While the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Sask., is widely known for its hockey, another program is making strides away from the rink.
The school’s esports program got off the ground last year, led by 2011 graduate Tennesee Fafard, who had been working in the esports industry prior to coming back to Wilcox to head up the new team.
“We’re in the Rocket League facing everyone all over North America,” said Fafard. “We actually primarily play (teams) in the United States and there’s some stiff competition there.”
There are currently 30 students on the team and while it might seem like just kids playing video games after school for a couple of hours, there is much more to it.
“We want this program to be more about purposeful practice in esports instead of just playing for five hours a day in your mom’s basement,” said Fafard. “We want to focus on good purposeful practice to get these kids hopefully into the career path for esports, whether it’s post-secondary education or just right into the industry out of high school.”
Much like any other extracurricular sport, there’s no school credit, but there are workouts, coaching, practising and, of course, playing actual games. Students need to carry a full academic workload while maintaining good grades. Plus, there’s video analysis work, which promotes critical thinking and communication, among other things.
“We’ll watch some of the professionals play, work through their gameplay and try to incorporate some of that stuff into our gameplay as well,” said Fafard. “We’ll bring up a map on the screen and we’ll talk about different plays just like you would playing baseball or hockey.”
Rex Baxendale, a Grade 11 student from Golden, B.C., who plays goalie on the Hounds U18 A hockey team, is one of the original members of the esports team and says the camaraderie they have in the esports arena rivals that of a hockey rink. There’s also a level of innovation and problem solving needed to be successful in the gaming world.
“It allows for a lot of creativity with different characters, different maps and different things to do every game,” said Baxendale. “You get to use your mind other than you would be using your mind in math.”
And while many students will continue to come to Notre Dame for the typical sports like hockey, they can also play on the esports team and one day maybe even make a career in the growing industry of gaming.
“Some of the things that I never got to pursue when I was younger because they didn’t exist, I would like to create those opportunities for the kids here,” said Fafard.
“Hopefully we’ll be just as successful as our hockey program.”
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