Greetings Florida FTC Teams, Coaches, Volunteers, and Sponsors:
I am looking forward to seeing everyone’s robots navigating the CENTERSTAGESM field at events starting in about a month. The leagues have scheduled more events and most of the events are available for volunteers to register in the FIRST Volunteer Management System and available in the event registration system on the www.flfirst.org website. This Florida FTC newsletter includes information on how to register to attend your league events. Encourage all teams to attend your league scrimmage to help build on this season’s theme of “Teams Helping Teams”. For all of the veteran teams, this is your chance to connect with rookie teams and help them make progress with their robot design.
The following are the topics covered in this Florida FTC newsletter:
- League Event Dates & Locations
- How to Register to Attend League Events
- Florida Championship T-shirt Design Contest (Repeat)
- Season Theme (Teams Helping Teams) and Video Contest (Repeat)
Newsletter Details:
- League Event Dates & Locations – The league leadership teams have made significant progress on identify event dates and locations. The following is the current list of Florida FTC events available on the following event registration page: http://www.flfirst.org/index.php/season/events
AeroCoast League Events
October 21, 2023 Meet #1 at Riverside Elementary School in Crestview, FL
November 18, 2023 Meet #2 at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in Tallahassee, FL
December 16, 2023 Meet #3 at Riverside Elementary School in Crestview, FL
January 6, 2024 Meet #4 at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in Tallahassee, FL
January 27, 2024 League Tournament at Crestview High School in Crestview, FL
F.U.N. League Events
September 30, 2023 Scrimmage at Boca Raton High School in Boca Raton, FL
November 4, 2023 Meet #1 at Treasure Coast High School in Port Saint Lucie, FL
December 9, 2023 Meet #2 at Anderson Middle School in Stuart, FL
January 13, 2024 Meet #3 at Pahokee High School in Pahokee, FL
February 3, 2024 League Tournament at Boca Raton High School in Boca Raton, FL
Gulf Coast League Events
October 21, 2023 Scrimmage at Hollins High School in Kenneth City, FL
November 11, 2023 Meet #1 at Seminole High School in Seminole, FL
December 9, 2023 Meet #2 at Arthrex in Naples, FL
January 13, 2024 Meet #3 at Lakewood High School in St. Petersbrug, FL
North East Florida League Events
October 14, 2023 Scrimmage at Bolles Conroy Athletic Center in Jacksonville, FL
November 4, 2023 Meet #1 at Bolles Conroy Athletic Center in Jacksonville, FL
December 9, 2023 Meet #2 at Bolles Conroy Athletic Center in Jacksonville, FL
January 13, 2024 Meet #3 at Bolles Conroy Athletic Center in Jacksonville, FL
February 3, 2024 League Tournament at Bolles Conroy Athletic Center in Jacksonville, FL
Orlando Robotics League Events
October 14, 2023 Scrimmage at Lake Highland Prep in Orlando, FL
November 4, 2023 Meet #1 at Lake Highland Prep in Orlando, FL
December 16, 2023 Meet #2 at Lake Highland Prep in Orlando, FL
January 13, 2024 Meet #3 at Foundation Academy in Winter Garden, FL
February 3, 2024 League Tournament at Lake Highland Prep in Orlando, FL
ROBOT League Event
November 11, 2023 Meet #1 at McKeel Academy of Technology in Lakeland, FL
December 9, 2023 Meet #2 at Seven Rivers Christian School in Lecanto, FL
February 3, 2024 League Tournament at McKeel Academy of Technology in Lakeland, FL
South Florida League Events
October 14, 2023 Scrimmage at St. Anthony Catholic School in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
November 18, 2023 Meet #1 at North Broward High School in Coconut Creek, FL
December 16, 2023 Meet #2 at Coral Springs Charter School in Coral Springs, FL
January 13, 2023 Meet #4 at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami, FL
February 3, 2023 League Tournament at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Space Coast League Events
October 14, 2023 Scrimmage at Rockledge High School in Rockledge, FL
November 11, 2023 Meet #1 (CENTERSTAGE on Oviedo) at Oviedo High School in Oviedo, FL
December 9, 2023 Meet #2 (CENTERSTAGE on Palm Bay) at Odyssey Jr/Sr High Schol in Palm Bay, FL
January 6, 2024 Meet #3 (CENTERSTAGE on Titusville) at St. Teresa Catholic Church & School in Titusville, FL
February 3, 2024 League Tournament at Hagerty High School in Oviedo, FL
- How to Register to Attend League Meets -- League meet dates and locations have been published to the flfirst.org website for all of the Florida FTC Leagues. The league event schedule can be found by going to the following web page: http://www.flfirst.org/index.php/season/events. Scroll down through the page to find your league. Each event includes information such as date, time, and location.
