Drive Team Selection

Overview

Drive team members are selected for the competition season through a process that is consistent, data driven, and objective. Drive team selection typically begins in the early weeks of build season. The process is repeated every year and returning drive team members are not guaranteed a spot on the next year’s drive team. All roles will typically have a backup, should the primary student for that role be unable to participate in a competition.

Drive Team Members Are Ambassadors

At competitions, members of the drive team are a visible face of the team. Your behavior, attitude, and interactions with other teams and volunteers have an impact on the perception of KnightKrawler. While all members of the team are representatives and must act in a way that reflects team culture, members of the drive team have the highest visibility. These are just some of the actions and traits KnightKrawler expects to see from all drive team members..

• Demonstrate Gracious Professionalism at all times
• Be Kind
• Be Patient
• Be Respectful
• Be Humble in Victory and Gracious in Defeat
• Strive for improvement
• Practice your role on the drive team
• Watch matches and always be thinking about strategy
• Help identify ways to improve the robot performance

Drive Team Composition

While the drive team requirements may change from year to year based on the game, the following positions are typical.

• Primary Driver
• Secondary Driver
• Human Player
• Technician
• Drive Team Coach

Steps

To try out for the drive team, all candidates must complete the steps in the drive team assessment process:

1. Survey
2. Rules Test
3. Skills Assessment (Technician exempt)
4. Collaboration Assessment (Primary, Secondary, Coach)

Survey

All candidates must complete the survey to indicate their interest in the specific drive team position(s). Additional information will be collected at this time.

Rules Test

All candidates must complete the rules test. Mentors will review the rules test results and identify a cutoff point (score) for which candidates can continue in the process. The minimum score to advance changes year to year and is typically defined by an obvious gap in scoring that divides those that studied the rules from those that did not. Additional considerations for minimum score may include limiting the candidate pool to a reasonable list of candidates who can be effectively evaluated in further steps. For example, 20 candidates may be too many to efficiently assess in a skills assessment in the time available. The rules test can cover any part of the game manually, but will emphasize scoring, penalties, field layout (not dimensions), terminology of the game and field, and other aspects of game play that may be involved during match play.

Skills Assessment

Primary and Secondary Drivers

Drivers will usually need to drive a previous year’s robot through an obstacle course. The drivers will be timed and penalties may be assessed for hitting obstacles, driving out of bounds, or not following instructions. The driving skills test will be tailored to the game. Additionally, drivers may be subjected to a variety of scenarios that may arise during a match to test a driver’s ability to stay focused, deal with stress, or adapt to changing circumstances. Drivers will also be given an interview and strategy scenario to assess how well they will represent our team and how well they can work with others. Skills test, interview responses, and strategy scenario may be weighted differently per year.

Human Players

Human players will typically be assessed in whatever physical skill is needed to perform the task required by the game. Usually the assessment will include the current year’s game and field elements. Additional testing/quizzing of a human player may be involved to assess the player’s ability to stay focussed, deal with stress, or adapt to changing circumstances. KnightKrawler has selected two human players in past years, and those players alternated field time throughout the season.

Technician

The technician role is most typically filled by a programming student who is intimately aware of the autonomous routines used by the robot. However any student is encouraged to apply for the technician role. Role specific questions may be asked of the technician candidates that do not apply to other drive team roles to assess their capabilities.

Collaboration Assessment

A secondary driver will be selected with the assistance of the primary driver. It is critical that primary and secondary drivers collaborate well, have good communication, and deal with conflict appropriately. An assessment will be performed to see how well the primary driver performs with all secondary driver candidates. It is possible the collaboration assessment may not only identify the secondary driver candidates who are not a good fit for working with the primary driver, but may also identify that the top primary driver candidate after skills assessment, may no longer be a fit for that role due to issues working within the drive team.

Drive Coach

Team 2052 KnightKrawler has historically used an adult drive coach. Drive Coach Pete is widely regarded as a model drive coach, who makes all teams on an alliance feel welcomed and heard, finds ways for all members of the alliance to accomplish their individual goals during qualification matches, and works to diffuse tense situations before, during and after matches. In 2025, Pete was recognized by FIRST HQ as a model drive coach and asked to participate on a committee to assist in finding ways to improve competition experience for and with drive coaches. Pete helps to avoid situations where other drive coaches may attempt to overpower conversations or coerce teams into doing something they are uncomfortable doing. Past student drivers have shared that having a veteran adult drive coach such as Pete is a strategic competitive advantage and a major contributor to KnightKrawler’s on-field success. Pete’s reputation as a drive coach has been a deciding factor many times when an alliance captain has selected KnightKrawler to join their playoff alliances.

KnightKrawler does not have a rule that an adult must be a drive coach, therefore a student drive coach is a possibility. Selecting a student drive coach would need to have the support of the others on the drive team, and the team leadership (students and mentors) as a whole. A student may be identified as a back up drive coach, would Pete not be available.

Deliberation

Mentors involved in drive team selection and the team advisor will meet as a group to discuss the final candidates. Final candidates are those who have completed all steps of the process with high scores. This process is typically used to break ties, determine backup positions, and confirm that candidates are meeting team expectations. Consideration for drive team members will include:

• Student behavior and contributions throughout their time on the team
• Current academic performance
• Team needs and opportunities

Drive Team Selection Announcements

Drive team selection decisions will be disclosed to the candidates in person, then announced to the team during Saturday build meetings.