Esports Programs Continue to Develop Across Country

Esports is growing fast and bringing gaming into the mainstream. It can be found in professional esports leagues, online streaming on Twitch and YouTube videos. Now, esports is having an impact at the high school level, with 20 state associations offering state-sponsored competition.

Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado, is one of the schools that has added an esports program as a new opportunity for students. In 2018, the esports program was started at the school after the students in its Video Game Club wanted a more competitive experience.

Leading Cherry Creek’s esports program is Alexandra Bak, the head coach and a biology teacher at the school (and a League of Legends player herself) who has been instrumental in creating one of the most successful esports programs in Colorado.

“I played League of Legends, and I mentioned that in one of my back-to-school greetings and so that got around. Then, some League of Legends players said that they wanted to form a League of Legends team. From there it just kind of spiraled outward. Now, we’re competing across at least six to eight different games, and I usually have 10 to 12 competing teams per season across a variety of games,” Bak said.

What started off as a small group of students with a club sponsor has now grown to 150 students, three coaches and a student leadership group. The rapid growth has been challenging at times, but Bak has had plenty of support.

“I have two assistant coaches, a really dedicated student officer team and a captain for each game. So, it probably takes about 15 of us to keep our 150-student program running smoothly,” Bak said.

One challenge has been that esports was only officially sanctioned by the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) in 2022, so the program hasn’t had quite enough time to build up the resources required to sponsor such a massive team, but that doesn’t hold them back.

The team doesn’t have an official esports room yet, so the players practice in the library after school. CHSAA’s partnership with PlayVS also provides the school with some of the necessary resources, including Nintendo Switches. Bak also organizes fundraising for the program so it can make upgrades where it can, such as the graphics cards in the library computers.

Elsewhere, some schools have begun to introduce esports rooms into their campuses. Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama, has had an esports program since 2018, and its practices look a little different than Cherry Creek’s.

“It’s not entirely finished yet [the esports room]; we’re waiting on some Internet service to be resolved. And then once that’s resolved, we’ll have all the PCs delivered and we will utilize that for practice and games, and we will be utilizing that all the time,” said Aubree White, head coach at Bob Jones High School. “A lot of our practices are at home now through Discord. Everyone hops in their Discord call with their team, and a few people share their screens. Then I’m hopping from call to call just to kind of make sure everybody’s focusing and on the same page.”

The start of the esports program at Bob Jones was a little different than Cherry Creek’s. During the school’s Christmas break, White saw that the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) was going to offer esports through a partnership with PlayVS. She instantly got the wheels rolling.

“As soon as we got back from Christmas break, I went straight to my administration and let them know that this is something that we should pursue. This would hit a huge population of students that aren’t involved with anything on campus, but still have skills that they should be able to represent our school,” White said.

Much like Cherry Creek, Bob Jones has seen a huge increase in students getting involved in esports mainly due to the number of titles that PlayVS adds each year. In 2018, the program started with approximately 20 students. Six years later, that number is up to 85 students across the nine titles in which they compete, including 17 teams and seven individual players.

For Brookwood High School in Snellville, Georgia, managing growth has proved to be a challenge.

“I wish I had eight tentacles,” said Mick Winzeler, one of three head coaches at Brookwood. “You think we’re just sitting around playing video games, but there’s a lot of coordination that goes into this and even with three of us it feels pretty stressed at times.”

The learning curve for White was challenging at first. She had never played some of the games and didn’t know any of the lingo that the players would use. But through time and experience, she was able to understand and learn how to manage so many different kids and games. At the end of the day, educators must have excellent management and communication skills. However, it takes more than just one person to run an esports program.

“I would say it’s important to get parents on board and to get the administration on board. At my school, it follows the exact same eligibility guidelines as all of our regular athletes. They have to maintain good grades and not get into trouble,” Bak said.

If anyone is interested in starting an esports program, both Bak and White share the same sentiment: just do it. The interest from students and school administrators is likely there. Just like any sport, it takes hard work and communication to make it successful.

“I would recommend just jumping in,” White said. “Talk with your athletic director and the principal. Just make sure to say this is something that they can do. Because I guarantee you’ll have the kids; the interest will be there. The kids are there.”