If our FIRST team was recognized as a sport we would get so much more from the school but they do not even want to consider it. All we want is a little more attention.
Our school refers to our team as everything but a sport…positive and negitive…ive heard our team refered as “the smart kids of the school” but yet i have heard a student refer to us as “snobbish jerks”…i wonder how many teams get those responses…
Thats what I get for posting at 12:30am
My high school team was refered to as “the nerd club” by just about everyone. We weren’t recognized as anything but that.
I wish my school considered our FIRST team a sport. I asked the athletic cordinator for the school if we could place any trophies or metals in the schools trophy room and he said no.:mad:
We have a ton of trophies and we have no where to put them… there are all these trophie cases in our school and the one time we actually got them in one they were there for about a week then they gave the case to damn chorus.
After we won New England Regionals we hung the banner in the gym, with all the other banners… Of course, the sports teams, particularly the football team, rioted… Guess what?? It’s still there… and if you look at the numbers, the next closest year next to a banner from a 99 winner for male sports( most of the trouble was the males, go fig…) is a whopping 1984…
Besides that, we get a small display to act as our trophy case… And we rotate some trophies as the local libraries…
::sigh:: We may not be a sport, but nuts to that, we deserve recognition!!
Yea, people in our school tend to think of our FIRST team as an extremely exclusive club o’ nerds. It kind of sucks but… This year is the first year you can get a letter for being in FIRST, so that’s pretty cool! If you can get a letter for being a manager of the basketball team you should be able to letter in FIRST - look at how much more time is put in! 
At our school Raider Robotix has become well known and reasonably well recognized.
Yes, we are still known as the “nerd kids” but considering the enlightened source those comments come from it is hardly worth bothering with them.
Anyway, we display our banners and trophies in what I fondly call “The FIRST Shrine” We have two 8 ft high display cases at the opening to the quad for our science wing and we simply took them over. The group made a backdrop of red and blue fabric and we plastered the walls of the display with photos and plans from each of the past six years’ robots. Each year we put some spare part or remains of that season’s robot to add to the collection and we use the glass of the case for posting notes to the public for dates and such. Among our most cherished trophies on display are a Buzz smiley face signed by the teams of the 2000 alliance, the remains of the first Mr. Volcano hat, the ball arm from our 99 robot Navarone which was a great idea poorly executed, and a ball from the 2000 Nationals signed by our California alliance partners. And, of course, each season when we get a new Hawaiian shirt design for the year we hang one in the case so our shirt sellers can show potential customers.
Our school never received National acclaim for anything until we won in 2000 and at the time we were applying for Blue Ribbon School Status. It all came together at the right time and the team has enjoyed a lot of local recognition for it.
Now if my advisor’s club stipend was the same as the football coach’s who works half the time for three times the money and less results… Oh well, I’ll have fun anyway…
(PS_ see the shrine next November at The Brunswick Eruption- local FIRST mini competition at NBTHS)
WC:cool: anything
And by the way- our sponsor Bristol Myers Squibb has a similar display case right in the lobby of their visitor’s center fully stocked with trophies, apreciation plaques and photos from the team. It generates a lot of interest and has spawned several new teams from visiting potential sponsors.
you guys are so lucky
Hey Joe-
Maybe it’s luck but you also need to realize that we have been around for 6 years and FIRST is a full time club with us. We’ve worked hard to get where we are today and look forward to an even better future.
One way you might get more support from your school is to have your faculty advisor contact the local papers and let them in on your projects. I find that once the public sees great things happening in the school the administration has no choice but to recognize it and give support.
Remember- most people never heard of FIRST. YOU tell them with enthusiasm and energy. Take lots of pictures. Make a press packet and send them out to the local newspapers. Rally the community behind the team. A part of our team is dedicated to just this job ( also helps with fund raising).
Elected officials (like school boards) love to look good for the voters, especially if it costs them nothing.
A word of caution- when dealing with the public ALWAYS keep a positive attitude and always credit your sponsors. Newspapers love to find controversy and they can ruin you as easily as help you. (This is a hard learned lesson from a guy who occasionally loses his cool- especially this year being on an ODD team)
Good luck- and if we can help let us know at Team 25
WC
Our school refers to it as an extracuricular activity, but not a sport. I guess a sport is something where you have to physicaly compete and exerting some type of activity (running, jumping, throwing, etc.) other than mooving the robot and a joystick. But out principal and super intendent recognises FIRST as something bigger than a sport.
My school is nothing but trouble to my team.
Greg
Our school had us listed as a club last year… but this year we are a “class.” Yes, that’s right, we get “Elective” credit for taking part in robotics. For what that’s worth…
Don’t even get me started on the whole sports-in-the-high-school thing. Yuck! (Can you tell I am NOT a sports person?) 
