10 March 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Esports, or online gaming, is a form of competitive video game playing. It’s growing, and it’s growing fast.
It’s growing so fast that it’s likely reached your child’s middle school or high school. USD 259 introduced esports to all of its secondary schools three years ago and even added it to its curriculum.
KSN’s Jason Lamb visited the esports lab at Wichita East High School and learned there are real benefits from playing.
Esports at Wichita East has evolved a ton over the last three years.
“We started with four pilot high schools and a couple of middle schools. We’re at the point now we have esports labs in every high school and every middle school in the Wichita Public School District,” said Clint Dayhuff. He’s the esports lead for Wichita Public Schools.
Wichita East has two seasons per year with around 50 players per season. It’s a varsity program, so students must go through tryouts, much like any sport or other school activity.
“Here at East, we play Overwatch 2. We play Valorant, Rocket League, League of Legends, and Super Smash Bros. We have teams in four of those five games,” said Wichita East esports Director Ryan Williams.
“We’re at East High School, and we’re in the esports lab, and they’re playing Super Smash Bros. The school here actually got second place in the nation in Super Smash Bros. in the fall in the Play Vs. League,” explained Dayhuff.
The biggest benefit to esports might be how it offers a home to an entirely new group of high school students who felt left out or had no interest in even attending high school.
“Just like student-athletes or someone else who’s in music or art, they have goals and aspirations outside of esports. They want to be doctors. They want to be an engineer,” said Williams.
“As a lot of students, they need that sense of belonging. And so for a varsity program to be around and to come into something with a sense of family and a sense of structure, we see that benefits the students tremendously,” said esports Program Director at Wichita State University Travis Yang.
In addition to mental health benefits, Yang says esports help improve students’ social skills.
“Being a good teammate. Learning how to communicate well. Learning how to provide feedback. How to take constructive criticism,” said Yang.
That’s what USD 259’s Gaming Concepts class is designed to do.
“You learn the right way to game. How to create content. How to what we call ‘Shoutcast,’ which is like broadcasting. You’re also going to learn the strategy in the game. You’re going to learn to work together on a team because most of these games are team-based,” said Dayhuff. “And you’re going to learn to make very quick decisions. You’re going to learn a lot about technology, and you’re going to get some coding and game design.”
“These skills transfer into real life. We call them ‘soft skills’ in esports. The communication. The leadership. The ability to type, network, coordinate, collaborate. Those are all involved in an esports team,” added Williams.
The students from the USD 259 high schools compete against other high schools around Kansas and across the nation.
Esports at Wichita East High School (KSN Photo)
Esports at Wichita East High School (KSN Photo)
Esports at Wichita East High School (KSN Photo)
There are also college scholarship opportunities. For example, Wichita State recruits in Wichita, regionally around Kansas, and nationally for video game players, content creators, graphic designers, coders, video editors, and more.