Coach Newsletters

Greetings, RI FTC Coaches!

Summer Vacation is fast approaching, and that means the new 2025-2026 Season, FIRST® AGE™ presented by Qualcomm, is upon us! Please take a moment to read the following announcements, to keep you informed on our upcoming plans as the school year winds down.

Additionally, all RI FTC Coach Newsletters moving forward will be accessible on our website at riftc.org/current-season/newsletters.

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SAVE THE DATE - 2025-26 RI FTC Kickoff on 9/6/25 at 9am!

We are excited to announce that the RI FTC Kickoff Event for the 2025-26 DECODE™ presented by RTX Season Challenge will be held at New England Institute of Technology in East Greenwich on Saturday, September 6th at 9:00am.

Highlights of our 2025-26 Kickoff Event will be Breakout Sessions by Coaches/Mentors and Students, for Coaches/Mentors and Students, such as:

For Coaches/Mentors:

• Team Finances: Understanding Season Costs for FTC Teams

• Season Timetable: Using Deadlines to guide your Students’ Competition Prep

For Students:

• Preparing for Competition: Pre-Event Tasks to set your Team up for success

• Judging 101: Meeting and Exceeding Awards Criteria

Following the Breakout Sessions, all attendees will come back together for important Game/Season Updates from FIRST Headquarters, as well as updates from our Program Delivery Partners (PDPs) about our local RI FTC events and competitions, before the DECODE Game/Field Reveal at 12:00pm.

NEIT Dining Services will be open for Lunch (Cash/Card Accepted) until 1:00pm, and seating in the NEIT Student Center near the DECODE Competition Field will be available for teams to sit together and brainstorm. Classrooms on the 2nd Floor will also be available on a first-come, first-served basis, for multi-team schools and organizations who need a larger brainstorming space after the reveal.

You don’t want to miss this! All Teams are highly encouraged to attend Kickoff, as there will be a wealth of helpful information in this year’s Breakout Sessions, FIRST HQ Updates and Local PDP Updates. We anticipate activities to finish by 1:00pm.

If your team is planning on attending, please RSVP here. If you have any questions, please reach out to Erin Flynn at eflynn@neit.edu or Tom Rishworth at trishworth@firstpartners.org.

INTO THE DEEP Off-Season Event Opportunity – Husky Robotics Invitational

Sent on behalf of Connecticut FTC and FTC Team 16008

Husky Robotics Invitational (HRI) is an Off-Season INTO THE DEEP FTC event aimed at making offseason events more accessible to everyone (from veteran teams to brand-new rookies). Hosted by FTC Team 16008 “Armored Artemises” with help from UConn FIRST. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, June 14 at UConn’s Lawrence D. McHugh Hall, Hillside Rd, Storrs, CT 06269. Teams and Volunteers are still needed and welcome!

There is a Registration Fee of $100 per team to compete in HRI. If you are interested in competing, please sign up here. Questions about competing? Please reach out to FTC Team 16008 at armoredartemises@gmail.com.

If you or members of your team are interested in volunteering, please sign up here. Questions about volunteering? Please reach out to Joey Macary from UConn FIRST at youssefmmacary@gmail.com.

ICYMI: 2025 RI FTC State Championship Photo Album

The 2025 RI FTC Championship Photo Album is available at this link. Thank you to our Event Photographer, Elijah Stolyarov, for taking these amazing photos. Photos from this album are free to download, with professional prints from Smugmug available for a fee.

FIRST Championship/FTC Premier Event Advancement

As many of you are aware, FTC Premier Events were formally launched in the 2024-2025 INTO THE DEEP Season. Premier Events are a new event type and alternative to the FIRST Championship, designed to allow more teams to advance to a third-level competition from their Regional Championships. The inaugural Premier Event was even held right here in New England at The Big E on April 4th-5th, with 6 Rhode Island FTC Teams competing alongside 50 other FTC teams from around the world, and we have great news: Premier Events are here to stay!

To Recap: at the 2025 RI FTC State Championship, 2 RI FTC Teams (252, 701) advanced to the FIRST Championship, with the next 3 RI FTC Teams (636, 8413, 15374) earning advancement to any Premier Event worldwide, and the following 3 RI FTC Teams (6152, 7093, 9219) earning advancement to only the New England Premier Event. Advancing Teams were selected based on the Advancement Criteria in the INTO THE DEEP Competition Manual, and the invitation process was described in a Coach Newsletter sent on 2/10/25.

