Role of Team Captain

[Kims Robot]

On 1511 the roles have been entirely separate. The team captain is chosen from the Student Leadership team which is elected during the summer (offseason). The Drivers and Pit Crew are chosen during build season, and all students are eligible. We do make the restriction that a Main Driver CANNOT be on the pit crew (backup driveteam can be part of pitcrew). Our Driveteam is 4 members, plus a strategy & scouting lead. Our pit crew is 6 members (2 electrical, 2 mechanical, 2 programming).

Funny thing is that initially I thought "how silly, why would the team captain be guaranteed a spot on the drive team?" But then I looked back at 1511's history, and only 2/6 years were the team captains not on the drive team. In fact last year, the team picked co-captains, and both ended up as drivers. So I guess history shows it might not necessarily be so off.

That said, I think its important to make the distinction because they can be completely different roles. Your team captain should be a good leader, they should be inspirational, they should know how to get things done and how to get others to get things done. I think back to one of the two captains that wasn't on drive team. He was a GREAT leader... not so great driver... EXCELLENT chairman's presenter - in fact he won us our first CA... but he wasn't ready for the drive team.

Ultimately, I guess it all falls into how you define your roles and what the specific responsibilities of the Team Captain are. I think its possible for the roles to overlap, but its certainly not required.

In the end, do what works for your team, but its ok to consider the roles entirely separately. Generally our drivers are more experienced with the team, but we don't require it, its skill & dedication that matter the most.