TEXARKANA — As esports develops into a growing phenomenon nationwide, Texarkana schools and colleges are beginning to join the trend with competitive video gaming programs of their own.
Over the past three years, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, Texas High School and Arkansas High School have developed esports programs where students cannot only compete, but potentially earn esports scholarships. Other area schools with similar clubs/programs include but are not limited to Southern Arkansas University, Liberty-Eylau, Ashdown, Hooks, Redwater and Fouke.
“It’s been pretty amazing to see how fast it’s happened,” Texas High esports coach Rick Allen said. “Other schools have been starting to catch on recently. I knew it would get big around here, so I’m just glad to see it growing.”
Allen was previously the esports coach at Liberty-Eylau High for five years before moving to THS, where his athletes compete in games like “Valorant,” “League of Legends” and “Rocket League” in a brand new esports lab.
Texas High started its program this year and already has a “Valorant” team that has placed eighth in the state and 68th in the nation (out of around 6,000 teams) through the High School Esports League. The team will compete in the state playoffs beginning May 2.
TAMUT got the ball rolling with an esports club about three years ago, but sustained a minor setback when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The college is now in a soft opening, during which students who participate in esports are testing games and trying things out. A&M-Texarkana is hoping to have a grand opening for a new esports lab in fall 2022.
“Around three years ago the university was approached by a group of students who were interested in bringing esports to campus,” said Celeste McNiel, A&M-Texarkana’s director of Student Life. “Around that time, we began to hear more about esports at various conferences we attended and it was beginning to get a lot of coverage nationally. We began the process of seeing what the university could do to support esports on our campus.”
McNiel said the program features up to 25-30 students, with about 15 competing.
AHS esports coach Austin Powers says his Cyber Hogs team started gaming competitively this year, playing “Super Smash Bros.” and “Rocket League” through the PlayVS league. Powers said his “Super Smash Bros.” teams already ranked second out of 116 teams in an Arkansas’ PlayVS competition, as of April 20.
Powers spoke about the scholarship opportunities beginning to take shape here locally, giving an example in Arkansas High School senior Evan Reel, who recently received a scholarship to SAU for his “Super Smash Bros.” gaming.
“One of the things I noticed about starting this program is that I have students that I never would have thought would consider going to college, (who now) consider going – especially when I had a few colleges including SAU and A&M-Texarkana come and talk about their esports program at their college,” Powers said. “So not only will it potentially get them scholarships, it also encourages them to continue their education.”
Jesse Darby-Tillis II, creator of the Hypecon events venue, has been an esports advocate in the Texarkana region for years. He is the founder and an off-campus adviser for TAMUT’s esports team and has been a consultant and promoter for various high school programs locally.
He said he has plans to develop the Hypecon Esports Scholarship at TAMUT soon.
Last month, Tillis won first place in the inaugural Pitch It entrepreneurial competition. He won $5,000, which he said will go toward opening a brick-and-mortar esports gaming center.
“Essentially, my place in esports is to make sure Texarkana is not behind in this industry,” Tillis said. “It’s been a lot of hard work for me, and it’s just been surreal to see it grow.”
High school esports coaches say attendance and participation is growing steadily at their schools.
Allen said he already has 30 THS students who plan on competing in “Valorant” and “Rocket League” next year alone, as well as 75 students signed up to participate in a Gaming Concepts course he will teach next year.
He said he the number of participants will only increase as time goes on.
“With the partnership with the colleges, I think we’re going to put out a lot of scholarships,” he said. “It’s going to give some of the kids a place to go that they historically haven’t had.
“I think it’s going to continue to grow, but I really can’t wait to see what’s going to happen.”
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