Riverhead High School gamers compete with other schools in new esports program

Riverhead High School is giving its students the opportunity to play video games competitively against other high schools, opening the students up to a burgeoning industry and a range of scholarship opportunities. 

Competitive video gaming, also known as esports, is a growing industry with leagues emerging on the high school and collegiate levels. Riverhead High School started its first esports team in Rocket League — a three-versus-three soccer-like game where players score goals using rocket-powered cars that can flip and fly through the air — at the start of the school year. 

The school competes through the Electronic Gaming Federation, which organizes esports leagues for middle school, high school and college students. The team’s first season saw them placing third in their group and making the playoffs, before being eliminated in the second round of the lower bracket playoffs on Wednesday to a team from Taunton, Massachusetts.

The students practice once a week after school. One of the players, sophomore Landon Oakley, has been playing Rocket League for about five years, has roughly 1,600 hours on the game and is ranked in the top .8% of the game’s players.

The school’s esports teams started as an offshoot of the school’s video game club, established roughly two-and-a-half years ago under the supervision of high school math teacher Bob Dilworth. Yes, he is a gamer.

“I started here three years ago. In my interview, I said I wanted to bring esports to the school, because I grew up here and I always loved esports,” Dilworth said. The recent purchase by the school of high powered computers enables the students to compete on a professional level, he said.

Dilworth acts as coach to the students, although he does not personally play Rocket League. The students who wanted to compete chose the game at the start of the year. 

The esports program is in the midst of expansion. On Thursday, Dilworth and science teacher Julia-Anna Searson, also an advisor to the club, held tryouts to form a team for another game: Valorant. The five-versus-five first person shooter game is one of the top esports in the world and is developed by Riot Games, the gaming studio responsible for the world’s largest esport, League of Legends. 

Roughly nine students were at Wednesday’s tryouts, which resume after holiday vacation. Dilworth and Searson will be picking the team’s roster — five starting players, and three or four substitutes — using statistics and results over a series of matches between the students. The players will only have a few weeks to practice together before their tournament season starts in February. 

High school senior Ted Drew said he started playing Valorant recently in anticipation of trying out for the team. A fan of first person shooter games, he thinks he has a good chance of getting a spot on the team.

“I’d be able to represent the school in something I love, which is video games. I’d be able to represent the school as a face of Riverhead,” Drew said. “It’ll be the first time that I’ve really done this. I have been on teams for sports and games in the past, but I’ve never been on a competitive team.” 

The rising popularity of video games over the last two decades led to the growth of esports. The industry, which includes video game live streaming, live tournament events, merchandise, advertising and more, had a value estimated at $1.72 billion in 2023 that is projected to grow to $9.29 billion in 2032, according to a market analysis by Fortune Business Insight. 

Like traditional sports, professional video gaming become popular in schools — particularly at the collegiate level. Close to 300 colleges and universities in North America are currently signed up to compete in varsity competitions in six games organized through the National Association of Collegiate Esports. Leagues exist on the collegiate level for individual games. The State University of New York (SUNY) system has its own league, which announced that teams across its 54 campuses would compete in the esports league established by the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

And, similarly to traditional sports, esports at the college level means scholarship opportunities for students. The amount of esports scholarship money across the U.S. is growing massively; scholarship money for esports doubled from $8 million to $16 million in the 2020/21 academic, according to Scholarships.com. 

Sophomore Bryan Hernandez has been playing Valorant for five months and came to try out for the team on Wednesday. Valorant and esports are growing, he said — and being on the team would look good on a college application.

“My dream school is NYU, and I know they’re starting esports and stuff like that soon, so hopefully I can get a scholarship for that,” Hernandez said.