It is important that teams register to attend league events to help the event organizers prepare the venue and the scoring software for the number of teams that will be participating. If your team would like to attend an event, you must register for the event by selecting the blue highlighted word “Open” to go to the event registration page. You will need a six-digit passcode to register for events. Within a week of you completing your FIRST team registration process, you should have received an automated email from the www.flfirst.org website with your passcode. Please keep this email in safe place as you will use the same passcode throughout the 2023-24 season to register for events. If you did not receive the passcode email or cannot find it, I suggest you first check through your SPAM folder and if you still not able to locate the email you can request the code by visiting the following web page: https://www.flfirst.org/Registration_System/resend_passcode.php - Florida Championship T-shirt Design Contest (Repeat) – This is your opportunity to get a guaranteed invitation to the Florida Championship on March 1-2, 2024. All Florida FTC teams are eligible to submit a volunteer t-shirt design no later than November 30, 2023 and the winner will be announced on by December 30, 2022. The following are the detailed requirements for the t-shirt design:
- Design must be emailed to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than midnight November 30, 2023. - The design must be a high-resolution JPG file
- The JPG logo design file must be a single color
- The t-shirt must include the following: “Florida Championship 2024”
- The t-shirt design should include the official CENTERSTAGESM presented by Raytheon Technologies game logo.
The winner of the Florida Championship volunteer t-shirt design content will receive an automatic invitation to the Florida Championship (if your team also received an invitation from your league championship than the team will receive a $200 credit to cover the registration fee).
- Season Theme (Teams Helping Teams) and Video Contest (Repeat) – During the opening of the Florida Season Kick-off event, I announced that we are following in FIRST’s leadership by creating a season theme. The FIRST 2023-24 theme is FIRST IN SHOW (https://info.firstinspires.org/first-in-show?utm_source=first-inspires&utm_medium=promo&utm_campaign=fir-registration-024 ). The Florida FIRST Tech Challenge season theme will be Teams Helping Teams. This means that throughout the season I would like to include examples of this theme in this newsletter.
- For example, during the kick-off event we played a video from Ramsey McClure (team 18145 Men in Black Jax) about the Student Leadership Innovation Council (SLIC). I encourage everyone to go to the website (www.slicftc.com) and select “Join SLIC”. Tell Ramsey about things you want to share with other teams.
- Another example is the email that I received from Super 7 (team 7477) wanting to share information they created to help teams be successful. Take a look at the “Tech Toolbox” for lots of great information on a wide range of technical topics ranging from motors to telemetry. I encourage all teams to take a look at this informative website: https://ftc-code.gitbook.io/tech-toolbox/
- I would also like to hear stories from teams that have been helped by other teams. Send me an email and tell your story. Another great opportunity will be to create a video and enter into the Florida FTC Video contest. During the remote event season of 2020-21, we provided cash prizes to teams that submitted creative videos after each of our remote events. Please start thinking about creative ideas for a video as you will have until November 30, 2023 to create a video and potentially win a $250 or $100 gift card. I will provide more details about the video contest rules in a future email but below are a few examples of the creative videos form the 2020-21 season and a fantastic promote winner from a past season:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW7UXB_mEEA
- https://youtu.be/-iAjjTm7NK8
- https://youtu.be/KN3eFirNbPg
- https://youtu.be/RJIXUXamSck
- https://youtu.be/Svyi5BvhWBo
- https://youtu.be/iBXi66IgZNc