Edmond Esports

In episode 228, we talk with Edmond Memorial High School Esports Coach Kate Swearingen about the teams playing against others across the state. You can find their games on Twitch.Transcript:og228Michael: Greetingsand salutations my fellow geeks and welcome to episode 228 of the Okie GeekPodcast brought to you by Okie Comics I'm Michael Cross. Students at EdmondMemorial high school are enjoying the ever-growing community of e-sports. Theircoach is chemistry teacher, Kate Swearingen and she joins us now, Kate, welcometo the show.Kate: Hi, it's sogreat to be here. Michael: So justtell me first off e-sports at Edmond Memorial High. What's going on with that? Kate: Yeah, so wehave a great program. We run three different games. We have Rocket League,League of Legends and Smash Brothers. A ton of kids are involved. So it rangesbecause we have a club and a class we have about 30 plus kids in the class, andthen we have just extra kids in the club, but we're hoping to even grow morenext year. But yeah, it's, it's really exciting stuff. Michael: What madeyou decide to start this thing? Kate: So I'vealways had a passion for making sure that kids have a space that they feel likethey belong.And I used to work at a middle school where I started ananimate club and I would DM, Dungeons and Dragons as well. For a group of kidsthere. And then when I moved to the high school, I knew I wanted to coache-sports because I played a MOBA at that time called heroes of the storm, whichisn't really around anymore.But then, well it's around, but it's just not the same as itused to be. But then a kid approached me cause I kind of let them know, youknow, Hey, like I like this based on like this to a kid approached me. He'slike, I really want to start a League of Legends team. And I knew about Leagueof Legends because in the same genre that I played so I was like, yeah, thiswould be great.You know, like some of my stuff will transfer over. So itkind of took him the rest of the year to get the club going. And then last yearwe had our first team League of Legends team. And then this year we have it asan actual class. So we have even more e-sports now than we did last year. Causeeach of each of the own games are their own e-sports so, Michael: , Andthere's a community like a whole competition going on.Correct. Kate: Right. , weparticipate in two different tournaments right now. We're a part of OBSL whichis the whole global e-sports league. And there are several high schools inOklahoma that participate in that one. And that's our state tournament. And ourplayoffs will be April 3rd, but we're, we're sort of finishing up the regularseason.We have just a couple more games of that to go. And thenwe're a part of a nationwide tournament. That's called play BS. So we, we playin that as well. And those, those real games, we have pre-season games rightnow, but we're starting our real games for that. At the beginning of March. Michael: That'samazing.And so how are you guys doing so far? Kate: We're doingreally, really well. We haven't started our real play yes games but for our ESLgames right now, we're undefeated. So in all of our sports, Michael: That'samazing. , Who else is in this  league, The major players that you would know would be maybe unionor broken arrow, Jenks Okay, C grant and then there are some smaller schoolstoo.Like we played Stillwell, not,  Stillwater Stillwell, and then we weresupposed to Salina today, but that got moved around. And so, yeah, there's,there's just a whole range of schools, depending on which e-sport, it is some Ssome of these sports are a little bit cheaper to get into than others.Kate: So they're alittle bit more accessible. Michael: Right. Doyou travel to these places too? Or do they come to you or do you just do it allonline? Kate: Yeah, thisyear, we're all in line. Because it's, you know, it's, it's better that way forus this year. So they, they, we do play from a central location. We gettogether and they get together, but the matches played online.And when we, we played together, we're sitting apart fromeach other. And there, the replay vs games, we all played from home for thosegames because that's how play the us is structured this year. But for Oso, wetried to play it together. It's just, it helps the integrity of that match alittle bit more.So has the COVID 19 impacted the, the games or, or thetournament's in any way? Yeah, it's made it a lot more difficult for some of theschools to get teams together. Just because. Schools in general are, have putso much energy into kind of the remote learning slash you know, trying tofigure out AB schedule or whatever they're doing this year that a lot ofcoaches or teachers don't even have the ability to branch out into these kindsof things.So we had some schools that had dropped from ESL this year.Just because they didn't have the bandwidth, so to speak to really get in onthat. Michael: Yeah.It's right now, schools are eating up a lot of bandwidth with their, at homeeducation, with our distance learning. Right. So how do you, how do you moveforward then if you're not having as much competition, does that, does thathurt with what you guys are trying to do?Kate: Yeah, it's,it's definitely caused, I mean, it's the kids that have really suffered thisyear as far as that's concerned, but that's why we became part of  this year is so that we could have thoseextra games that we weren't getting out of ESL this particular year. And that,I think that's going to fill that and the other good news about play the us isthat for ESL, I can only field one team, but we're pretty big school.So we have three league teams. We can have up to four rocketleague teams of everybody's there. And then we can have like four or five smashteams. So I have a chance for my JV teams to really play. And that's what Iwant. I want each kid to have that chance, you know, like these kids, a lot ofthem. This is their thing.And so it's their chance to do that. And I really want themto have that opportunity. Michael: Yeah. I'mkind of jealous. I wish this was around when I was in high school. What wouldthat, what does that mean to you to have something like this for these kids? OhKate: my gosh.It's so fantastic. I, I feel like I'm making so much more of a difference than,I mean, I make a difference as a pre AP chemistry teacher, and I understandthat, but But to be able to be there for kids that don't necessarily haveanother spot.And aren't going to shine in all the same ways that my preAP chemistry kids and some, some of them are the same kids to be there, butthis allows them to have, I have that space, you know, and that, that means somuch to me because I had, I had my spaces as a kid. I was in band and orchestraand I did all these things and that's really what.Helped me in school. I think the most I was in, I was at allpre AP or AP classes or whatever, too, but it was having that friend group andthose extracurricular activities that really made the huge difference for mepersonally. And that's what I want for these kids. Michael: Right.And everybody talks about extracurriculars.And usually when they talk about extracurriculars or talkingsports Ray, well, regular sports, football, baseball, basketball, but for someof these kids, that's just not something that they're into or that they reallycare about. Kate: Yeah. Andfrom my kids, you know, this gives them that connection to the school culture.They really feel like they're winning for the school. And Ihave kids that would be failing if they, if they weren't some e-sports, they,the only reason some of them do their work is so that they can play on the teamand to have that connection to the school is just huge. And the teachers feelthat way too.The Eddie Memorial teachers are just fantastic. They havereally jumped in on this and they've they're very encouraging to the kids aswell. It's, it's fantastic to see if they'll talk to the kids about it, even ifthey don't quite understand everything, they really they're really trying. It'sso it's so great to see what was Michael: theadministration like when you first went to them and said, Hey, I want to startan e-sports...