What does it mean to rebuild or restart a FRC team? What does it take to make the team a fully running team? Where do I start? Who do I lean on and ask questions to? What are good mile markers for me to look at to know I am on the path?
If you have any of these questions, I plan to help you get answers in the post. Why me, what do I have that other might not have? My name is Bart Morris and am the coach of 2345 with 3 years of coaching and 20 years of engineering experience. Our team took major hit over Covid and lost all its experience team members and staff. Our team was left with a new head coach and 3 core students. This led to a team who barely made it on to the field in 2022. From this low point we now have a team of 28+ and 7 mentors and coaches and a space 5x the size of what we had before in 2025. Here are the things we did to rebuild.
Year 1
Find a core.
This can be as small as 3. We had two mentors/coaches and one main student for our start. These are you members that are willing to fight and keep the team alive. They are your candle that might be small but can be seen by those who are looking. They see what you can become and where you are going.
Be the light.
If no one know about your team they canât join. Work with the school to get in front of large number of studentâs (back to school night, football/basketball games). Use your robot to share your story good or bad people see you are trying. Use the school website and post info about meetings on the walls of the school. The more you are in front of kids the more who will join. You will keep this going year after year.
Get Admin on board.
This one by far is the hardest to do for most new or rebuilding teams. You need to look for someone who cares about all students and show a care for small groups or Stem. This person might be a board member or a vice principal or a community leader. These people are out there and are just waiting for the right cause to back, make it your cause.
Ask for Help.
If you are reading this, you are in a great place to find and connect with other teams. First is all about teamwork amongst teams. Find a team close to you and see what they are doing to build the robot and outreach. See what they are doing and scale it to you (start small).
You might not see a great growth in year 1 but you will have a solid team to make the leap to year 2.
It was great to see you show up at some of our local robot conference events. That was a huge step forward for your team. I am excited to see your next steps. Reach out if you need something.
We are in a bit of a rebuilding year this season. We are a veteran team with 2 veteran coaches (Iâm on my 11 season as a coach, other is on year 7). Our team size has fluctuated, at one point we supported 4 additional FTC teams, then Covid hit the reset switch all those FTC programs are extinct. Since then itâs been a cycle for rebuilding or feeling like we are restarting over and over due to student loss, mentor loss (kids aged out) or a really rough season (last year). Personally I lost my dad, a pet, then my grandmother in like a 4 month span, starting the first week of February basically, smack dab in the middle of critical build season.
Our overall performance and team dynamics were affected and people left in droves. Our âofficialâ team captain ghosted the team all off-season and pre-season despite them pushing for us to be more competitive. Afaik the whole family left for another team. Maybe weâll see them this season? Havenât heard an official resignation yet.
We currently have a roster of 6 returning students, 1 maybe, and hopefully a bunch of newbies starting tonight. The path is the same as always, while the long term building up the team goals matter, your current goal is making this the best possible season for the group you have. They are the fighters and ones that are championing the program to their friends, classroom teachers, etc. everyone can find a core and now you need to encourage and support them in their efforts as best as you can. They will live up to your expectations because of whatâs on the line. Basically the teams existence.
As the lead mentor/coach you need to keep them biting off more than they can chew. Given your engineering experience I think they are in good hands there.
In our case we are seriously on the line of KitBot or Custom this year and may just make that call on Kickoff day based on the complexity of the game. We built a KitBot by week 2 last season while the main bot was under design still and far from complete. I think we would have performed better, placed overall better and had less burnout, had we just stuck with the kitbot and practiced more. I was not there at the point we shouldâve made that call this year due to the personal reasons above.
This is something I still struggle with after all this time and find myself overwhelmed at some point of the season but without enough extra mentors or parents to hand stuff off too. Make it a goal to get parents involved. Even if they are non-technical, having extra hands always lightens the load. You need a support system to keep your sanity. The parents come and go with the kids so you need to keep this pool of helpers always growing as much as possible.
Also rebuilt a team from scratch. We had a season entirely off due to Covid, during which time all but four or five members graduated or moved out of district. We also lost our build space due to Covid but in an odd way. We worked out of a sponsor space. They made cnc machines that made doors and windows. Obviously during Covid their business boomed and they bought a larger facility in another town. We had mixed results moving into the high school. Admin support is not evenly distributed between different levels!
But weâve worked it out. Or rather, continue to work it out as any program for high school students must always be in perpetual rebuild! Current team looks to be the best ever, but weâve gotten to this good place by a road with some potholes in it.
A good subject for any off forum questions, so DM.
The four things you will always need to âbake the cakeâ, and this is to start, restart or sustain, are and always will be:
We had to do that too. We got down to about 8 students in Covid, and worked on the robot in my garage.
After Covid, we got a decent amount of interest from new kids, and the experienced ones leaned in REALLY hard on training them. Over the last few years weâve been steadily building better. After the 2024 competition where we finally got back to Worlds, the leadership kiddos decided they wanted the team to target moving up to âWorld Classâ. Thus, a lot more training, actual training materials, a badge system to track training, and a Junior Varsity team to get more hands-on-robot time for more kids.