Recruiting and Forming the Team

Coach

The first step in forming a CyberPatriot team is to identify and recruit a coach. The coach must be an FBI-cleared senior member or sponsor member with the approval of the squadron commander or the next-higher echelon commander, if the coach is the squadron commander. There is one and only one coach for a given team. However, an individual can be registered to coach up to five teams.

In most team sports, the coach is a person who is very familiar with the sport, possibly having participated themselves as a player in the past. For CyberPatriot, however, the coach does not necessarily need to have a technical background. Technical support can come from technical mentors (see below). The primary role of the coach in CyberPatriot is two-fold. First, they are primarily responsible for cadet protection. With CAP's two senior member rule, the coach needs to ensure a second senior member is present at all CyberPatriot activities. Second, the coach is the administrative link between the CyberPatriot Program Office and the team. The coach handles all the administrative responsibilities and required correspondence with the CyberPatriot Program Office at the Air Force Association. The coach would also communicate with the parents concerning schedules, competitions, etc.

Registration for a CyberPatriot year begins soon after the National Finals from the previous year concludes. Registration for the CyberPatriot XI (2018-2019) season runs from 1 April 2018 until 3 October 2018.

If the squadron's CyberPatriot coach is new (i.e. they have not coached a CyberPatriot team before), they will need to register as a coach with the CyberPatriot Program. They do so by going to www.uscyberpatriot.org and selecting the Register link. At this link, the new coach will fill out the "CyberPatriot Volunteer Registration" form to create an account. Members who have coached before will already have an account from the previous year. There, they will fill out the "CyberPatriot Volunteer Registration" form to create an account. Again, accounts from previous years remain valid.

After their account is activated, or once registration for the new CyberPatriot year has begun, they can then login to the CyberPatriot website (www.uscyberpatriot.org) and create one or more teams. For each team they register, the coach will be required to submit the name and email address of a verification official. This is usually the squadron or group commander who will attest to the CyberPatriot program office that the person registering meets the requirements for being a coach.

Once the verification is completed, the team is officially formed. It is not necessary to register individual team members until the final team registration deadline, which will occur before the competition rounds begin. Registering team members early, however, will give them access to training material. Several factors can influence when to register team members. For example, a coach may want to wait to make sure cadets are committed before officially registering them. If there are enough cadets for more than one team, the coach may want to wait to determine the final composition of the teams.

Once a CyberPatriot Coach has been identified, the coach, in conjunction with the squadron leadership, needs to recruit potential team members. While this action can occur at any time in the year, and can continue throughout the year, an optimal time to recruit new team members is in the spring. By recruiting interested cadets prior to the summer, the team can take advantage of numerous training opportunities throughout the summer (see below).

There are several ways that a coach can recruit cadet team members. For a new team, the coach can use an Air Force Association video available via their website. If there are returning cadets, the coach can involve them in promoting CyberPatriot. In conjunction with these two actions, the coach can use promotional material and briefings prepared by the NCCyP Team on the its website at http://cyber.cap.gov/ or presentations prepared by Wing and Region Cyber Program Coordinators. These presentations can be really effective if tied to current news and an explanation of the dire need for Cybersecurity Professionals in the military, public (i.e. government sector) and in private companies. Older cadets may be attracted to the potential job opportunities and scholarship potential if they learn about Cybersecurity through CyberPatriot.

Another effective way to recruit new team members is to invite them to participate in some training sessions without having to first commit. Some cadets may be intimidated at first, but once they’ve had a chance to learn how simple it is to start learning, they may be willing to commit. The CyberPatriot organization provides practice images throughout the summer.

While the initial introduction to CyberPatriot can occur at a regular squadron meeting, it is recommended that the coach schedule a time outside of the regular squadron meeting to introduce basic concepts and to fully describe what CyberPatriot is all about. Introductory training material is available from CyberPatriot at https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/competition/training-materials. In addition, more training material is available on the coach's private dashboard accessible after registering and logging into the CyberPatriot web site.

The coach should then set the overall training schedule based on the goals and objectives of the team members. Highly competitive teams will want to practice more frequently while beginning learners will want fewer hours. More recommendations for training is found in the Training and Building the Team section below.

Technical Mentor

It is beneficial to secure technical mentors for the team, even if the coach is experienced in the curriculum since this provides the opportunity to spread out the responsibilities of the team's training. Mentors do not necessarily need to be CAP members but all mentors (even CAP members) will be required to submit to a background check performed by the Air Force Association and Cadet Protection Policies still apply (i.e. the team cannot be alone with a technical mentor who is not a member of CAP). The cost of the background check is paid by the Air Force Association. Coaches often recruit mentors they or a team member knows. Family, friends, and co-workers can be a source of mentors for the team. Even if a coach has a technical background, having additional mentors can be helpful, especially if there are areas of technical expertise that they do not have—such as Linux or Cisco expertise.

If a coach doesn’t have access to local mentors, they can also find a list of available mentors on the coach's dashboard under the CyberPatriot website. Some mentors work only with designated teams while others are willing to work with any team that needs help.

Team Assistants

Team Assistants are persons who provide additional support for the CyberPatriot team but who are not teaching the team members or serving as technical experts. The team assistants can provide such logistical support as securing a training venue, driving the team to competition locations, etc. Just as in the case of technical mentors, team assistants go through the background check performed by the Air Force Association and the Cadet Protection Policies still apply.

Team Members

A CyberPatriot team must have at least 2 members and no more than 6 members. While up to 6 members are permitted on each team's roster, a maximum of 5 members are permitted to compete at any one time during a competition round. The competitor not competing may act as a substitute, and cannot assist the active competitors.

If more than 6 cadets express a desire to be on the team, the coach can form additional teams. Some squadrons evenly divide the members across their teams while others split the team along varsity and junior varsity levels.

If a single CAP unit cannot field enough cadets to field a team, a team can consist of cadets from other units, but will require several levels of approval on both the CAP and CyberPatriot sides in order to form the team.

Note that small teams can compete at the highest levels. A team of 3 cadets represented CAP in the CyberPatriot national finals. Another junior varsity team with 2 cadets who had never competed before reached the top 15% of the Platinum Tier before being eliminated. Small teams have a very difficult challenge in at the national finals competition but can do exceedingly well in the online rounds.

Once a team member has committed to being part of the team, the coach registers the team member on the web site. The team member will then be sent a link to complete the registration process.