As local athletics have had a stellar fall season, a brand new team at Waterloo High School showed similar excellence as a handful of students made their way to a state competition this past weekend, representing the community in the world of esports.

One particular team among the larger WHS esports program departed the school with much fanfare Friday afternoon, traveling north to DeKalb to compete at state in Mario Kart 8, a racing video game for the Nintendo Switch console.

While the WHS team ultimately placed fourth in its division after two losses, simply making it to state marks a tremendous achievement in the program’s inaugural year.

Another achievement came from WHS students playing Marvel Rivals, a first-person shooting game where players fight in an arena, controlling a variety of characters from Marvel Comics.

With six players on both the varsity and junior varsity teams for this game, the WHS varsity squad fell just short of making it to state.

Also this season, a collection of students were ranked independently as they played competitive Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, a fighting game where players control one of many characters from dozens of other video game franchises, ultimately trying to knock the other player or players out of the arena they’re in.

The WHS esports program was in the works for some time before this first season came about, with WHS Principal Tim McDermott speaking about how such a program might come together back in May.

Serving as the coach this season was Alex Strickland, WHS English teacher and sponsor of the school’s gaming club.

As the coach explained, he was originally contacted about the possibility of an esports program given his role with the gaming club. He recalled looking into hardware requirements for such a program as well as what participation in the Illinois High School Esports Association looked like.

With this first season now under his belt, Strickland had only good things to say about the time spent with students in this new extracurricular and how it compares to the longer-lived gaming club.

“So far my experience for both has been phenomenal,” Strickland said. “The gaming club and esports are a degree separate from each other. In gaming club, we do touch a little bit on similar things we do in the esports teams, but it’s much more casual. We play a lot more board games, card games, et cetera.”

Speaking further on his and the athletes’ experiences this fall, he noted his own passion and experience for video games over the years, playing a wide variety from Pokemon to League of Legends.

Students in the program have matched or exceeded his enthusiasm, displaying skill and enjoying the competition as they play.

Day-to-day, WHS esports consists of regular practices. Students make use of two Switch systems as well as some PCs – and whatever hardware they might have at home – to hone their skills.

When it comes to actual matches, the circumstances depend on the game. Strickland said students competed in Super Smash Brothers entirely online, whereas Marvel Rivals and Mario Kart 8 often had them competing at in-person events.

Strickland also spoke about how the WHS esports program is really a collection of teams rather than just one, with 21 students altogether settling into their preferred game.

“Each game is, in its own respect, popular,” Strickland said. “We have, for the most part, different students for each group. It isn’t like we have one esports team of sorts that just plays all the different games.”

He also discussed how students found their way to esports to begin with.

A sign-up sheet was posted to gauge interest and welcome students to tryouts, with about one-third of students who signed up stopping by to bid for a spot on whatever team they were interested in.

Even as a number of games have reached a level of popularity making it difficult to describe them as niche – games like Overwatch 2 or Dota 2 have major professional competitive scenes with arena-filling tournaments offering prize money in the millions of dollars – many not familiar with video games can often be dismissive of esports.

Strickland said this initial season at WHS has managed to build some appreciation for video game competition throughout the school.

This appreciation can certainly be seen in a video posted on the Waterloo High School Facebook page last week as the Mario Kart 8 players were sent on their way.

“Even out of students that aren’t a part of it, as the season progressed I think more people realized what was happening here with this activity, that they were very like, ‘OK, this is kinda cool. I kinda wanna do this,’” Strickland said.

He further discussed his own experience seeing this skepticism, recalling how esports were dismissed when he was in school.

Strickland noted the skill-ceiling many games can have at a competitive level. He also mentioned the similar skill and knowledge demanded for speed-running, when someone beats a game as fast as possible – often in ways that can appear as though they’re breaking the game.

