Is varsity video gaming next?
eSports clubs at various high schools are starting to catch on
As schools have come back full swing in a post-pandemic world, the eSports Club at Wantagh High School is growing in popularity — perhaps one of the only activities that actually benefited from Covid-19.
The term “eSports” means organized competitive video gaming, with a wide scope of these types of games available to be played.
“I grew up playing video games with my friends in high school and college,” Tom Liguori, the physical education teacher who founded the club, said. “And now competitive gaming has become a rich industry where people are not only playing video games, they’re doing coding, engineering, all sorts of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) stuff.”
Mixing fun with academics is what helped inspire Liguori to start the club, although it has been his goal to make sure the students have a greater hand in running the club than he does.
Liguori has named Luke Kodisch, a Wantagh High senior who has a passion for eSports, the club’s first president. Kodisch has created a Discord, a free communications app, for the group and arranged many of the competitions in which members have participated. Kodisch said he feels that eSports is a great club for anyone unable to play sports or do any other competitive activities.
“eSports is a great opportunity for many students who have the competitive spirit and would like to test their skills against others in fair contests,” Kodisch said, “especially in some cases where a student may not have the ability, due to injury or time constraints, to play on a physical field.”
Liguori said he believes that eSports is helping to foster a school mini-community off of an activity that was typically down on an individual’s own time.
“I think eSports is a collaborative type of way to get to know people more,” James Garelick, a freshman member of the club, said. “It can bring you out of your shell and help you talk to people more.”
Another member, Tom Lagomarsino, a junior at Wantagh High School, said he felt the club was a tremendous opportunity to turn something fun into a sport.
“Competitive gaming and all that, I just do that for fun,” Lagomarsino said. “Now I do it as a sport. It’s great.”
Wantagh competes in the East Coast division of the High School eSports League, playing games like chess, Minecraft, Fortnite and Valorant against other schools in the division. Some video games like Valorant are team-based, while others, such as “Minecraft Hunger Games,” are not.
The High School eSports League, in addition to hosting competitive gaming, offers an online curriculum for anyone interested in the other side of gaming, such as coding and engineering, making this club as much academic as it is competitive.
The club has a distinct fall and spring schedule and is quickly reaching the level of a varsity sport, officials said. Liguori and Kodisch are working on getting apparel for the club’s members.
Though it was founded last year towards the end of the pandemic, Covid-19 probably had a positive influence on the founding of the club.
“We would’ve eventually founded it with or without Covid,” Liguori said. “eSports has really blown up over the past five years or so. But the pandemic was definitely fuel to the fire. After all, we were all home playing video games anyway.”
Liguori credited Fortnite with growing competitive gaming, more than any other video game today.
As a teacher at Wantagh High School, Liguori’s biggest goal with the eSports Club is to create something that’s student-driven.
“Obviously someone needs to facilitate,” he said. “But I remember when we went and played soccer against Mepham, and a bunch of kids streamed and commentated the game as if it was professional. It was their passion, it was all them. That’s what I want to do here.”
He said he hoped the club would continue to snowball, and contribute to the growth of eSports as a competitive outlet for students in both high school and college.
Kodisch said he wants to see eSports reach the level of varsity sports, adding that they are on track to get there.
“I personally hope to see this club grow over the years and become a more proper part of the school,” Kodisch said. “It would be neat to see this become an official team down the line and have it be recognized among the other sports.”
