Fall: The fall months are focused on recruiting and training team members and a few local FRC off-season competitions. Team members are recruited through Club Rush at M-A High School, usually in late September or early October. Off-season FRC events have included Chezy Champs at Bellarmine College Preparatory and CalGames at various locations around Silicon Valley. Coming to an off-season competition is a great way to see what robotics is all about, even if you can only stay for a few hours. Team members also gain valuable skills by participating in the FTC build and competition in the late fall months. Active participation in FTC will help new students to hit the ground running once the FRC season begins in January. During the fall, the team meets twice weekly - see the schedule section below.
Early January Kick-off: On the first Saturday of January, FIRST unveils the game to be played for the season. After receiving game information, the team immediately begins brainstorming, as they only have 6 weeks to design, build, program, and debug the robot before it has to be sealed away until competition.
January-March Build Season: The “Build Season” is the peak activity time. The team meets 4 times per week during this period (see Meeting Schedule below). The most busy time is the weekend prior to “Bag Day”, which is usually the third Tuesday in February. On this day, the competition robot must be bagged and ready to ship to competitions. After that point, the team continues developing improvements to upgrade the robot, the drive team practices operating the robot, and the team prepares for the competitions.
March-April Regional Competitions: Official FIRST Competitions occur from March to April. The M-A Team competes in two regional competitions per year, and has attended competitions at UC Davis (Sacramento Regional), San Jose State (Silicon Valley Regional), St. Ignatius College Preparatory (San Francisco Regionals), and Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center (Central Valley Regional).
April FIRST World Championships: By winning at either of our regional competitions, the team is able to advance to the World Championships, held in Houston, TX.
Late Spring and Summer Outreach: The team holds outreach activities in the community with the goal of spreading interest in robotics and STEM. We also have an end-of-the-year party to celebrate our accomplishments.