S02E21 - Leading A Rookie Team To Win - Part 1 with Daniel “Danny” Smith

What makes a winning team?

In this episode, you will hear the remarkable story of how one coach believed in children who come from difficult backgrounds and who are typically not privileged to what other children from larger cities and wealthier backgrounds have access to.

Coach Danny took a group of rookie children from Rutherdforton Country a small rural area in Western North Carolina and not only taught them the skills of programming, building, marketing, and fundraising for their FIRST Robotics Competition. But he also led them to win nearly all of their local competitions and place top 100 in the World’s competition in Houston, TX.

How does a coach take a group of rookies and scale the team to be champions?

Let’s hear…

Show Recap:

1. What is your message that you share with the world?

You have everything inside of you to do amazing things, just have to unleash it and believe in yourself.

2. How did you discover this message?

When watching students finally having their "Aha" moments and they start to see the world differently.

3. What about this message is so near-and-dear to your heart?

You have life and death in your words and actions towards people, so build people up instead of tiring them down.

4. Who are the typical people this message resonates with?

Young and old.

5. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

From my God and the Bible.

Danny Smith Bio:

Daniel Smith, or how he is known by his team as ‘Coach Danny’ has been an educator for many years and has been the head coach of Omegabytes 5727 First Robotics Competition Team and this past year co-founded LYNK 9496. In 2023 he took his team for the very first time to the World’s Championships in Huston, TX - many of these kids don’t typically have the privilege of traveling outside their county, let alone across the country. This year, LYNK, a rookie team made up of kids from all walks of life, not only learned new skills (such as programming, marketing, fundraising, and building the robot), but also won nearly every local competition they competed at and placed top 100 among the thousands of teams from around the world in their World’s Championship competition in Huston, TX.

To learn more about LYNK Robotics and to support them by sponsoring, please feel welcome to visit https://www.inspirecarolina.org/lynk/ 

Feel welcome to watch the video interview below.

You can also check it out on LinkedIn by clicking the links below