Hey there,
I love the layout. It's "techy" and got a certain sci-fi feel to it.
However, if I were you I'd change the font of the buttons and banner, maybe to a simpler font like Arial or Verdana. Either that or take off the glow on the banner.
The rollovers are nice and simple which is good
When you add pictures and content the website will look ten times better. Have you considered including some sort of interactive communication method like chat rooms, forum, journals just as John Boucher mentioned. That might be a good idea especially when you have lots of people posting or idling in them. Try putting a section off on the homepage itself for sponsors. Maybe beside the FIRST logo.
One more note, I hope the webpage isn't flush vertically. I'd add vertical scroll bars or you could just incorporate a vertical scroll bar within the layout itself.
Overall the colors are nice and appealing, and contrast well with each other.
Congrats you guys are off to a great start!