The Washington interscholastic activities association is considering creating a state wide first robotics competition after the regular robotics season. Does anybody have any more information on this proposal or its implications. Will teams become subject to the same rules and regulations as athletic teams? Will schools supply teams money? Pay coaches?
I think this will be a good thing. More awareness, more funding, another competition to go to, what’s not to love? The only downside is if they impose more restrictive rules on teams if they want to be a part of it.
This sounds like when Minnesota’s MSHSL began sanctioning robotics last year. All competitions are still run through FIRST, that didn’t change. Robotics became an official, state-sanctioned activity(they do other things like marching band and debate team). Also they had a state tournament in the offseason based on regional performance.
http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/robotics.asp
My guess is that your state will do something similar, they even mention the Minnesota program in the amendment proposal.
Yes, sounds almost exactly what was done here in MN last year by the MSHSL. It was a little annoying having to keep the robot in the bag until mid-May, but was well worth it.
I think the other impacts are somewhat school district dependent. I know for our team, the students that were not already on an athletic team had to sign the same code of conduct document that the athletes do, and our trips to competitions this year were treated as "athletics competition trips, instead of “field trips” as they had been in the past.
I can say that it has been valuable to our team from a fundraising and community awareness perspective to have the “official state recognition”.
The qualification process outlined is identical to the one for FiM and so if Washington switches to districts we hill have two state championships with the same teams attending one for first on for wiaa
The CASCIAC (Connecticut Association of Schools - Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference) is hosting their first off-season Connecticut State Robotics Championship this May also. (I noticed that this was also mentioned in the WIAA document.) I don’t know of any specific changes for our team due to that addition of the event as yet. Time will tell…
What are the implications of this for teams that are not associated with any high school? More than one high school?
To answer some of the questions.
For the most part this approval would have no significant affect to teams. It does not automatically mean that schools would pay coaches or fund teams. However it would be good leverage to obtain that funding on a school district level. It would mean that to be eligible to participate in the state championship coaches and members would be subject to the same eligibility rules as cover other WIAA approved activities.
At this point there is no set plans on how teams would qualify for the state championship. It would most likely be based on points earned in the district model to advance to the district championships, however all points earned may not qualify for the state championships, it is possible only those on the field performance points would count, ie earning team spirit, imagery and other judged awards may or may not earn state championship qualifying points. The state championship would not have the exact same teams as the district championship as only teams based in WA would qualify and the district model currently under consideration includes teams from OR and potentially northern ID.
For teams not associated with any school they would likely not be eligible. For teams associated with more than one school it is hard to say how that would work for the purposes of “bragging rights” but they would otherwise be just as eligible for state champs as a team associated with a single school.
I did not go to high school in WA and am not familiar with how athletics work, generally, in that setting. This thread is the first I’ve ever heard of this, so I am trying to understand in what ways it may affect my team.
Presumably, the eligibility requirements that come with being overseen by this organization will apply only to teams that wish to participate in the WIAA-sanctioned state-championship event and not to any other FIRST-sanctioned district/regional events. Is that a fair assumption?