Southampton School District Considers Reallocating Physical Education Dollars To Esports

All it took was a pandemic for nontraditional athletes to finally shine — if given the chance.

Following the cancellation of every close-contact, high-risk sport in order to curb the spread of COVID-19, an overlooked, unconventional alternative has floated to the surface, explained Darren Phillips, the athletic director of the Southampton School District.

On Tuesday night, he will present a revised plan to introduce esports into the physical education program, following last week’s Zoom meeting that left several school board members confused and borderline frustrated following his presentation on the competitive virtual gaming initiative — which, while comprehensive, did not answer big questions regarding funding and the impact of even more screen time on students.

“Somehow, there’s something wrong with this discussion tonight,” Trustee James McKenna said. “I’ve been very polite and I’m listening, but it’s making the hair on the back of my head stand up because I don’t think it’s in the right court at this particular moment.”

School Board President Jacqueline Robinson asked that, before the next session, Mr. Phillips meet with the district’s infrastructure committee to address a number of the issues raised, including the technology and hardware logistics, a gauge of student interest, eligibility requirements, and how the approximate $70 participation fee per child will be covered.

“The reality is, there’s a good chance, come January 4, we’re not gonna have basketball or wrestling,” Mr. Phillips said. “That leaves winter track as the only thing for our kids to do, and I thought this would be a good opportunity for some of our kids to do something and try it, and see it as a trial run this year, and take it to the next level. So I apologize if you …”

“I’m hearing that,” Mr. McKenna interrupted. “You know, kids are getting Zoomed out, they’re computerized to death, yet this is something that they like to do and they would do it after school, I’m assuming. But then on the other hand, then it’s going to be at the taxpayer’s expense. So again, I’m looking at this a little bit different. I think we’re rushing this a little bit.”

In order to participate in the winter season, hosted by the Electronic Gaming Foundation from mid-February through the end of March, the district would hold tryouts for the three proposed games: “Overwatch,” “Rocket League” and “Super Smash Brothers,” with teams of up to eight, five and one, respectively.

Looking toward the future, EGF — which started in 2015 as a national governing body for organized collegiate D-I esports leagues, but recently branched into high school competitions — is planning to add “NBA 2K,” “FIFA” and “Madden” to its roster, as well.

“We generally see that 60 to 80 percent of students at any given school self-identify as gamers,” explained Tyler Schrodt, founder of EGF. “About 30 percent of those focus on competition and our average program size will range anywhere from 20 to 70 members, depending on how big the school is.”

Students can compete in more than one game, and the school can field more than one team in each title, according to high school sales director Matt Zanelli, who saw a void in e-gaming at the high school level, despite its popularity in the collegiate sector. He has recently pitched the program to schools across Long Island and, by the spring, he expects about a dozen districts in Nassau and Suffolk Counties will join — a number that, by next fall, he anticipates will at least triple, and possibly quadruple.

“This is not all about competition, there’s a lot more to it than that,” he said. “This is really focused on education. We offer webinars and seminars during the course of the season, so that if, in fact, a student does want to learn more about the industry, that’s part of the fees that you pay. They can go on and learn about the marketing, or the coding, or the brick-and-mortar part of the industry, whatever the case might be.”

To participate, students must be at least age 13 and willing to participate in the full nine-week season. The first week is practice, before jumping into scrimmages within an assigned section in the state or region. Then, the top team from each section qualifies for a regional championship, followed by a national championship in partnership with Walt Disney World — though this year’s final competition was held digitally.

“Of course, you can imagine as athletic directors, our first response was, ‘This isn’t a sport. How could we have kids just sitting playing computer games and make this a legitimized sport?’” Mr. Phillips said. “As I become more educated in talking with Matt, and learning more, a lot of kids are playing video games and this is really a new opportunity to tap into some kids, who maybe are nontraditional-sports types of kids, to be in a competitive league.”

Over the summer, physical education teacher Brian Tenety dipped his own toe in the esports pond by helping two of his students participate in e-gaming through the Unified Esports Association — which was “way out of my element,” he said.

“This is where it’s going,” he said. “These kids are learning coding at age 8, and if we have coding that can be brought in, or different job opportunities that they can learn about just from being a part of this, I think it’s definitely something that we will gain from. I have learned a lot just listening to the kids.”

The students managed their own practices while Mr. Tenety kept an eye on the competition schedule and, ultimately, the team placed second in the Rocket League competition — an effort that he said was “successful within the small pilot.” The win was just an added bonus.

“Not every kid wants to get involved in a team sport and, yet, they loved it as a youth,” he said. “When they were younger, they were willing to jump on a soccer field, but somewhere along the line, they just didn’t feel confident enough to jump onto that field. If this offers them an opportunity to be part of a team, hey, I’m game for giving anything a shot that allows for that connection to happen.”

At the same time, Mr. Tenety was the first to acknowledge the disconnect between merely learning about esports and actually experiencing the game play — a challenge that may not justify reallocating funds from the athletic department to an intangible new program that formally taps into an after-school pastime for most.

“I’m a little concerned with just doing this as matches,” Trustee Charles Styler said. “I would like to see it blended with a certain balance of physical activity in the school system.”

While EGF cannot mandate any physical activity, the majority of the district programs that it runs do require some degree of exercise, Mr. Zanelli said.

“Most of the students have embraced it and, frankly, a lot of these students consider themselves athletes, believe it or not,” he said. “And so they do feel that they need to be in some sort of physical shape.”

Just as with Section XI, the EGF league does provide a standardized schedule, as well as a platform to create opportunities in education and community development, and access to colleges and universities that support esports, including Hofstra University, Marist College, St. John’s University and Manhattan College.

“I don’t know if there’s money, scholarships, like in other traditional sports,” Mr. Phillips said, “but I am sure there are some schools that are supporting that.”

Even still, Board Vice President SunHe Sherwood-Dudley wasn’t convinced. While she acknowledged the advantage of reimagining a hobby that many students already love, she questioned the skills that they’d actually be building.

“If we had sports available for sixth, seventh and eighth grade, I don’t know that I would support this because I would rather the kids have the opportunity to be outside playing sports or inside playing sports,” Ms. Sherwood-Dudley said. “But if we’re trying to take advantage of a situation that’s unfortunate right now and try to make the best of it, okay — but I would definitely need some more details.”

Superintendent Nicholas Dyno said he asked Mr. Phillips and the EGF team to present their proposal to the board at this time in order to review the overall concept “because we would be reallocating money from the athletic budget to a more electronic platform that is so different from what was in the budget when we proposed it last spring,” he said.

If they were not in favor, further investigation into the details of how the new program would impact the schools and the budget would be unnecessary, he said. But after a nearly 45-minute discussion, the board members decided that they indeed wanted more information.

“I appreciate all of your time tonight, coming and explaining it to us,” Ms. Robinson said. “I know my son games a lot, both of my children do, and it’s much different than sitting in front of a Zoom. It’s so out of our element, but the kids really enjoy it as a downtime thing, so I am interested in it and would like to explore it a little more.”