At this time, it is too early for us to provide details on 2026 Premier Event Locations, Advancement or Registration Fees, we ask that you keep Premier Event expenses in consideration as you plan for the 2025-26 Season, as your team may advance to a 2026 Premier Event. Premier Event Registration Fees for 2025 Premier Events ranged from $500/team to $2000/team, not including travel/housing expenses.

2025-26 Team/Event Registration Fees & Forms

Team Registration for the 2025-26 FIRST AGE Season officially opened in the FIRST Dashboard on May 14th. The 2025-26 Individual Team Registration Fee (paid directly to FIRST) for FTC Teams is $325, an increase of $30 from 2024-25.

RI FTC Qualifier/State Championship Registration Fees for 2025-26 events (paid directly to New England Institute of Technology) will be announced by early November 2025.

Coaches/Mentors: Now is a great time to complete your Acknowledgement Forms and/or Youth Protection Screening in your FIRST Dashboard. For instructions on completing these steps, Click Here. These instructions also cover how to change your FIRST Dashboard Email Address, used by FIRST Headquarters and RI FTC for all official team communication.

NE FIRST Mentor Slack

Interested in Networking and Collaborating with other FIRST Mentors? Join the NE FIRST Mentor Slack and start communicating with other FLL, FTC and FRC Mentors from around New England. This Slack Workspace is open to FIRST Mentors in RI, MA, CT, VT, NH and ME. Please, no team members.

Rhode Island Robotics Alliance

Sent on behalf of Dylan Ryder (Mentor, FTC Team 636) 

We’re excited to invite you to join the Rhode Island Robotics Alliance Slack Workspace! Our goal is to bring the entire FIRST community in Rhode Island closer together by connecting FTC and FRC mentors, allowing us to share opportunities, exchange ideas, and strengthen our teams over the next few years.

Slack is a streamlined messaging platform that will make it easy for all of us to stay connected. It's a tool we can use to ask for advice or even spare parts, among other things. Greg Gongoleski, Mentor of FRC Team 5112, has authored a helpful guidebook that outlines general Slack guidelines for this group. To keep things manageable, we’re inviting all RI FTC and FRC Mentors/Coaches, and up to three (3) student representatives from each RI FTC and FRC team.

Once you're in, you can start collaborating and sharing resources right away! We look forward to building a stronger Rhode Island robotics community with your help.

If you have any questions, or are interested in joining RIRA, please contact Dylan Ryder at dylanryder@wheelerschool.org. 

2025 New England Mentor Conference presented by Onshape - August 2-3, 2025

Returning to WPI this August is the New England Mentor Conference presented by Onshape, a PTC technology. Registration is open as the planning committee builds an exciting conference schedule with presentations focused on:

• Technical Mentorship

• Team Culture & Mentoring

• Team Development

• Fundraising & Logistics

• Broader FIRST Community Impact

For more information and to register, visit nefirst.org/conference. Registration for the 2025 New England Mentor Conference is $45 per person. Pre-registration closes July 31. If you have any questions, or if the registration fee is a barrier to your attendance, please contact conference@nefirst.org.

Tom Rishworth joining as RI FTC Co-Program Delivery Partner

Tom Rishworth, who many of you know as our FIRST Technical Advisor and RI-based Outreach & Education Resource for NE FIRST, has officially joined RI FTC as a Co-Program Delivery Partner alongside Erin Flynn to help RI FTC continue to provide engaging, supportive, inclusive and impactful Youth STEM Programming to Middle and High School Students in the Ocean State.

Tom will continue in his role with NE FIRST overseeing Outreach efforts in RI, and don’t worry – Erin is not going anywhere either. Erin and Tom will continue to work together keeping the FTC program running here in RI, as well as laying the foundation for future growth of the FTC program over the next several years.

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We hope you have a restful Summer Vacation, and thank you for all you do to support STEM Education in Rhode Island. If you have any questions about this Coach Newsletter, please let us know.

Best,

Erin Flynn

Co-Program Delivery Partner

Rhode Island FIRST Tech Challenge

eflynn@neit.edu

(401) 780-4199 ext. 3462

Tom Rishworth

Co-Program Delivery Partner

Rhode Island FIRST Tech Challenge

trishworth@firstpartners.org

(401) 644-4187