This year, the eSports team has stepped up their game for the 2024 season. With engaging matches, new friendships and strong enthusiasm the eSports team has started off strong.
They meet after school in the eSports room on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2:25 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. They practice by playing Rocket League, Smash Bros, MarioKart, Overwatch 2, Madden and Chess.
In eSports, they’re not only playing games, the coaches also help to teach students teamwork and responsibility.
The seniors on the team are Aiden Young, Braden Decker, Joey Cipoletti, Ryan Torboli, Jake Phillips, Sheldon Arroyo, Paul McClain, Zach Noble, Talon Gardner and Braeden Knight.
The team is led by their coach Mr. Christy and their assistant coach Mr. Naser. Christy has been coaching since the start of the eSports program in September 2022. He began as the assistant coach and by the end of the fall season in 2022 he transitioned to head coach. Naser applied for and became the assistant coach at the start of the 2023 season in January.
The eSports room is a safe space for students to come as they are. As long as a student wants to play games, then they are welcome.
For someone who might be thinking of joining the team, there are fliers around the cafeteria along with advertisements on the TVs placed around the school. On them is a QR code that leads to a sign-up sheet where students will have a chance to try it out to see how they like it.
On Thursday competitions, gaming starts at 4:00 pm; they are expected to be there by 3:30, and can last for 15 minutes or more; however, they have competed up to 6:30 pm.
Phillips mentioned that “matches are every Thursday at 3:30. Playoffs can have a different and unique schedule.”
On October 15, 2024, the eSports team was featured in the Observer-Reporter for making an addition to a controller to make it more accessible for a student who uses only one hand. This spotlighted the eSports team and showed people how much they care about their fellow players.
In some instances, the team’s skilled players get scholarship offers and opportunities. Both graduate Bobby Ballentyne, Paul McClain and Senior Cipoletti have been offered money to play for Waynesburg University. Students are selected when they are deemed to be skilled enough to play at the collegiate level.
Christy’s favorite part about coaching is “seeing students get out of here with scholarship money. I like the feeling that I may be making a difference in someone’s life.”
Many of the students involved seem to enjoy being a part of such a supportive group of kids.
Phillips said that his favorite part of being on the team is that “eSports for me is honestly just a fun thing to do with my friends. My friends and I all play video games daily and are extremely good at them so we thought, why not join the team? It has honestly created some of my favorite memories of playing video games because it gives a purpose to what you are doing, which is competing to win. Being able to have fun crushing everyone with my friends is enjoyable. We even won 200 dollars in a competition just for being good at a video game. I wish I had joined it sooner, I joined Junior year.”
Junior Jocelyn D’Amico likes that she gets to be surrounded by people with the same interests as her: “For freshman year it’s like an escape to stay at school and play games. It provides the resources to students who can’t play video games at home.”
While Arroyo enjoys eSports because he likes “having fun with my friends.”
They stream their matches and competitions on Twitch @ tasd_hillers. They also post YouTube videos @ THS eSports, which show gameplay and what the team is up to. eSports updates on X @ eSportsHillers. More information can be found on their official website https://sites.google.com/trinityhillers.net/eSportshillers.
