As esports continues to cause an uproar in middle schools and highschools all across the US, Westminster has decided to hop on the bandwagon, launching its new esports program this fall. Esports practices take place after school in the old marketing room across the hall from the upper school office, and is open to not only the upper school students, but middle school as well.
To prepare for the new program, WCA purchased brand new computers from an Alumni owned company called Jult. If cared for, these computers are expected to last for the next 4-5 years. Next, Westminster set out to find a head coach that is experienced in esports, but more importantly has a strong faith.
“We did a lot of prayerfully considering, really seeking God on bringing someone that falls in line…we were blessed to have someone available with Josh’s expertise and also him being a faithful believer” states athletic director and assistant Esports coach Glenn Adams.
Esports differ from other school sports in various ways. Instead of having one season, it takes place during the fall, winter, and spring.
“Different games are offered in different seasons, so smashbros has competitions in the fall and the spring, Mario kart is just in the winter, rocket league is the same thing in fall and spring,” explains Esports head coach Joshua Leary.
Furthermore the coaching aspect is quite unique, as practices are more self-led than taught.
“My job is more to direct them in a let’s practice this way, let’s stick to this routine, let’s focus on sharpening these skills, let’s create goals this way, from there they’re working on their own to make it happen” Continues Leary.
WCA’s lack of Esports in the past has proved to have an impact on young students scouting out the school. For almost four years, director of admissions, Jennifer Sengpiel and many others have been working on developing this much craved program.
“Over the past three years we’ve had many prospective students ask if we have Esports, and we’ve had a few choose different schools due to our lack of an Esports program” explains Sengpiel.
Creating the Esports program hasn’t been a walk in the park. Defining the boundaries between fun and unnecessarily violent has proved to be a daunting task for the coaching staff. M rated games such as Call of Duty and Resident Evil are restricted from being played due to their high level graphics and intense gore. Despite this, a less gory first person shooter game, Overwatch, is approved to be played by high schoolers with parental consent.
“We wanted to figure out how we could take something like video games and keep it within the vision and mission of the school” says Adams. “You’re playing the game for the strategy, the teamwork, the coordination, for the things the sport has to offer, not just coming in and shooting and killing things,” Leary adds.
Esports is proving to be a great hit, having 46 students already involved, and 36 of them being middle schoolers. More are expected to join during the winter and spring seasons, once fall sports are over.
