Teams 494 and 70 both exist at Goodrich High School. The students have a choice of what team they would like to be on, but for the most part, Team 494 is made up of primarily junior/senior members while team 70 is primarily sophomore/freshmen. Having two teams only works if you make sure everything is fair. It is like having twins, whatever happens to one, the other also must have it.
This set up provides many more opportunities for students to get hands on experience working on the robot. You see, double the robots, double the jobs, but also double the problems. Things go wrong on one that do not go wrong on the other and vice versa. Or one piece of lexan bends in an egg shape instead of a circle and becomes a better hopper for balls.
If you were to do this i would not suggest it if you have only 17 members
. If you doubled, then you might have enough students to do this. But, if you plan on adopting a two team system you must consider a few facts: 1)How are the students split (And you said girl/boy) 2)Will you collaborate in design (We do, 340/424 don't) 3)Where will you get funding (We were lucky enough to get support from our three sponsors for team 70 when they were added to our school). Numbers one and two are small but fairly important points, but number three is the most important. Most sponsors won't just double their funding if you ask. You must pay at least $6000 more for a new team, and if you are already cash strapped this is a major roadblock. Good luck if you intend to start a new team. If you (Or anyone) has any questions, just PM me, and I will be happy to try and answer them for them.