Yes, and yes.
As far as starting a team, i can't really speak to that, as ours has a long history (which is an advantage, as events often cycle in rotation, and the team can save and share some of the materials used in previous years. Our team is also helped by having a strong high school team, and the members share advice and help the middle schoolers in many ways).
The teams vary tremendously- depending on the goals and resources (particularly time!) available. Teams can compete fairly casually, or be quite serious. At least in our state, there are leveled competitions, from regional, to state, to culminate in a national competition. The top few teams at each level advance, so for less serious teams the season can be short. There are other opportunities for competition, primarily invitational competitions, but these seem to be attended by the more serious teams, as the travel and other expenses are challenging to many schools.
Our team happens to be in the serious category, so it involves a tremendous commitment on the part of the kids as well as parents and coaches (there are coaches who are teachers at the school- on our team, they handle all the paperwork and organizational tasks, and then there are parents and community members who act as coaches, advisors, mentors, etc, on various levels.
Our kids have benefitted tremendously, as it is a true opportunity to extend and challenge themselves, with the bonus of working together with similar kids for a common goal- the teamwork is as important as the individual members, perhaps more important. So people skills, flexibility, problem-solving on the spot- in addition to knowledge, have been important. One of the other huge benefits to our kids is that the kids fail, often (at least early in the season), and sometimes quite badly, and then they have to pick up and move on to the next event, because the team is counting on them. Then later they have to work on fixing whatever the problem was. Great lessons in handling disappointment and stress.
Hope that helps.
