MT. MORRIS TWP, MI — Two Hamady High School football players came to school ready to compete.
This time, however, there were no helmets and shoulder pads — just joysticks and buttons.
The two student-athletes were expecting to compete April 8 for the Hamady High School’s esports team in its first season this spring, a brand new $25,000 school program that gives students the opportunity to play video games competitively after school.
The varsity program competes with other esports teams across the country in the PlayVS league.
At this time, the school competes in Madden 21 and Rocket League, which is essentially soccer with cars.
There were four pre-built gaming PCs, four monitors, two Playstation 4s and two flat screens where students competed at the high school.
The team of seven students and two coaches meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week for practice and competition.
The luxury of esports is that you don’t have to be in the same room as your opponent, you just have to have an internet connection, Hamady teacher and esports coach Alex Lenear said.
“This gives students something to do after-school that is positive,” Lenear said. “I’ve always believed that playing videogames gives you a different perspective when you are applying skills to real life.”
His admiration for video games started in eighth grade when a computer science teacher put him on to a video game that also taught math. Lenear attributes that game to turning around his education in grade school when growing up in Rochester, New York.
Lenear helped spearhead the idea for this program after students bugged him about starting a gaming club.
He took it one step further and proposed an esports team.
It’s just another emerging development in the pursuit of college scholarships, Lenear said. The University of Michigan-Flint, the nearest college to Hamady High School, announced it would be joining the nearly 15 other Michigan colleges and universities by implementing an esports program.
“It teaches social skills and communication skills in this new world of technology,” Lenear said. “Now it is so much easier to reach out to somebody across the country and connect. It’s going to open up their minds to the possibilities and places out there that they would have never thought of.”
Junior quarterback Terence Kiff and senior linebacker Keyshawn Petty are both ranked as top Madden 21 players in the PlayVS east region, which covers the entire eastern seaboard and some midwestern states.
Their opponents scheduled for April 8 forfeited, so they used their time to practice.
Kiff and Petty agreed that their experience on the field helps them in the virtual game world and vice versa.
“It helps to be able to read the defense,” Kiff said. “I joined because I like to play Madden and (the team) let’s me be myself after being home so long (due to COVID-19).”
The students said the game is more about strategy and schemes than it is being able to handle the physical controls.
Petty said he can tell if it will be a competitive game after the first drive.
It’s not just casually playing video games, either. Each game day has a set of rules to follow and most competitions are based on a Best of Five or Best of Three series.
The esports team is one of the first in the Flint area, Hamady spokesman Jamal Bransford said. The program will likely grow in the upcoming months as more students get interested and the fall season approaches.
Coaches are considering joining the Michigan High School Esports Federation to compete against other schools in the state of Michigan, too.
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