[Spatel7793]

I'm from New York and when I was in high school, there were two teams, 1155 and 2265. One was officially a co-ed team, and there was the all-girls team.

Speaking from experience, this causes a problem. As much as we love to promote STEM for women, having an all girls team creates a bad public image for the brother team. It looks like one team doesn't allow girls and sends them over to the all-girls team. You have to explain to everyone that while yes we are a co-ed team, all the girls are on that all-girls team. It perpetuates the "boys vs girls" feud and personally I think it's stupid.

That being said, I see the benefits of having an all girls team. You can put girls in leadership roles because I will be honest in saying that when I was captain, there were definitely people on my team who didn't respect our sister team. There were no girls on the co-ed team during that time. They automatically went over to the Iron Maidens (2265). On that team, there were pretty good leaders by the time I graduated. During 2010, they even made it to Championships. I myself had a pretty good relationship with 2265 so there were hardly any issues. I even helped them scout during regionals.

As for recruiting more students, there are definitely people on teams that you could do without. And don't give me that self-righteous speech of "Oh you should include everyone...." Out of necessity for members, you have to take in some people who you know could be trouble down the road. If we had had only one co-ed team, a truly co-ed team, I'm certain it would have been fantastic. There were smart, dedicated people of both genders who on a single team would have done well. It's definitely a case of united we stand divided we fall. Divided is just not good.

If the choice is up to me, I don't care whether you're male or female. If you step up, do your part well, and are a good person, you can lead. So what if you're called catty or bossy? It's only because you step up where others do not. They may not like being told what to do, but how else are things going to get done? It's a team game, not a one man or woman army.