(Lander, WY) – Lander Valley High School has officially “leveled up,” and is now the home of Fremont County’s first ever sanctioned eSports team.
What are eSports, you ask?
ESports are video games that are played in highly competitive environments, and in this instance, organized/run by Fenworks, which provides competitive gaming opportunities for students in multiple states.
The Lander team is coached by Justin Alexandre, who is currently in his first year as a special education teacher at LVHS, with an assist by Evan Pruett, who works as a school nurse for the district.
Alexandre has lived in Lander since 2013, and his interest in video games goes back to the days when he “convinced (his) parents it would be a good idea” to buy him a Nintendo 64.
After becoming a teacher for FCSD #1, he soon saw how having an eSports team could be beneficial for a number of high school students who have an interest in gaming and competitions.
“A lot of the students don’t feel like they have any way to compete for their school, Alexandre explained, and added that “this is like a pilot season” for the eSports program at LVHS.
Fenworks is responsible for choosing the games that students compete in, and all are age appropriate.
Those games include Fortnite, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros., and (this will make the parents especially happy) standard chess.
Fortnite, Rocket League and Chess are the three mainstay games for Fenworks and their competitions, with the fourth game (this time Super Smash Bros.) rotating each year.
Students can compete in all four games, or choose just one, and will play against the other teams in Wyoming while training throughout the season to beat their own personal records.
County 10 chatted with four of the members of the team at one of their practices, and each had their own favorite game.
The game of choice for Hadrian Hunter and Redsun St. John, both 12h graders, is Super Smash Bros., while Kadin Finley (11th grade) prefers Rocket League, and Ian Swain (11th grade) is the sole proponent of chess.
“Students are getting together talking strategy,” Alexandre went on to explain, and added that they are learning many other long-term skills, like communication and teamwork.
The day County 10 spoke with the team, new Xbox’s had just been delivered, and the whole crew worked together to rearrange the classroom for their gaming stations.
And just like other sports and competitions at the high school level, the first official season will conclude with a State competition in May.
Alexandre added that in addition to competing at States, there is potential to compete at the National level as well, and even in just their first pilot season, Alexandre already sees a lot of excitement from the team.
As for folks who want to show their support at the competitions, they will be able to create parent/guardian accounts on the Fenworks website, and follow along with their student’s progression.
For parents who might be worried about their students spending even more time playing video games, Alexandre also shared that there are scholarship opportunities for gamers, and explained that high end universities are giving out a lot of money, even free ride scholarships, for gamers that are really good.
“I don’t think it’s good to be playing 12 hours of video games a day, necessarily, but if they’re practicing, I think there’s a lot of real-life skills that can come from this for kids.”
“This has definitely morphed into something that’s not just folks hanging out with friends in their basement or something,” Alexandre shared. “This is a legitimate market, with legitimate eSports superstars.”
“I think a lot of kids just saw this as an opportunity where their interests kind of aligned with something that the school was doing, and they could compete and get some recognition for it. For some folks that means a whole lot.”