Freeze Traditions Make Kickoff Weekend Memorable

By Sarah Schuller and Alison Moore

The Foley Freeze has many traditions as a team; some of our more prominent ones happen during kickoff, which is the first weekend of a new season.

The traditional practices include group meals, brainstorming and even a mock-up of the game field made with chairs, tables and students. To give an idea of how much goes on, the team members, parents and students collectively, ate over 250 meals during this year’s 2 day kickoff weekend according to Evelyn Schaublin, one of the key parent mentors.

On the morning of kickoff Saturday, the whole team gathers in the Media Center of the school to watch the worldwide broadcast release of the new FIRST game. During this time a light breakfast is provided by some team families. The team congregates at tables and on couches to watch as the game animation is shown.  Once the game and rules are released, it’s time to dissect and understand the game.

The following day the whole team attends mass at Guardian Angels, a local church, where the Freeze receives a blessing for a safe season. Upon returning to Bishop Foley, students, parents, mentors, and coaches gather for a delicious pancake breakfast.  The students and mentors then break up into groups and meet for multiple sessions, coming up with various ideas for how to tackle each challenge of the game, according to Kevin Swift, assistant coach.

Each year we create a small version of the field. The students move the game pieces around the field as if they, the students, were robots. This helps  the team figure out how the game is played, create strategies, and brainstorm how the robot should be built.

These traditions help the team members get to know each other and learn how the process will work as they get ready for the next six weeks. This is valuable as they only have those six weeks to complete a robot and determine the best way to win the game.