eSports (by Logan Anderson)

eSports Quickly Growing at High School and College Levels


By Logan Anderson

When you think of sports at Delta, you might think of the basketball, football or tennis teams. But maybe one day you could be thinking about an eSports team. 

Around 40 high schools in Indiana have eSports teams. During the 2019-2020 school year the Indiana High School eSports Network (IHSEN) had competitions for Rocket League, League of Legends, Overwatch, Super Smash Bros, Forza 7 and Hearthstone.
Game controller

In the fall of 2019 each game had their own champion. Carmel won three of the championships with Noblesville, Rossville, Munster and Tipton each winning one championship.

Wes-Del is the only Delaware County high school with an eSports team. Other schools in the area with eSports teams include Mississinewa, Kokomo, Pendleton, Marion and Richmond.

eSports has grown quickly at the college level, also.  In 2016, only seven universities in the nation had varsity programs in eSports.  By 2020, that number had exploded to 130 varsity collegiate programs.

 eSports is much different than your normal sport in high school. A coach does many different jobs other than just “coach.”

At Wes-Del, teacher Andrew Romine was selected to coach the team.

“It is sort of like being the coach and athletic director and equipment manager all at the same time,” he said.

Mr. Romine said he had to do many jobs just for the team to get started up. He had to make sure all the paperwork was turned in by the due date with enough players to participate. He has to keep track of the equipment and make sure he is in contact with the school they play the following week.

At Wes-Del the only team they had in the fall was a Super Smash Bros team. They practiced three times a week and each practice was a 25-minute period called “Pride,” which is like SRT at Delta. Then they would have the matches every Tuesday.

For this season, Mr. Kyle Mealy, the Wes-Del superintendent, was able to purchase the equipment needed for the eSports team. 

Each season of eSports is broken up into Fall and Spring. Each school year there will be two champions unlike other sports. There are multiple divisions as well for some of the games. 

This spring before all school activities were canceled, the IHSEN was in the middle of their spring season.

The spring season was supposed to be eight weeks. The schedules and the standings are available on the IHSEN website. 

The standings are based on how many points your team has or the team record. You get points by winning games and how many points you win by.

eSports is growing in popularity and maybe soon Delta can have a team. If you want to learn more about eSports in Indiana you can visit www.ihsen.info.