This is their sport

After talking with the team, I was able to speak to the parents off camera.
Understanding the importance of fundraising for this type of team. Not many people understand academic teams and the lack of financial support they receive from the schools.  For these kids their “sport” is building and completing with robots. Like team sports the school does offer to let us use the robotics room. The give our team a small locked area. Other than that the team is on its own. Our team has purchased a machine that would help in the building but the school refuses to let us bring it in and place in our locked area.
Athletic teams get buses for their events, academic teams fund their own trips. All funds are raised by the team.  These are our future engineers.  These kids will more than likely become successful in an engineering field.   But this is where a significant amount of school money is spent. How many professional athletes did your high school produce?  Maybe 1?