Canyon Ridge High School now has an Esports team. The Esports team’s first competition is in late February. 

The Esports team is a team that goes all around places and play competitive gaming. The video games that will be played are all types of games such as League of Legends, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Rocket League. 

“My goal is to help the students create a team that will compete against other schools in Idaho,” said Mr. David Palmer, the coach for the new eSports Team. ”I enjoy coaching; I enjoy playing video games, and also I like the challenge of building programs.”

The new Esports room was available for “open gym” two days a week, and tryouts were December 5th through the 9th. The team is now made up of 24 rostered members. 

“My goal for this team is to have success and win as many tournaments [as possible]. Who knows, if I do really good with this whole gaming thing, I might possibly get a scholarship for gaming and can have a career [in it],” said Israel, a 12th grade member of the Esports team. Obstacles for  to these goals is “getting to know my team members. We can’t win competitive gaming if we do not know each other, and if I am going to trying gaming as a career, I need to practice and focus on games that I know how to play.”

When it comes to training and practicing for the Esports team there are different activities that go on when practicing. ”In building the program and team, we wanted to take steps to embrace the whole competitor,” Mr. Palmer said. A stretching and warm-up routine was developed by our school’s yoga instructor, Mrs. Issacs. After practicing a match the players take a lap around the building. The importance of doing this exercise is to promote healthy habits and aid in team-building practices.  When doing these activities during practice, there is also an opportunity for members to get to know each other. 

Canyon Ridge finally decided to start an Esports team last year because Esports is a growing form of competition, and Mr. Hicks, retired vice principal at Canyon Ridge saw this and wanted to provide an opportunity for a group of Canyon Ridge students. Mr. Hicks was a major encouragement to Mr. Palmer.

When it comes to getting a scholarship offer from a school for Esports is great opportunity. Including stem careers later in there life’s. For instance, this year nationwide more than $16 million in Esports scholarships will be available in 2022. At Boise State University, the reigning national champs in Esports gaming, they offer partial and full scholarships to participants totaling more than $175,000 annually.

The funding to start the Esports team with twenty high-level PC’s, monitors, controllers, keyboards, and gaming chairs mostly came from National Guard, Dell Computers, and Sherwin Williams donations, acquired by Mr. Palmer.