FIRST Robotics Competition Blog

“A season unlike any other.” “The new normal.” “Unprecedented times.” We’re sure we aren’t alone in having read or seen these statements used so many times in the past 12 months, that the phrases have practically lost all meaning. However, just because we feel they are overused doesn’t change the fact that FIRST, along with the rest of the world, is facing a challenging situation for the 2021 season.

As you have likely seen, last week FIRST HQ announced that there will be no official in-person 2021 INFINITE RECHARGE game play events during the regular season. Doing what we can to keep everyone safe is the highest priority, even if that means we’re only able to participate in the FRC remote challenges. To all of our friends and colleagues that have been loyal volunteers in the past – both team mentors and event volunteers – we know that we likely won’t be able to see you face-to-face this year. However, we want to make sure that you know we have not forgotten about you!

In fact, our volunteer friends are at the top of our collective minds. We want to ensure that the volunteers that we all represent are aware that we are thinking about them. And we mean it! We know that volunteers are the lifeblood of FIRST and that without all of you, FRC events could not happen. So, when that magical time comes and we are all able to join together in person and hold FRC events, we are going to be depending on you to come out and support the program that we all love.

Finally, we want to end with the most personal and heartfelt “Thank You!” that we can muster in a blog post. We are truly grateful for all of the effort, money, miles, and most importantly, time, that each and every volunteer puts into the program. We know that the success of FRC depends on our volunteers continually answering the call, and we couldn’t do it without you. Again – Thank you!

Please be sure to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns. Our email addresses are below. We would love to hear from you! And, stay safe out there!

PS: We still need judges for the virtual competitions. You can register to judge via the FIRST Dashboard on the FIRST website. Please join us 

Co-Chief Field Supervisors

Ayla Delaat & Scott Goering

Co-Chief Head Referees

Aidan Browne & Jon Zawislak

Co-Chief Judge Advisors

Cindy Stong & Allen Bancroft

Co-Chief Lead Robot Inspectors

Al Skierkiewicz & Chuck Dickerson

Co-Chief Volunteer Coordinators

Laurie Shimizu & Sarah Plemmons