The Esports team has been meeting every Tuesday in the library’s multimedia lab to hone their skills and build team rapport in preparation for competing in upcoming competitive events.

According to Tyler Kern, assistant coach of the Esports team, members have been busy getting back into the rhythm of things.

“We had tryouts for the last two weeks and did a couple different tournaments to place kids on varsity and JV,” Kern said. “We’ll have a few weeks of pre-season where we get our kids to play against other high schools in Indiana before the regular season starts. Getting varsity settled has also been a big focus.”

Particularly important in the Esports team is teamwork, especially in the beginning of the year when students may be greeted with new faces and different team compositions. It’s crucial to facilitate a sense of familiarity and trust between Esports team members.

Kern states, “People don’t realize the amount of teamwork and participation that goes into Esports. Students need to be able to trust and rely on each other. That’s why communication and making sure players are on the same page is so important to us. That’s why we practice, and why we won state for the past two years.”

Christopher Cunningham, senior and varsity member of the Esports Smash Ultimate team, shares this sentiment and expresses his eagerness for the new school year. Because this is his fourth and final year on the team, he intends to make it his best.

“We met last Tuesday just to practice and discuss some team expectations,” Cunningham said. “Coach Kern got with the varsity team and talked about other schools’ teams that could cause us problems this year and other strategic stuff. I think that’s really important, because we need to know what we gotta focus on to win.”

When asked about any concerns or statements he had regarding the new school year and incoming freshman students, Cunningham answered, “There’s a few (freshmen). Unfortunately, none of them are on varsity, but there’s one or two on JV. That’s good because a lot of the varsity (members) are seniors, so next year, only one of them is coming back. We need a lot of those newer players so that they can step up and take our places.”