General Info

There is a mandatory online coaches meeting, March 4, 2025 at 7PM (CST). Please make plans to have at least one adult in attendance. Details of this meeting will be sent out that day. If you absolutely cannot make it, it will be recorded. Please read this website and review all emails I send you. If you do these things, the meeting will be brief.

To prepare for the weekend, please watch this orientation video.

All information about this event will be emailed and can also be found on this website. It is important that you begin looking for emails from me after February 26, 2025. Please check your junk, clutter or spam files for these. I will also text you to ensure the communication is reaching you. So, please ensure your contacts are accurate in your Robot Events account.

By thoroughly reviewing emails and this website, you will get an idea of how the event will be ran. We often enter an event with how we would do it or how we think it will go. However, it is important that you, your students and your parents know what is going on so please read and review everything. Much of the information on this site is accurate, but it will not be finalized until February 17, 2025.

The middle school and elementary school competitions will be running at the same time. We will have four middle school fields and two elementary. There will be three certified head refs plus six scorekeepers on the main tournament floor.

We will have badges for coaches, participants and volunteers. "No parent" and "No coach" zones will be strictly enforced.

FIELDS 

We will have an area set aside for practice fields. Please contact me if you would like to bring one. If you bring a field into the building, you are required to share it. We will have a practice field coordinator. It may be necessary for this individual to cycle teams through ten minute intervals to practice if a line forms. This is how things are done at worlds and will give everyone equal access to the practice fields. If your team asks another team to move from the field before the ten minute session is over, this will result in a G1 violation.

No practice fields are allowed in the pit area. They are only allowed in the practice fields section of the main gym floor.

On Friday night all fields (skills and tournament) will be open for skills runs only. We recommend doing autonomous on the skills fields as a crowd of people watching your autonomous run can be a bit unnerving. Additionally, the field levels on the main floor can vary enough that it could affect robots during autonomous. See rule T10. Skills fields will be on the floor. On Saturday, skills runs will be done on the skills fields and the tournament fields from 8am until 9:30AM.

JUDGING

The judging schedule will be emailed the week of the event if not sooner so remember to bring your notebooks and turn them in at the check-in table. No digital notebooks, please. They must be printed.

TRAVEL

•  

• https://visitsumnertn.com (Tourism Site) 

• https://visitsumnertn.com/travel-guides/ (digital travel guides) 

• https://visitsumnertn.com/stay/ (where to stay) 

• We do have a block of rooms set aside at the Holiday Inn Express Hendersonville. Please contact Kim Dickinson at 615-824-0022 and tell her you are with our event. The room rate is $119.00 plus tax per night.  This includes a complimentary hot breakfast, complimentary wireless internet, and complimentary parking.  

  Holiday Inn Express Hendersonville
  615 East Main Street
  Hendersonville, TN 37075

CHECK-IN

Teams can check in when they arrive but only the coaches will receive the team packet. Coaches may check in all of your teams or wait until they arrive. 

Each organization will recieve enough name tags for their students plus two more for coaches / chaperones. Since our pit area is down the hall from the tournament, we recognize that it will be necessary for an adult to stay in the pits. If you need more badges for chapersones or students, please visit the registration table.

Here is a pdf with instructions on where to unload and where to park. 

INNOVATE

Innovate Award Submission Form. Go ahead and have it completed before you arrive.

https://kb.roboticseducation.org/hc/en-us/articles/17319258476439-Judging-Resource-Innovate-Award-Submission-Information-Form

COMMEMORATIVE BUTTONS

We are creating commemorative buttons for past games. They are 1" in diameter and are $1 each.  The proceeds go to support our digital arts and robotics programs.

Give this pdf to your students and submit one total order from your organization at this google form. We will leave it up to you if you want to charge your team members or if you just want to purchase them with your team's money. Whichever you decide, please turn in your money separately from your lunch order. We will accept any combination of checks or cash, but please collect the money and only you or a designated adult pick up the buttons. We will have a specific pick-up location for this.

Be sure to order for team members who didn't make it to state. 

Preorders for the buttons will be taken until February 20th.  After that, we will have extras at state to purchase (cash or check from your school). If we run out, you can place an order and we will ship them for $15.

Make checks to Hendersonville High School and write "buttons" in the memo line.

Grade Level: Elementary

Skills Challenge Offered: Yes

Judging Format: All In-Person Judging