The esports team at Wadsworth High School has just been founded and created. Micheal Kuethe, the IT support specialist for the high school, has been pushing for the team to be created and has been named the coach of the esports team.
The Wadsworth Middle School has had an esports team since last year, and just now, the high school is beginning its program.
For now, Kuethe will remain the single coach for the team. Kuethe has also been receiving training from the middle school esports advisors on how the program should be run.
The team will be competing in the Esports Ohio League which had over 290 high school teams in the 23-24 school year.
Kuethe plans not to instantly go into the premier league, which is almost like varsity esports. He plans to go into club esports for their first season.
The games that will be played are Super Smash Bros and Rocket League. Other games that were disapproved by the school board were Overwatch 2, Valorant, and many of the other shooter games for now. There may be a new decision next year.
“The administration didn’t make a quick decision [on the bans of shooter games]. Many decisions were still being made to create the club [and Kuethe didn’t want to push for shooters during this time],” said Kuethe. “The administration just did not have enough time to look at all of the games and make an informed decision [on the shooter games]. But, I just wanted to get something going because there were a lot of students interested.”
Even though it was approved, Kuethe did not see many students interested in joining the Mario Kart club, so it will not be played this winter.
Kuethe will consider doing a tryout depending on how many students are interested in joining each game. For instance, the Rocket League team has three players, but they can have two backup teams, so they would need around nine players to complete their team. So, if there were more than nine students interested, Kuethe will host a tryout.
“I did get approval for 4000 dollars of a flexible budget. I think I will dedicate that money to get quality displays, since we have the PCs here, and buy two Nintendo Switches,” Kuethe said. “I definitely want to get some quality chairs for the PC players.
Principal Vincent Suber has already dedicated the extended learning lab inside the 1500 hall for the esports team. This is for the students to have an area to practice and an area to compete in after school.
Kuethe plans to have at least two after-school practices for an hour each. Kuethe will plan more if students advocate for it.
There was an after-school meeting for parents and students on Nov. 22. This meeting discussed requirements for students and how the registration will work.
“I would definitely be joining Super Smash Bros… I mostly just want to have fun in a somewhat competitive scene and make some friends,” said Desmond Morgan, an interested sophomore in joining the esports team.
Kuethe is an avid gamer of both Rocket League and Super Smash Bros. He has played many games casually, so his coaching for the students might reflect.
