Rookie or not?

[Lisa Perez]

(Forgive my inability to use usfirst.org as a source for my answer, if indeed it is there)

Say a team was not able to secure funding and did not register for the 2004 FIRST season, but has found a very likely sponsor for 2005 and will be registered for FIRST again when the time comes. Are they considered a rookie, or not?

I originally thought the answer would be "not" - but then I looked at the standards for qualifying for Nationals and did not know what tier 573 would be placed in.

[Joshua May]

Well, 573 is not in FIRST's Tier List for 2005, so I'm not really sure. For some reason I would think that they might be considered a rookie, very interesting point.

[Lisa Perez]

Are there any other teams out there which have been in this situation, in which they lost funding for one year and were not registered for FIRST, but were able to bring their team back eventually? If so, what was your team's status the season you returned?

[David Kelly]

There have been situations in which this has happened in the past. One example is the Baxter Bomb Squad (16) when they were unable to compete in 2001. The next year they returned and were able to keep their number and status. There are some certain rules FIRST has in place if a team misses a year and then comes back to compete later on. It has to do with the schools and sponsors etc. I believe your team will retain their number and not be considered a rookie.

If your team is essentially the 'same team' as you were in 2003 and before, you should stay as team 573 and not be a rookie team again. Both because I think it would go against gratious professionalism if a team used "that year off" as a way to compete in the Championships the next year. <--- (that is just a hypothitical situation.)

[Lisa Perez]

Thank you for the example - I wasn't sure if this had happened before. I was definitely concerned that we'd go back to rookie status, and I agree that it would be ungracious if this happened.

[Astronouth7303]

Plus, FIRST would have to use another number.

[Jay H 237]

I searched FIRST's website but couldn't find an exact answer. The only thing I found was this.
It's not really the answer you were looking for but it's the only thing I could find about registering new and pre-existing teams. My personal opinion is that 573 wouldn't be called a rookie since that team has competed before. If I do find "concrete" information about this I will post it or put a link to it.
As for losing your team number (and identity) I don't believe you have to worry about that since FIRST doesn't recycle the numbers like they used too.

Jason


(WOW! My 1000th post! )

[Matt Leese]

In the past, FIRST has allowed a team that has become defunct to resurrect their old team number. We did this on 73 in 2001. 73 had not competed since 1998 at that point and when we went to register we hadn't been in contact with the Main Contact from the previous team. FIRST actually sent me contact information and had me verify that it was acceptable to take over the team number 73. At the time, I was told that whoever has their email address set as the Main Contact is the person who "owns" the team number. I don't know if their policy has changed since then or not.

Matt