Game On: High School Esports Opening Doors To College And The Pros

At the age of 4-years old, Robert Miller was already practicing to become a pro. 

All that was missing after pounding the controller during Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers was the gradual real life experience of one day finishing high school before moving on to attend college. That dream come true scenario is now a pleasant reality for the Huffman High School grad who signed an esports scholarship with the University of Montevallo during a recent ceremony at Huffman as Miller becomes the first Birmingham City Schools esports scholarship recipient in the district after the high school began their esports program last spring with competitions on the Nintendo Switch console. 

Like any serious athlete, chalk it up to putting the work in. 

“In our very first season of high school esports at Huffman using gaming consoles, we witnessed something truly extraordinary,” said Justin Hackett, Robert’s coach. 

“He earned a scholarship, an achievement I never imagined possible in our debut season. I am both astonished and immensely proud of Robert and our entire team for making history together.”

Miller is one of the chosen ones; the new wave and high tech student-athlete who took control of his future one video game level at a time. Playing esports is proving to give students an avenue to pursue possibilities beyond high school with students receiving scholarships to play in college, opportunities to become a professional gamer, or even develop a career within the multi-billion-dollar esports industry. 

This year over 8,000 high schools in the U.S. offer esports programs and that number appears to be soaring with each season. Just take a look around high schools across the country who are heading back to school this month. 

In New Jersey, esports is now a varsity sport in all state high schools. Teachers also have the chance to earn their esports certification at Rutgers University through the Garden State esports program, courtesy of Intel and SHI who are powering the sponsorship. At Richland One in Columbia, South Carolina, their school district is also preparing for their first official fall season after launching their competitive esports program with six schools last spring. 

In the midwest, Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) Executive Director Bill Faflick expressed how they are bringing Esports to high schools in Kansas this year after watching the trend grow upward for a number of years. Down in Arizona, schools are striving to offer high school students who compete in esports a fresh perspective on what a future in gaming might look like. The American Leadership Academy reportedly invested nearly half a million dollars into their esports program. 

Schools and scholastic esports associations aren’t the only ones bracing for a big school year and season. So are esports companies with revenue in esports expected to reach over $4.8 billion by the end of this year and the United States the leading country in revenue for the esports market.

PlayVS, North America’s largest scholastic and collegiate esports network, recently announced the company is launching Pokémon UNITE and will officially join the world of scholastic esports by partnering with Pokemon to bring competitive leagues to both middle and high schools across the U.S. and Canada. The announcement is certainly echoed by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) who partners with PlayVS to offer scholastic esports leagues and events for high school students. 

Their slogan for the upcoming season is straight out of any coach’s playbook: “Build your team. Represent your school. Compete this fall.”

Meanwhile in Michigan, the Michigan High School Esports Federation shared the news on social media about how the Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance is partnering with Nintendo America to further grow esports throughout Michigan. The collaboration includes in-school gaming tournaments for grades 4-12, reaching 80,000 elementary, middle school, and high school students across 23 states. 

A new season awaits, one that for some high school seniors just might include a scholarship to play in college. 

If so, they’ll join a rising number of scholarship recipients with over 170 colleges and universities in the U.S. offering esport scholarships and more than 300 colleges and universities across North America offering esports programs (in 2018, there were at least 73 college varsity esports programs) with over 260 schools making up the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE).