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Think about high school football games or other sports. Does that look like FIRST culture? Does the territorialism exhibited at those UIL events resemble anything we have been taught to value in FIRST, most notably GP?
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I agree that UIL sports culture is not the same as FIRST, but I'd encourage you to read the Wikipedia page about UIL academics. A half million kids participate in UIL academics each year. I couldn't find an equivalent sum-up number for FIRST, but I believe they are about the same size, UIL being a bit bigger in number of students involved in academic activities.
I graduated HS before FIRST existed, and UIL academics was my own FIRST equivalent. It gave me a place to focus my energy and achieve something -- alongside adult teachers/coaches. It pointed me towards higher education, helped with funding, gave me confidence, and yes -- I even made friends because of it. There are many other programs that provide these same benefits -- FIRST is awesome and I enjoy volunteering and advancing its goals, but it isn't the only organization making a difference.
I cannot comment on how this will impact established FIRST teams. I'm sure it isn't perfect, but I trust that many people are doing their best to make this transition as positive as possible. I appreciate your concern, and hope that you are able to be involved in order to represent your team's situation.
But. I think it is unfair to lump all of UIL into what you see/read about in HS football or other aggressive sports events. Nerds, geeks, and future scientists and engineers at a math meet are not that different than when they are at a FIRST event. If your slide-rule broke, some one would loan you their backup -- before my time BTW. If your decimal key or zero key wears out on your calculator, someone would loan you their backup -- yes, that happened to me.
I'm proud of what UIL academics accomplishes and hope that we can find a way to make robotics a part of it. This trial will help determine if that makes sense.
Greg McKaskle