The Scribe interviewed Patrick Spoonmore, an intervention specialist in the math department at WSHS about his upcoming plan to bring an Esports team to Westerville South. He is collaborating with other district staff to introduce Esports at both Westerville North and Central high schools.
Q: What is Esports?
A: Esports is a competition where you compete in video games like Mario Kart, Fortnite, Overwatch, and more; Westerville City schools is one of the last schools in central Ohio to not have an Esports team.
Q: What benefits do students gain from being a part of the Esports team?
A: I think the biggest thing is kids are isolated in their homes by themselves with random people they don’t know, which makes kids more vulnerable to cyber bullying and just being in a negative culture while playing video games. In Esports, you’re competing with classmates and peers; it’s more teamwork and ethics based. In turn, this helps students who play video games to have an outlet and be able to play with people they know.
Q: Why should students consider joining Esports?
A: The Esports team is going to be a lot of fun. It will have a club aspect where if you just want to show up and play with your friends, you’re more than welcome to; but, it also will have competitive teams where you can compete and represent Westerville South against schools like North or Central. We will have competitive teams including varsity and JV. Students are more than welcome to come to just hang out without joining a team; it can just be for fun.
Q: Are there academic and career benefits from joining the Esports team?
A: Absolutely, having digital skills is where the job markets are going more and more. Understanding how the equipment works; but as well as, students learning and getting first hand experience at website development, social media development, marketing of the program, and planning events. We are already planning an event for winter break, that is going to take some hard work and some planning from students. That will give students real world experience in business, marketing, special events, and promotions.
Q: What games will the Esports team focus on?
A: It’s going to come down to what the students want to play. There are nine games you can compete in at the state level, some very common ones include Fortnite, Valorent, and Overwatch.
Q: Will there be a cost to joining the team?
A: There will be a cost; but at this point, we don’t know what it will be. We are currently looking for boosters and getting help from the IT department to help minimize the cost.
Q: Where and when will the meetings be held?
A: We plan on using classroom 1310; we are going to convert it into an Esports studio. When first getting started, we will be meeting twice a month.
Q: When will the meetings start?
A: We are looking to get approval by the board in October, after that operation will start immediately.
Q: What’s your plan to get the board’s approval to start the Esports team?
A: I am working collaboratively with Dr. Ben Hartnel, a history teacher and member of the gamers club at Westerville North and Sean Vamos, a physical science teacher at Westerville Central to approach the board with our proposal so there can be a battle for the ‘ville in Esports this season.
Q: What equipment of your own will students need to bring?
A: Headsets. Some people prefer Xbox controls and some prefer PS5 controllers, so if you are wanting to use your own devices that is completely fine. When first getting started, bringing your own console will help.
Q: What’s your overall goal for the Esports team?
A: My overall goal and ambition for this program is that it is the largest student organization by 2026. We need the community to come together and help us get this started and trust in us that what we’re doing is going to have a positive impact on students. My philosophy is if we can keep them here, and we can keep them involved, we can keep them safe and that’s really the best part of Esports.