“The general thought was, ‘It’s silly to call it a sport. It doesn’t really make sense,’” Strickland said. “And me as an up-and-coming high schooler going into college, I always disagreed with that sentiment because, as someone who had watched a lot of competitive online events and was very familiar with the speed-running scene, I knew that there was a level of skill that was required for these things that was equivalent to that of the more name-brand sports, as it were.”

While he emphasized the speed and dexterity that can be required in esports, he also spoke about it as just another option for students to enjoy an extracurricular activity.

Strickland described it as an option for non-traditional athletes, allowing them to enjoy time with peers and the fun of competition in much the same way as a more physical sport.

Corwin Pherson offered a student perspective on the esports program, having represented WHS as one of the athletes making the trip to state this past weekend.

He recalled being quite skeptical of the program to begin with, though assistant coach Andrea Dehler managed to nudge him into it. Pherson won both of his games during tryouts and earned his spot on the team.

Pherson also had excellent things to say about this season. While it got off to a rocky start as one of his particularly skillful teammates wasn’t able to participate for a bit, getting to play and succeed alongside his team proved plenty memorable.

“Those were really cool experiences,” Pherson said. “I was able to hang around new people, and all of us were all gamers. We all got to talk about the same thing, be the nerds we were. Really fun experience.”

He spoke further about the competitive element of the season, noting how Strickland took them aside at one point to really hammer home that they had a chance at state, urging them to practice.

Pherson recalled the emotion that came with a particularly desperate and hard-fought win that qualified his team for state.

“That was probably one of my favorite memories from school is winning that game, seeing the loading screen and seeing we won,” Pherson said.

While the actual state experience was a bit more sour, Pherson looked back on the experience fondly, having enjoyed the trip up north and getting to experience it all with friends.

He described the anxiety, nerves and excitement that came from the competition, and he ultimately looks back on the state bid as a huge success for WHS.

“I did not take that day as a loss,” Pherson said. “I took that day as a win because to have a team of mainly underclassmen – because I was the only senior on that team – to work hard all semester long to go to a giant college where people have been doing it for years and years and years, that’s a win right from the get-go.”

Pherson also had plenty to say about esports as a concept and his experience on the team, serving as a perfect example of a student who’s always wanted to participate in sports but found himself held back thanks to health problems.

Having long supported his athletic peers, he’s now come to find a way for him to get that competitive experience in his final year of high school.

“I feel like this should have been implemented a long time ago,” Pherson said. “I have a heart defect, a pretty crappy one at that… I wanted to play sports as a kid. I wanted to do baseball. I just physically don’t have the body to do it. And then when I heard of esports, I’m like, ‘Hey, maybe that’s something I can actually do.’”

Dehler also spoke about her experience working with the team over the past few months. She spoke to how eager she was as a computer teacher to see the program succeed.

“Just because I love computers and technology and all these things, I thought, ‘What an awesome program that we’re getting started here,’” Dehler said. “I just really want this to be successful. As a computer teacher, I have so many kids who love programming and love video games and talk about it a lot in class. There’s such a market for this here.”

While she herself is not as versed in video games as Strickland, she said she learned a great deal this season.

Dehler also had much to say about esports at large. She mentioned her 10 years as a cheerleading coach, remarking that she saw much the same dedication and drive among both sets of students.

“It’s another venue for people who are competitive and who are passionate about the things that they are good at,” Dehler said. “Not everybody is gonna be your star basketball player… We have to find the things where people fit in. And when you watch this group play and you see them compete against another school, it is amazing to watch because they take it really seriously, and they really care.”

With this season now come to a close, next season is just around the corner as things continue in January with a different collection of games.

Students will be able to compete in Overwatch 2 and Valorant – both of which are shooting games similar to Marvel Rivals – as well as Rocket League – effectively high-speed soccer with cars – and Pokemon Unite – a Pokemon spin-off with teams fighting in an arena.

Strickland reiterated his satisfaction with the start of WHS esports and voiced hopes for the program to get even bigger and better going forward.

“It can only go up from here,” Strickland said. “We had such a strong first season that we have nowhere to go but up, and I’m very excited for that.”