MANCHESTER – There was a time when students could get in trouble for playing video games in school.
Times have changed and this activity is now appreciated as a means of building student camaraderie, unity and providing a potential career path.
Students, administrators and teachers came together for a recent ribbon cutting at the township high school’s new ESports Team room which included a $5,000 donation for gaming equipment costs from Black Rocket and Morris Hills High School.
Black Rocket representatives were present at the event where attendees also got to watch a live online exhibition match between MTHS and Morris Hills High School.
“We are an education tech ad company for kids. We have a variety of classes related to game design, coding, and VR (virtual reality),” Black Rocket Director of Technology Mike Jubina said.
Black Rocket, which creates and launches curriculum focused on STEM, technology, and ESports, sponsored a competition between scholastic ESports teams, he said. Morris Hills won the grand prize of $5,000 worth of equipment and technology for an ESports lab.
That school’s ESports Team however, already had an amazing gaming space in their building with plenty of PCs and gaming equipment and as a fellow GSE League school, their coach, Debbi Sabatini, offered to pay their winnings forward to another school in the league that was in need of PCs and a gaming space.
Garden State Esports (GSE) is the governing body for scholastic esports in New Jersey. The nonprofit organization led by educators is dedicated to advancing competitive, inclusive, and educationally grounded esports programming.
GSE’s Chris Aviles suggested Manchester Township High School as the recipient, and the donation was accepted with great excitement.
“I run a club on Thursdays for some of the kids who are scared of playing competitively. We have some of our special needs kids come to that. We have many options. Some of these kids don’t want to be involved in athletics but they are very creative and innovative and maybe not be as competitive but still want to play,” MTHS teacher Elizabeth Yates said.
Yates recalled, “the team’s first major victory was in Minecraft in 2021. They were playing Minecraft Survival Games which is essentially last man standing.”
Aviles, who lives in Manchester, said that his dream was that when his own children “reach this level that they will be part of this and sports and be a part of the community. I’ve been an educator for 20 years and I left the classroom because this league got so big.”
He also noted that varsity letters would soon be issued to ESports team members. “It has opened up a whole new world for student athletes in New Jersey.”
Manchester Township High School students who are part of the Esports team enjoy playing in the new Esports Room that opened recently at the township high school. (Photo by Bob Vosseller)
The Manchester Hawks got to play in a state championship in person before 2,500 people at Georgian Court University. Over the last four years, the MTHS ESports team has grown from a group of six students competing in online tournaments with students from across the country to a dedicated group of 30 plus students and five unique seasonal teams, competing at the State Championship level against other New Jersey high schools.
As a part of GSE League, MTHS’s players have competed in nine competitive seasons so far, and the Rocket League team even made a playoffs appearance during the spring of 2024.
MTHS students present at the event spoke with The Manchester Times during the ceremony about their time participating in ESports.
Angie Tayeb, a senior who joined in her freshman year, said “when my brother was still in the school it was called the Video Game Club and it wasn’t an ESports Club which shows how it improved in such a short amount of time.
“I think it is a really great source of friendship, communication and teamwork all around. Almost every friend I’ve made at this school I’ve made through that club. Miss. Yates is a great teacher,” she added.
“I am going to Ryder University after I graduate and I’ll be studying game design which is something my brother got me into. I’ve already learned a lot about gaming companies and the business in general,” she said.
Pablo Lopez, a junior, said he loves gaming but is also involved in wrestling. “I want to try and get into sports games so I can design games for the wrestling franchise WWE as I want to be a wrestler. So, playing the wrestling games and wrestling live is really helping me. I want to put both passions together into one.”
With a full set of five new gaming PCs the MTHS ESports team has levelled up. Prior to this donation, MTHS students played matches from home over an online connection, and communication between the team was often lacking.
This disconnect also removed the elements of teamwork and social skill-building that accompany other team activities. Now that the MTHS students have new PCs and an ESports lab, students can play together in person in one space and they can engage in team communication, celebrate achievements, and practice skills as a unit in a way that was completely impossible before.
The new ESports room is located in the upper level of the MTHS media center. It’s a place school officials hope students will use to practice, play matches, do homework, and call their own during after-school hours.
GSE serves more than 12,000 students across over 400 schools and 22 colleges statewide and promotes excellence in interscholastic competition while fostering college and career readiness through workforce-connected initiatives.
“Sadly, the team lost in the quarterfinals but put up a good showing. They went 1-3 against Cape May Tech. This has them ending the season in the top 8 of the state championships. This is our best record to date,” Yates said.
In a landmark decision, the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) Delegate Assembly passed a resolution in May recognizing Esports as an interscholastic competition. The resolution encourages local boards of education to use their existing authority to support esports programs.
The post Game On For New ESports Room appeared first on Jersey Shore Online.