FIRST SEASON · ROOKIE YEAR

Our Goals for the 2026–2027 Season

It’s our first season as a competitive FTC team, so let’s be clear about what we’re aiming for and what it’s going to take to get there.

We can’t do this without you. Literally.

Every goal on this page — community demos, fundraising, the engineering portfolio, drive practice, the robot itself — takes hands. Students, parents, mentors, sponsors, neighbors who can spare an afternoon: we need all of you. If you’ve been wondering whether to get involved, this is your sign.

For a rookie team, that would be a real accomplishment. In the 2025–2026 season, the AeroCoast League (Tallahassee to Pensacola, roughly 24–25 teams) advanced about 6 teams to State. That’s top 25% — one in four. Doable, but not automatic.

Honest reality: a first-year team almost never makes State on raw match performance. The teams winning matches outright are usually 3+ year veterans with practiced drivers and proven robots. But FTC has a specific advancement path designed for teams like us — the Rookie All-Star Award. It honors the top first-year team in a league, weighted heavily on the engineering portfolio, judging interviews, and community engagement. Win Rookie All-Star at our League Tournament and we advance to State regardless of our match record.

That changes what we focus on. The path is right-brain heavy, and it plays directly to the team-wide goals below.

GOAL AREA 1

Outreach & STEM promotion

• Host or attend at least one community demo per month from September through January.
• Run STEM workshops for younger kids in Apalachicola, Eastpoint, and St. George Island.
• Build partnerships with local schools, libraries, and civic groups.

GOAL AREA 2

Fundraising

• Land at least two corporate or local sponsors.
• Cover tournament travel costs — food, gas, and overnight at the League Tournament — through team fundraising, not student dues.
• Build a sponsor-relations process that survives into year 2.

GOAL AREA 3

Gracious professionalism & cooperation

• Help other teams at every event — loaning parts, sharing tools, debugging together.
• Engage actively in the FTC Open Alliance — post regular build updates publicly, share what works and what doesn’t.
• Show up at competitions ready to be a partner, not just a competitor.

GOAL AREA 4

Team development & sustainability

• Recruit to full team size with a healthy mix of Left Brain and Right Brain talent. (See our Left Brain vs Right Brain Roles page and our Team Roles page for what those mean.)
• Move every member through the technical learning paths so we have depth, not just one or two leaders.
• Submit a complete, polished engineering portfolio ahead of every deadline.
• Run two full practice judging interviews before the first League Meet.

• Build a robot that consistently scores points in autonomous and tele-op — not the league’s best, but reliable.
• Develop at least two distinct autonomous routines we can deploy depending on alliance partner.
• Log real driver-practice hours — hours, not minutes.
• Test mechanisms to failure on purpose, then make them robust.
• Show up to every match with a robot that passes inspection on the first try.

THE WAY THERE

That outcome is downstream of dozens of small wins between now and then.

Pick a sub-goal above and own it.