Don’t even get me started on the whole sports-in-the-high-school thing. Yuck! (Can you tell I am NOT a sports person?)
Dean would be proud of you.
Anyhow, Wayne, we’ve been around 7 years as prettymuch a club. Despite the competitions we’ve won, and on 3 consecutive occasions, coming very close to taking the nationals, the school very rarely recognizes us. We at one time had a shop teacher, metals teacher, and the head of the Science Dept. working with us. We never got much attention. And it will be a while before we get the deserved attention. You are right; it’s a moving process. Publicity is the major thing, and despite numerous attempts to educate non-FIRSTers about the competition, it very rarely does anything for us. You know what’s sad? If someone from our school entered the Battlebots competition and got eliminated the first round, they’d probably get more attention than us. It’s all a publicity thing.
“It’s really something when a FIRST team does much better than the football team.” -forget who said that, but it’s true
I guess FIRST will remain “Middletown High School’s best kept secret”.
*Originally posted by Team384:JosephM *
**Our school refers to it as an extracuricular activity, but not a sport. I guess a sport is something where you have to physicaly compete and exerting some type of activity (running, jumping, throwing, etc.) other than mooving the robot and a joystick. But out principal and super intendent recognises FIRST as something bigger than a sport. **
I don’t know about your team, but I know that on our’s, there sure is alot of sweat right about now with our design decisions just coming together now!
Pretty soon, maybe week 3, we will start the marathon sprint down toward the finish line…and all while powered by Coffee, Gatorade and Twinkies!
We have a playbook…we have offensive and defensive strategy. We have our team huddles, and we will even have team logos and uniforms. (Shirts)
I see plenty of teamwork happening, and we are certainly out to win, even if we are a rookie team.
It’s not only like a sport, it is BETTER than a sport because things we learn working on a FIRST team can be used later on in our careers. (and I’m talking from the Engineer’s perspective as well as about students! ) 
Keeing it real,
-Quentin
:rolleyes:
The one day i happened to ask my friend what he thought a robot was and he said one of those guys that walks around! I was like yeah true but that is only one of the types of robots. He thinks I am crazy to be in this (Robot) thing! Also many others do. At the end of the 6 weeks we usually have a show off day before we ship and its amazing that some teachers bring there students. yay I guess we are all NERDS I dont mind that! And no I don’t want robotics to be considered a sport, after all do we do any physical activities besides operate all the machines and tools!
And lose tons of sleep! I just wish we got as much attention as all those sports teams do!
Once in a while during the comps we get Robotics team mention that we placed …
The thing that I do like alot is the teachers that allow me to get out of there classes because they believe in what I am doing I guess!
Team members in our team (#448 - Crandroids) get full sorts credit for the Robotics team. I guess that is because the school requires you to be involved in sports constantly and clubs don’t count for sport credit. And it is impossible to be on both the robotics team and a sports tem at once - FIRST is just too time-consuming. Another non-sport that is sport credit given for here is Acting.
Earlier one of my teammates responded to this thread stating that many see FIRST as a club o nerds at our school. However i think that is what it is seen as more now than in years past. I know the earlier years i was in it, it was seen more as a time consuming club, where many people understood the physical and mental demands to be a part of the team, and they knew it wasnt for them. Now, this is my fourth and final year as a student member of my team, and over the years i believe FIRST is as much a sport as any other one. I believe this becasue i was a four year starter on our football team and i know what kind of work goes into a sport as physically and mentally demanding as that. And when i think and compare the two, i think FIRST equals or exceeds the demands of such a sport, and any other sports and in my mind it is the ultimate sport requiring more willpower and commitment than anything else out there. no sport asks you to sacrifice 6 weeks plus of time, often 5 hours a day or more, and even to pull all nighters to get the job done. I know no other sport that you can work or practice or build for 24 hours straight, and you make yourself do it cuz you know it needs to be done. No other sport has ever asked me to be there till 6 am, come back at 7am and work till 5 pm, and i do it because of the challenge and because i believe in it, thats what makes it a sport in my mind. To do that takes more physical and mental strength than any other sport out there. so if someone can tell me that all it takes is brains and to be a nerd to be in FIRST, tell me why some football player who is just as much a sport guy as the next, says FIRST is probably the biggest and best SPORT out there. The qoute says a lot too)
“You know what’s sad? If someone from our school entered the Battlebots competition and got eliminated the first round, they’d probably get more attention than us. It’s all a publicity thing.”
I am a freshman in my school. I built a battlebot that competed in the most recent battlebots competition (November) and got eliminated in the first round. I wanted to try to start a first team when I got to high school and learned that a teacher was already getting it done so I joined. I am still asked without provoking anyone about battlebots (over two months after the competition), and yet not even once have I heard anyone ask or talk about FIRST. (although if we actually had an established team that could show off a completed robot it might be different)