Drive Team

DRIVE TEAM

The drive team is a group of 5-6 people who operate the robot, act as human players, act as technicians, or call the game time decisions. One of these people is always the Team Captain or Game Lead (if delegated). The other 4(5) are determined by a tryout process to be completed each season, the drivers by an even playing field tryout, and the human player(s) are determined during the season based on ability and knowledge of the game.

Each year, the previously year's drive team is delegated as the A Team, these are by default the drivers for the successive year. However, every preseason, drive 'evaluations' are performed, organized by the Game Lead, in which anyone (maybe except seniors) who would like to try driving, may get a fair shot at driving, people who are evaluated to be fit for a drive-team, are added to the drive B Team. The B TEAM functions the same as the A-Team in that both receive drive practice during build season. If drivers from the B Team demonstrate superior driving skills to anyone on the A-Team, they can replace the A Team member to be on the starting squad. This page will detail the drive selection process.

The Drive Team Tryouts

At the beginning of preseason, 3 drivers are selected from last year who demonstrated the highest driving potential. These could be human players, manipulators, drive B team members from the previous year, or just someone who drives well at an Outreach Event. These people are the "Preseason Drivers" who will receive training/practice before the preseason event(s) and will each drive at least one match at each competition. This step is essential for yielding new, experienced drivers.

Once the preseason event(s) are over, the tryout process begins. The presence of the tryouts is announced to the entire team, at every meeting, to make sure anyone who would like to, does tryouts. Participants are given practice time in order to acquaint themselves with the controls. After a 10-15 minute practice time, drivers are evaluated on a pre-set custom obstacle course consisting of cones and whiffle balls. They are timed on their lap, and evaluated on their stability and recklessness. The 3 "Preseason Drivers" do not participate in this initial tryout. Once all students have completed their evaluation, 5 are selected to move on to the final selection process, in which they will be evaluated with and against the 3 preseason drivers. Of these 8, 5 will be made into the final B Team.

​Team 254 FRC Driver Selection Criteria