Meeting Kids’ Needs: Palm Springs Unified School District’s eSports Program Showcases the Benefits of Gaming

Did you know that a local school district has a full-fledged esports program?

For nearly a decade, the Palm Springs Unified School District has been building a desert esports presence: Instead of traditional sports like basketball or football, students compete against each other in video games. Every high school and middle school in the district has an esports team, with a few elementary schools joining in as well. 

The district recently hosted a tournament with different PSUSD schools (as well as some from the Desert Sands Unified School District) competing against each other at the district’s new Esports Arena at Desert Learning Academy.

During a recent Zoom interview Will Carr, PSUSD’s director of educational technology, he talked about the beginnings of esports in the district’s schools.

“Back in 2016, we started preparing the district to bring esports into the curriculum here,” Carr said. “We had a great superintendent and a pretty open-minded board, which allowed us to approach the situation and talk about funding. What they said was, ‘Let’s give it a shot, as long as it’s not shooting games.’ We had to stick to games like Super Smash Bros. and League of Legends or Dota.”

At the same time, there were national efforts being made regarding esports in schools. Carr and his team used a curriculum built by the North American Scholastic Esports Federation to get the district’s approval for an esports program. 

“We said, ‘Hey, there’s this corporation that’s tied to a college, and they have outlined this curriculum,’” Carr said. “The curriculum covers shoutcasting (announcing in esports), entrepreneurship, coaching, medical, IT design, setting up the network properly and all the things that have to do with a big esports event. From there, we started creating small pilot high schools, and that allowed us to get our foot in the door, open up some funding to buy some decent machines or build machines, have practices and work on getting a stipend for teachers so they can coach, just like football coaches or basketball coaches or soccer coaches do.”

In 2025, the esports program at PSUSD is thriving, thanks to an annual budget and the new arena.

“We created an environment that fits different kids’ needs,” he said. “Some kids in the esports program aren’t involved in basketball, swimming, soccer or sports in general. There some of them are involved with bands; some are involved with theater, but a lot of them aren’t involved with anything except for esports. We created a place where those students have an agency, and now they have a voice. There was a group of kids who didn’t do anything with the school besides go to school, and they’re now a part of this community. Some of them are the gamers, and some of them are shoutcasters, and some of them are fanart designers.”

Esports can also attract a wide variety of students, all year. 

“We can bring in different games very easily, and there’s a job for everybody,” Carr said. “A lot of our esports teams at the schools consist of 35 to 40 students, and about 18 to 20 of them are the varsity or the ‘professional players.’ The rest are support, either doing entrepreneurial fundraising, coaching, setup or tear downs, things of that nature. Some are just practice squads.”

Bringing gaming into school has been a lifelong dream for Carr, and he hopes parents and the community look beyond the stereotypical anti-video-game arguments, and realize the many benefits of an esports program.

“There’s so much around studying, building a high-end computer, optimizing the network for speed and low latency, ergonomics, posture, rage and controlling your emotions, and all that good stuff,” Carr said. “The biggest roadblock has always been that ‘video games are bad, and kids who play shooting games shoot other kids and have rage and anger.’ Our parents don’t see the opportunities and the possibilities in the market space—and in our valley here, there’s not a ton for the kids to do.”

Carr sees a future for Coachella Valley esports beyond just being a school activity.

“We wanted to create a community in the valley, so we didn’t have to drive to San Diego or drive out to Orange County for this group of people and fans alike to start seeing what esports is about,” he said. “We built this brand-new esports arena. … We want to start opening it up to the community, meaning that we want to start hosting community gaming events, or partner with outside people to bring in community events, just to start getting it more adapted into the community.”

Students have already benefited from PSUSD’s esports program, Carr said.

“We have kids who have received scholarships,” Carr said. “We’ve had students who, their grades are so-so, but because they do esports, they were admitted into schools. We have kids who receive all kinds of swag from Logitech, G.Skill and HyperX.”

Carr said he’s happy the Coachella Valley is catching on to “one of the largest industries there is in the world.”

“It’s the future, and so the job of the school district … is to prepare those kids, or to create an avenue for those kids to be involved with that,” Carr said. “… What we’re trying to do is create professional gamers by the time they become high school kids. We’re trying to get them hooked. They’re already kind of hooked, but they’re hooked in casual play without much thought. We’re trying to give them the structure. We’re trying to give them these pathways. We’re trying to teach them how to control emotions and not get burnt out, and teach them balance at the elementary levels. As they get into high school, we start giving them some fine skills.”

Elementary-school students start with more lighthearted games like Super Smash Bros., before advancing to more competitive and strategic games like League of Legends in higher grades.

“We’re doing that to build awareness and understanding of the games and certain skill sets and communication tactics, so when they get to high school, they’re that much better,” Carr said. “When they’re in high schools, they start getting scouted by colleges.”

To involve other local school districts and the community at large, PSUSD founded the Desert Valley Esports Alliance. Carr detailed the three “seasons” within each school year. 

“Season one is right around September, when all the high schools and middle schools have their rush,” he said. “… Season one is joining esports and creating your team, so we give them about six weeks to form their teams, and for us to come out to help out with anything, if we need to refresh computers, add additional network drops, furniture, whatever is needed.

“Season two starts right around Thanksgiving, and that’s pure scrimmage play. We have scrimmage play for another six weeks. … It’s a chance for the coaches to see who’s best in what roles, and it’s also a chance to meet other coaches and kiddos. After the scrimmage season, we go into the seeding season. Every game has a point assigned to it, and for the next six weeks, they round-robin and play every other team once or so. The game points seed them for the finals. The finals are three weeks long.”

Carr credited The Foundation for Palm Springs Unified School District, a nonprofit that assists the district, for helping ensure the esports program’s future is bright.

“We get about $175,000 donated through The Foundation for esports annually, which really makes things go smooth,” Carr said. “You can’t buy a ton with that, but you can upgrade some video cards. We can get additional consoles, subscriptions, and things of that nature. That helps out a lot.”

Carr hopes to expand local esports awareness beyond the schools.

“It’s not just gaming anymore; it’s a lucrative business,” he said. “… Because there’s so much money around this ecosystem, there’s a lot of buzz in the valley. The mayor of Palm Springs, Ron deHarte, is really interested in bringing something to the valley that’s involving esports and people streaming and watching stuff. … Right now, they’re leaning toward something like a big esports qualifier or festival, so we’ll see what happens.”