The South Tama esports team poses for a picture ahead of their first state tournament in its inaugural year as a program. Photo by Cyote Williams

May 20th, 2022 – It was clear that this Trojan team was more than up to the challenge in their first year competing in the IHSEA. After the first couple weeks of the season, South Tama sat at the top of its division. Every team will have more challenging stretches of the season, as well as easier-going stretches.

The Trojans played against some of the easier competition they would be facing early on, which was able to give them the confidence to keep their performances up there with the more well-established teams in their division.

“We’re one of the top teams. We are, and we started to get excited for the prospect of a state tournament, which became pretty exciting news throughout the school,” said Carnahan.

When participating in a growing sport, it can be difficult to get the excitement flowing throughout your community, especially with esports, which has been known to draw ire from the average sports fan.

This was not an issue for the Trojans, however, as crowds began to fill the STC commons later in the season.

“Especially towards the end of the season, when we were putting our results out on Facebook, I think our crowds started to become more and more filled,” said Kass.

“That caught me pretty off guard,” added Salas. “The support is not something that I was expecting, especially since I’ve seen a lot of things on Facebook where people were being discouraged by it. My mom was reading comments saying things along the lines of ‘This is so stupid. This is not a good idea. Why would we want people to be even more into video games?'”

“I’m surprised that even some staff are being supportive of it. The principles, there’s a lot of people who are supporting us,” Heck said. “I think the ability to have these kids play in a sport that hasn’t been offered, and people started to take it more and more seriously and starting to see the immediate success, and it’s not all about having success. But getting that initial part is cool to see that people are interested in seeing it. Having that atmosphere is cool too.”

“Seeing that excitement from not just our own players but also our crowd and parents was cool,” Kass said.

This is only the beginning of esports at South Tama, with a program becoming well-established in its first competitive season and a team ready to set the foundations for years to come.

“I’m excited to see where this takes us as a district, and I’m proud of all these athletes. Getting to see them find a home and that opportunity to have some success and teamwork is pretty awesome to watch,” Kass said.

Carnahan’s assessment of the first season is overwhelmingly positive.

“They always tell you in education the number one most important thing you can do is build relationships with your students, and I really feel like all of our activities do a good job of that, and esports just takes that further for students who haven’t felt that bond yet,” he said. “I’m proud of that and proud to be a part of this. I’m excited, I’m happy, and I want to say thank you to the student-athletes that put in the time and effort. And I want to say thank you to Coach Kass because he will be moving on next year, and thank you to those parents and supporters we saw. That just created such an atmosphere that is so fun.”

Youth sports are about building friendships, skill sets, and memories that will last a lifetime. Esports is another way to include students in that fundamental experience that allows them to gain these building blocks for the future that they would otherwise miss out on.