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Florence 1 School district to begin inaugural season in 2021
Florence 1 Schools made history earlier by announcing that they would create a district wide Esports league for students, and the plan is slowly coming to fruition. In fact, the various schools have already moved past tryouts for each team and are now gearing up for tournament season in the spring of next year.
The teams will be playing rocket league, which requires gamers to control a high-powered mini car that can push a ball down the field. The goal of the game is to move the ball down the field with the user’s car and try to get it into the opposing team’s net. The other team is supposed to try to knock the ball away or steal it to try to score themselves. Each score equals a point and whoever has the most at the end of game is the winner
Esports presents an opportunity to teach inclusivity
What’s interesting about this league though is how inclusive it is to all students in the community. Not only is that evident by the district allowing students of all ages to compete for their school, but also due to them placing no restrictions on gender. That means males and females will be working together in order to defeat teams from other schools.
“When you see a kid who is really good at something and never gets to show it and aren’t as confident and you put them in this among their peers, and they are doing well, you see them blossom and their personality comes out,” Howle said when asked about the inclusivity of Esports.
Preparing players for the upcoming esports season
Believe it or not, the district is supposed to compete all over the east coast during the early parts of next year, which will put them up against a variety of different opponents from other schools. Although players in the league are unsure of how they will perform in primetime, Coach Howle is discussing the idea of facing collegiate teams for practice.
“I’d hazard a guess we could beat any collegiate team in the state, “district coach, Wyatt Howle said in an interview regarding his team,” We have some great athletes. There is one guy who is in the top 1 percent. We actually have about three players in the top 1 percent and one who is in probably the .5 percent of the world,”
The coach even went as far as to have the coach of the USC Sumter college team sit in on practices, and he was impressed in with what he saw. Whether that results in a win during their inaugural season remains to be seen, but it’s nice to see something bring people together for a change. It’s also nice to see school districts embrace Esports on this kind of level. And it should be fun to see how it evolves.
In the end, the new Esports leagues are a win for students that want more out of their high school experience. It is also something that allows gamers, who were previously playing video games in the shadows, to finally take center stage. One day, the top gamer in school might even be on the same level as the star Quarterback on varsity.