Starting in the 2022-23 school year, Milford High School added eSports to its list of activities students can participate in.
Jonah Peterson, technology coordinator and co-coach of the Milford eSports team, said talks of getting an eSports team started last winter and finally became official.
“The organization that we joined, the Nebraska Schools eSports Association, was originally founded in the fall of 2019 with eight schools,” he said. “When we joined this fall, the organization was up to 70 schools statewide. We are entered in division three for competitions, similar to Class C in NSAA classifications.”
Peterson said with the current rise in the popularity of video games and streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube Gaming, Milford decided it would be a good idea to add eSports.
“We want to give students as many different avenues to explore their passions as possible while promoting school involvement with their fellow classmates,” he said.
Practice and competition times vary in order to accommodate student and opponent schedules. Students can be involved with any of their previous varsity sports and clubs, while also competing in eSports.
The eSports team at Milford has been popular so far with 50 students on the team from grades 7-12.
“While the games for this season only allow 13 players to compete at a time, we are able to rotate players for Rocket League and Valorant through the regular season,” Peterson said. “Once we get to the playoffs, we will have to have our final rosters in place.”
For the students who aren’t getting to compete in formal competitions, Peterson said they are working on in-house opportunities and competitions in which they can compete in.
Although they ran into issues early, Peterson said they’ve gotten it worked out.
“Anytime you try to get video games to go through a school network, you run into issues,” he said. “Luckily, we had most of the problems ironed out prior to competition, and connected up with little to no downtime.”
On Sept. 13, the Milford High eSports team competed in its first match against Kearney Catholic in Valorant and won 13-5. They played Rocket League and Smash Brothers Ultimate on Sept. 15 against David City, but lost those games.
“All of our teams had a ton of fun and anxiously await their next matches,” Peterson said. “We have a lot of excitement and eagerness to organize practices to get better. I have no doubt that our skills will sharpen with each competition as these kids are motivated to compete at a high level.”
Along with Peterson, Nick Restau is coaching the eSports team. Peterson said they admit it has been a learning experience, but overall things are going well.
“We are having a ton of fun laying the foundation for the future of our program,” he said. “We have had to work with the students to purchase equipment, schedule competitions and practices, as well as get kids signed up for each game, all of which provided their own unique challenges, but it has been a success up to this point.”
Peterson said the team even got to stream its games on Striv.
“It was awesome,” he said. “It provided an opportunity for parents and friends to watch remotely.”
Along with getting involved in school activities, Peterson said the eSports team has brought a variety of benefits to the students.
“eSports and gaming, in general, provide ways for students to grow both personally and professionally,” he said. “They are presented with opportunities to work on technology, strategy and communication skills. Also, they learn the importance of organization, leadership and time management. What better way to learn these skills than playing video games with our friends?”
Although the Eagles have already started their season, there is still a good amount of the season ahead of them. The regular season for the fall goes from Sept. 12-Oct. 28, and then they transition to the playoffs, which are held from Oct. 31-Nov. 11. After that, state is held from Nov. 18-19.
Once the fall season comes to a conclusion, Milford will transition into the winter season.
“New games are introduced each season,” Peterson said. “There are fall, winter and spring seasons during the course of the school year.”
The games, rules and competitions during those seasons are set by the NSESA.
“Currently, students are competing in Valorant, Rocket League and Smash Ultimate,” Peterson said. “The winter season will change to Mario Kart 8 and Clash Royale. The year will end with the spring season, offering Smash Ultimate as a two vs. two format, as well as League of Legends and Starcraft ll.”
All season and playoff matches are held at Milford in computer lab S1. The state competition is rotated around state colleges each season. Hastings College will host in the fall, York College in the winter and Concordia in the spring.
Anyone interested in watching the Milford High School eSports team can watch on https://striv.tv/channel/milford.
“We just want to thank Milford Public Schools and our anonymous donations for bringing yet another amazing program to our district,” Peterson said. “The kids are beyond excited to compete this school year.”
