Revamped Maize High Esports team starts their year off strong with new coaches
With two new coaches in Justin Ralph and Daniel Falk, the Maize High Esports is packed with enthusiastic freshman players ready to make a name for themselves.
Freshman Esports player Evan Packer practices his Rocket League skills, for the next set of matches. The team started practicing last month and end their Rocket League play at the end of October to start Valorant.
October 14, 2022
With the recent rise of Esports in high schools across the U.S., thousands of teens are joining Esports clubs and classes that allow young minds to learn teamwork and problem solving while doing what they love.
These high school students get to enjoy what they love doing while learning at the same time. The Esports club is an amazing growing phenomenon offering groups of students opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Mr. Falk, one of the two sponsors of the club at Maize High, constantly pushes his students to do better each tournament by practicing bi-weekly against each other.
“We started with Rocket League because we felt it was one of the more casually competitive games,” said Mr. Falk. “When we look at titles like Valorant and CSGO, they’re a little more intense.”
COVID impacted the ability for clubs to meet and build relationships and teamwork and several Maize High clubs were thrown to the side and fell apart. To build this club back up, a game like Rocket League is the perfect game to restart the revamp of Esports.
“As the year goes on, we plan on branching out and adding titles like Valorant and things,” Mr. Falk said. “Then as we get into next year, branching even further and adding HSEL titles, but right now it’s about getting off the ground,”
After reviving the Esports club, Mr. Falk and Mr. Ralph plan on pushing their kids further and further so that they can compete against some of the better schools in the state. This includes practice matches against local schools and breakdown their performance during practice rounds.
Colton Adams, one of the backup players, is excited to finish Rocket League practice and go into Valorant.
“I am very excited to practice Valorant, a lot of my friends play Valorant,” Colton Adams said. “Not many of them play Rocket League, so, it’s gonna be more of a teamwork sport for me.”
As Rocket League practice comes to an end, the club’s two sponsors are ecstatic to branch into all the HSEL games like CS:GO, Fortnite, and League of Legends.
“Right now we’re focusing on Rocket League, but the titles that will be available in the Esports League is everything on the HSEL website,” said Mr. Falk. “So if you look up the HSEL they have several titles that are available for students to play.”
