[StevenB]

In general, I would avoid writing your own CMS. It's a huge amount of work, and probably won't be as flexible or powerful as existing solutions like Wordpress. If you're worried about showing off your coding skills, remember that Wordpress is incredibly flexible and there are numerous ways you can extend and customize its functionality.

It's a little like building custom gearboxes: many top-tier teams do it, and it does provide certain advantages. But the practical reality is that with limited time and resources, there are way more important things to focus on. Off-the-shelf solutions do a superb job, better than what most teams could do on their own. For the majority of us, the wise thing to do is to build on top of the great platform we already have rather than re-engineer everything from the ground up.

While you want to make it look good for the judges, your focus really should be on your local community and the FIRST community who will be using your website. If you make a truly excellent website for the public, the awards will follow, regardless of the technology you use.

That said, writing a CMS would be an excellent learning experience. But pursue the project to learn, rather than for an award.