“A lot of the kids in the program were kind of bullied out of traditional sports,” Beiter said. The outcome was predictable. “My earliest video game memory is going to my best friend’s house in 1984 to play Atari games,” said Beiter, an eighth-grade science teacher and member of the Rensselaer Teachers Association. Later, he […]
“A lot of the kids in the program were kind of bullied out of traditional sports,” Beiter said.
“My earliest video game memory is going to my best friend’s house in 1984 to play Atari games,” said Beiter, an eighth-grade science teacher and member of the Rensselaer Teachers Association. Later, he would meet his friends at the arcade for marathon rounds of Gauntlet and Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins.
And yet, just like traditional athletes, gamers are driven by a need to better themselves and best their opponents.
“The teachers completely annihilated the students,” Moreno said.
That’s how the Empire State Scholastic Esports Federation was born. Beiter, ESSEF president, helped found the group to organize schools-based clubs like his into teams that could compete against other schools, something that was missing in New York.
ESSEF is run by educators whose primary focus is to enhance the student experience, Beiter said. The organization is free to join and facilitates in-person regional matches across the state and two tournaments every year. This year’s spring tournament will be held at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx.
For more information, visit www.essef.org
For Moreno, putting controllers in students’ hands has had a transformative effect. Moreno leads a self-contained classroom.
“Having success, being able to do a thing well, that is the root of authentic confidence,” said Calderin.
Giving them a chance to represent their schools and amass the cachet and social capital that goes along with that – well, Calderin said, that was just icing on the cake.
When it comes to video games, Scott Beiter, Pamela Moreno and Kevin Calderin could be considered some of the OGs, or original gamers.
Beiter started an esports league at Rensselaer Junior-Senior High School to help his students form similar ties. “We have a mental health crisis in this country, and we need more social-emotional opportunities for kids,” Beiter said.
“It’s a group of students we weren’t reaching before,” said Beiter. “For the majority of kids, esports is about having a place to be with your friends.”
“That’s the thing people don’t understand about gamers. Those who are committed to esports are competitors,” said Calderin. “They want that experience of mastering a game and achieving that flow state that comes from high-level competition.”
No surprise, Calderin went on to launch the first high school esports club in New York in 2013. The club’s ranks swelled to more than 100 students in just a few years, he said.
“My kids were picked on so much,” she said. “Then, when our room became the game room … everything changed.” Suddenly, she said, her students went from being ostracized to being the gamers everyone wanted to know.
Similar to the state Public High School Athletic Association, ESSEF promotes consistency across matches, fair play and good sportsmanship. While esports fosters teamwork, communication, and skill improvement, many of the students who find a home in esports wouldn’t call themselves jocks.
Caption:
Esports students compete at the ESSEF UAlbany Icebreaker Invitational Tournament this winter.
Pamela Moreno started an esports league at her middle school to incentivize her students. Moreno is a special education teacher at Community Health Academy of the Heights in Manhattan. A member of the United Federation of Teachers, she grew up playing Super Smash Bros, and she was debating the merits of the latest game in the franchise with a colleague when a student challenged them to a matchup.
As the clubs at each school grew, the students tired of playing against one another. They wanted to form teams and compete against other schools – for glory and honor.
For Kevin Calderin, gaming has always meant family. “I’ve been a gamer my entire life. My mom was a gamer back in the 80s and so she got interested in Ultima and RPGs and Legend of Zelda, and we would sit together and play,” said Calderin, an English teacher at Washingtonville High School and member of the Washingtonville TA. “My brothers all played, and even as we became teenagers, it was still something we could connect around.”
