliance to select them.