Below you will find an interview about esports
from a high school coach:
I think that my reason for becoming a coach is not necessarily the ‘normal’ reasoning for becoming a coach. I mean, I guess it kind of is because I feel like a lot of coaches become a coach because they feel like they have valuable skills that they would like to offer; they are also very interested in the sport that they coach. But, for me, I wanted to become an esports coach, not really because I wanted to become a coach, more because I wanted esports to exist in a high school space. When I was in high school, I played esports on my own with my friends. I was on multiple esports teams that were in online leagues and stuff like that and we always wished the high schools would do it. So when I had the opportunity to start working in a high school I wanted that to exist. I looked around and saw that there were online leagues that did exist, so through us becoming a club at first and all that. I put a lot of time into it because I’m passionate about it and I love it. But it’s more like it’s something that is coming forth and I think that a lot of people do it on their own. I know that I wish it existed when I was in high school so I’m just trying to do it for past me.
I think that it’s a great thing and it actually helps build relationships between students and teachers because for 1, like I said, common interest. Any student that knows that I’m the esports coach, they will just randomly say things about video games to me and even if I don’t play that game I’m still like “that’s sick” because like that’s positive interaction that I’m having with people and the same thing happens with other sports. It creates more positive interaction and kind of makes teachers more human a little bit I think to the students like they’re like “oh they like human things” so I think that there's this huge disconnect between teachers and students; they don’t see teachers as human beings and I think that what the coaching aspect brings to it and you connect on another aspect of their life to the educator versus just teaching. It helps them have a closer relationship with them and respect them more I think.
Winning. That’s the whole reason we still exist. So, we were a club, and we were online at home, right, and we were winning, and we were winning more than any other team at Tech. Our Overwatch team in the winter of 2021 we were undefeated, 8-0, no team at Tech has been undefeated in their regular season, I couldn’t tell you when. The school is seeing an opportunity of “hey, our kids are good at this”. That’s one of the reasons we don’t have as many sports at Tech, they don’t want to spend all the money on it and then have nobody do it. So the fact that I started esports for basically nothing because everybody was playing it at home and we were successful, that’s why they put more into it, that’s why they’ve been investing in us because we’re being successful in our own right because it was something that should be appreciated and they can see that now, that this is something they should be putting money into because we are successful and it’s a great thing. That whole 2021 Overwatch team did so much for our school. They’re the whole reason esports got approved and is now a varsity sport because of their success and the fact that they got offers from schools and it’s just like I want us to continue being successful and continue having students go to colleges with scholarships because that’s how our program is going to get bigger; that’s how we’re gonna get more, even better players in our program is by being successful. I wanna do good and I want us to be great that way more people wanna go to Tech and play esports at Tech and we’re successful and the school’s happy, that’s why I wanna win.
In the years since it started, our school’s administration has changed a lot. So it’s more like the first administration supported it and then everybody that’s kind of come after has just followed suit because there is no reason to not. Our issues were never administratively, it’s not that they didn’t like us. Things just take a long time to happen. It’s not like we necessarily had any roadblocks, it's just we had to be approved and that requires multiple groups of people discussing what we’re doing and talking about it and saying it’s ok. After that they planned for us to have a space and then they had to design, create, order all the stuff for that space. And now that space has been created. We had some people that have not understood, I’d say that probably is the biggest roadblock: a misunderstanding of esports and the technology around esports. That’s the only thing. And like I said, that’s just negligence, which is fine because people are allowed to not know things and that’s another reason to want to educate them on it. I don't necessarily think we had any roadblocks, per se, it’s just kinda explaining what we’re doing. Because when you say ‘video games’ most of the time people think of the worst ones, it’s not like people think of Tetris; when you say video games they think of like Grand Theft Auto or things that are not friendly to anybody. Video games kind of have a negative stigma and I really hope that esports eventually, once it becomes bigger in the high school and collegiate space, will shake that negative stigma. I'm seeing that already because as soon as parents hear about the scholarship opportunities, they usually completely 180 about esports. I think it’s just more of not understanding because as soon as people understand they’re like ‘that’s awesome, I’m for it, let’s go for it, let’s get the scholarship”. It’s more of not knowing than anything.
I was happy about the offers they received, I mean like I said, the space is growing very quickly and I’m trying to meet that need. There are more scholarships than I can have esports players. I know the scholarships are there, and it’s just really trying to get the students to the level that they need to be at to get the scholarship, which all those students were, and I knew they were. So I encouraged them to go for the scholarships and they did and they got them. Honestly, at this point in time, it’s more about having the proper skill level because there are so many schools that are dying to have esports players and esports teams that don’t and if you’re willing to go states away, you can get pretty good offers for esports teams. People really want teams. Esports is the fastest-growing sport right now just because it’s so easy to broadcast, it’s so easy to have, and you don’t have to build a whole football field to have it. You take one room in your university and buy a bunch of computers for it. It’s exploding right now and I’m trying to take advantage of that and get as many people as many scholarships as I can. So, I’m hoping to have more soon and I’m very proud of the 3 that we already had.