ENID, Okla. — Competitive video gaming known as esports has continued to grow in prominence, with players at the professional level earning large paydays and universities starting esports degree programs for students.
Enid High School teacher Christopher Parker, who has been at the school for six years, started the EHS esports program four years ago, and recently the program spread to the middle schools, as well.
EHS esports started as a club the first year before becoming a school-sanctioned extracurricular activity, as the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association governs esports like other varsity high school sports.
Parker said starting an esports program was a goal of his when he first started teaching at EHS, and he accomplished another goal by starting programs at Emerson, Longfellow and Waller middle schools last year.
“Originally, I wanted to kind of start our own league at the beginning of it,” Parker said. “But then I found a couple of different leagues that were already established in the state, so from there I got everything kind of situated, put proposals through to administration and once everything was approved we got it rolling.”
Parker said there are 65-70 students in the esports program currently. Students who don’t want to take part in traditional sports are allowed a chance at competing through esports.
‘A similar passion’
Kobe Stonebarger, a senior involved with the program for the past two years, said he enjoys the aspect of competing with and against others who share a similar passion.
“We have a lot of really passionate players here that come and really do try to compete, other than just getting to compete in esports in general,” Stonebarger said. “And the competition is like no other. When we travel to tournaments, it’s very electric. You feel the same energy as if I was going to a football field.”
Senior Seth Carpenter has been involved with esports for two years, as well, and said learning to work with teammates makes the tournaments exciting.
“Being on the Smash Brothers team means I go a lot of places a lot of times,” Carpenter said. “And that’s what’s exciting: Getting out of Enid is very comforting to me. Getting to see the competition getting harder as you go down the bracket is really fun. Last year was Smash Duos, and having comradeship and having ideas and concepts with your teammate really helps with self esteem and such.”
Lawton Avants is a freshman in his first year of esports. He said he took part in the program at the middle school last year and that being involved in the program at the high school has allowed him to meet others who share his passion.
“It’s kind of hard to find people who are interested in the same things as you whenever you don’t actually go to things involving it,” Avants said. “Which, in esports, you’re going to find a lot of people who like doing all the things you like to do. And it’s just a lot of fun being able to be around people and play competitively by having fun with each other.”
Junior Andrew Wiederkehr, who has been involved with esports for two years, said he enjoys the teamwork and meeting new people through esports.
“Just the teamwork of it, mainly: Being able to communicate with new people … and going against other schools is a good way to reach out and just test your skills,” he said.
‘Spirit of competition’
Parker said on top of learning teamwork and taking part in competitions, the focus of the esports program also falls on aspects such as gaming etiquette, as well as potential scholarship and career opportunities in esports.
He said many universities in Oklahoma, including Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Rogers State and others, have started esports programs in recent years. He said these opportunities are among the things the program at EHS focuses on for its students. He said the desire to compete is a big factor for students, but the program also covers technical aspects of esports such as setting up livestreams.
“A lot of the students that join esports do so because they want to compete, and they do want to be a part of something, but they don’t necessarily want to go out and play football and get demolished on the field,” Parker said. “They want to have that healthy spirit of competition, and actually be a part of something and doing something that they’re good at, that they have fun doing and doing it with their friends. That definitely is the bulk of it, but it branches out into career opportunities, scholarship opportunities and things like that.
“Inside the program, other than just the gaming aspect, we also have a production team that works on streaming, the back end, doing things like getting things set up. We do camera work, shoutcasting, just different things like that.”
Building the program
Parker said the students play on multiple platforms, including PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC, as well as virtual reality with a game called Beat Saber. He said the students take part in regular season play, with different games played throughout the year in various seasons. He said this season they have played games such as Apex Legends, Super Smash Bros., Rocket League, Madden and others.
He said the students are able to travel for Super Smash Bros. competitions, including to a state match at the end of the season.
“The only one we do completely in person is Smash Bros.,” Parker said. “Nintendo online doesn’t like school Wi-Fis because of all the things you have to restrict. So we travel for qualifiers for those, and at the end of the season we go to an official state match and compete with schools in person for all games.”
He said with the middle school program only a year old, it already has seen its students having success. He said Longfellow placed fourth in the state in Rocket League last year, and last semester Waller placed first and Longfellow placed third in Rocket League and Emerson placed first in Smash Bros. He said the middle school program is designed to feed into the high school program, as the middle school students play at the junior varsity level, which includes competition against high school students.
Parker said he is hoping to see the program expand, as the esports industry is one that is likely to continue to evolve.
“I definitely see it growing in the future,” Parker said of the program. “There’s a lot more gaming opportunities once we get better equipment in stuff in there, then we’ll be good to go and be able to build it up a little more.”