First Steps

Starting a brand new program from the ground up is amazing, but also a tremendous amount of work. After posting flyers around the school and being bombarded with emails and questions, I knew this meant a lot to the students (and of course, this meant a lot to me) so I had to do it right. Here are some of the initial decisions I made throughout the startup process that had a significant impact:

• Establish a Student Leadership Team: I had a lot of ideas for our esports program, but I didn't want to be the only one making decisions. I wanted student voice to also have an impact on the direction of the program, so I decided to start a student leadership team. I sent all interested students a brief application explaining why they wanted to be on the leadership team and what their video game background was. I was hoping to have two or three applicants and was thrilled to have nine! In order to learn more about them I set up brief, 10-minute interviews where we could talk and I could ask questions. The goal was to select two-three students to be on the leadership team, but I ended up picking four students. Two students I selected had a passion for competitive esports (specifically League of Legends) and would be a huge asset in preparing the team, developing strategies, and keeping us up to date with the current meta (which champions are currently good or bad). The other two students I selected love video games, helping new members and spreading the word about our esports program. It wasn't possible for me to see my program continue without all four of these individuals serving on the leadership team.  
• Competitive vs. Casual Gaming: One thing I knew for sure was that I wanted there to be two sides to our esports program: a competitive scene and a casual gaming scene. Even though I want to compete at a high level, I also wanted students to have a friendly, inclusive environment where they could come play and talk about games without the competitive atmosphere. 
• Competitive Gaming: The competitive portion of our program involves teams playing the games that PlayVS offers and representing our high school in the tournaments. In order to select members for teams, the leadership team and I sent out a Google Form asking them to describe their competitive League of Legends experience and a link to their summoner profile so we could examine their record. We got about 40 applications for students who were looking to compete in a competitive environment. While this was amazing news, we only have 25 computers in our computer lab so we needed a plan. We decided to interview every student and ask them more about their competitive experience, what role they play, what champions they are comfortable playing, who in our esports program they have experience playing with, etc... The interviews proved to be extremely helpful (only so much can be showcased from a profile), and we drafted five teams. Of those five teams, two of them had vast competitive experience but three of them did not. Since League of Legends is a very unforgiving game for students trying to learn the basics, I decided to separate our teams into varsity and junior varsity. The varsity teams would push into the first PlayVS season and compete against the other teams in the tournament, while the JV teams would observe the varsity teams and start practicing together with provided coaching. The goal was to have the JV teams learn the game on a deeper level and get experience practicing together in order to be ready for the competitive tournament in the future. 
• Casual Gaming: About once a week, I host a two hour practice open to anyone and everyone. We play a variety of different games including League of Legends, Super Smash Bros., Mario Party, Mario Cart, and many more. We also have viewing parties where we watch professional esports videos, and sometimes even watch replays of our varsity teams in action. Sometimes our varisty teams use this time to practice together, but they are usually coaching new members or playing games for fun. There is no competitive emphasis here and students are attending simply to have a good time. 

I hope these decisions help you jump start your esports program! Even though it has been a few busy few months, every time a student stays late after practice and says what a positive impact esports has been for them, it makes it all worth it! 

~ Sam

Esports at BHS: A Game Changer

From the original Nintendo to the Playstation 4, I've been an avid gamer my entire life. In middle school, my parents bought me a personal computer for schoolwork. My world was suddenly filled with legendary titles like Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Red Alert, Myst, Duke Nukem, Earthworm Jim, and tons more. After meeting a handful of friends (who I am still very close with today), I realized video games had much more to offer than the games themselves. I belonged to a special community, one that brought people together from all over the world and accepted them with no bias of appearance, religion or sexuality. I was hooked.

When I started teaching I always imagined starting a video game club at my school. That dream became a reality on the first day of school this year. I was having lunch with my department and our athletic director stopped by to talk with one of my colleagues. A few minutes into the conversation I heard the term "esports" mentioned. My ears perked up and I stopped eating. My colleague went on to say that he heard the term "esports" before, but wasn't too familiar with it. I had no clue what was happening, but right then and there I raised my hand! Yes, I raised my hand. In the middle of the cafeteria filled with every teacher from my district, I sat there with my hand raised. They just stared at me, and after a few seconds had gone by I blurted out "I KNOW WHAT ESPORTS IS!" At that moment, everyone at my table got a brief (...but not really brief) introduction to electronic sports.

After attending a meeting with my athletic director at the RIIL (Rhode Island Interscholastic League) headquarters, it became clear that this was legit. This wasn't a few people starting up a video game club (which is still awesome, don't get me wrong), this was an official program created by PlayVS, backed by the RIIL and will be pushing into five+ different states soon! Official matches, playoffs, state championships, player statistics, the works! Even though I was already coaching two additional clubs at my school AND had just accepted a two year fellowship to coach teachers in Rhode Island, I was in. 1337% in. This club is my dream realized, and I won't let a few sleepless nights (...months) stand in the way of that.

The day after the meeting I got to school early to put some flyers up to advertise the club and to hold a brief informational meeting after school a few days later. Within 20 minutes of having the flyers up, I received about eight emails from students asking for more information about the program. By the end of the day I had over 20 emails and a handful of students in my office after school hungry for more information. A few days later I held the meeting and 30 students showed up. Soon after our first practice my roster grew to 48. It was clear students have been waiting for this.

There are countless benefits to having an esports program in schools. Here are my top three:

1. Provides an opportunity for students with physical, emotional, or social concerns to be part of a cooperative, competitive event.  
2. Creates a structured environment where students learn through modeling how to appropriately behave on the internet.  
3. Opens doors for students to train in a variety of positions related to esports such as team managers, videographers, technical support, streamers, social media managers, and many more.  

Even though I would have done anything to participate in esports when I was in high school, I'm having a blast coaching these amazing young men and women and can't wait to see what the future has in store for [BHSRI] esports.

~ Sam