Ben Stoeber played two years of tennis for Pinckney High School.
This year, he’s trading in his racket for a mouse and the court for a video screen..
And he’s more nervous now than he ever was wearing a Pinckney tennis uniform.
The junior is a member of the school’s first esports team, which began its season Feb. 18 in a 48-team league sponsored by Lawrence Tech University.
“There’s a couple players on the team who played traditional sports here before this year,” Stoeber said. “I’m nervous. There’s more pressure on us than in tennis. It’s our first year of esports, so if we don’t do well, who knows if there will be another year.
“In tennis, there wasn’t the same type of pressure.”
Stoeber does not consider himself a trailblazer. He’s just one of the latest to join a growing fraternity of video gamers who have taken the next evolutionary step with esports, a team competition using games such as League of Legends or Rocket League.
Michigan High School Athletic Association officials have begun conversations with athletic directors, coaches and esports experts, focusing on the viability of sponsoring esports as a varsity sport.
Stoeber would love to wear an esports varsity letter someday, but his interest in esports was the same as his interest in tennis.
“I liked tennis because of the social aspect of it,” Stoeber said. “I liked being on the team, working together. With esports, you have some of the same social aspects of being on a team.”
Like tennis, there is a risk of injury for an esports player.
“Injuries are there, like wrist and arm tendinitis,” said Andrew Blanchard, a high school esports tournament director at Lawrence Tech. “There is the danger of carpal tunnel. There is a connection between mental condition and physical condition. If you’re not physically fit, you’re not going to be there mentally to be there all game.”
Stoeber, who has a 3.5 grade-point average, wants to study robotics and engineering in college, an interest that dominates the esports world.
“We’re drawing from the same pool of kids that are interested in coding and computer programming,” Pinckney co-coach Ted Kidd said. “Pinckney has one of the best cyber-security curriculums in the country, and it would be a natural fit to work this into part of that curriculum.
“It ties in. Using the technology and making multiple critical decisions every second of competition lends itself to what our society is becoming.”
Kidd points to military and medical industries that have evolved, switching out some of the physical requirements for success with the need for computer expertise.
“My brother who lives in Colorado had a hernia operation,” Kidd said. “His doctor was in a different city, remotely controlling a robot doing the surgery. The type of skill that society requires now includes very steady hands and an intimate knowledge of how computer programs work.
“There’s a lot that translates from esports.”
Matt Mooney, who teaches theology at Dearborn Divine Child, helps coach the Divine Child esports team, although initially he too was dubious of esports as a sport.
“Traditional sports prepare students physically for the future,” Mooney said. “In many ways, esports also prepares students physically with the future in mind.
“The joke growing up was that the next generation of fighter pilots was going to be lights out, because kids growing up playing video games had incredible quick-twitch abilities and muscle memory. You’ve got students with tens of millions of clicks on one mouse.”
The connection between computers, STEM classes and esports exists for both boys and girls, although girls have been slower to jump into the esports world.
“Last year, we had one girl competing on all of the teams in our tournament,” Blanchard said. “That was disappointing. Then when I looked at the teams registering for this year’s league and tournament, I saw not just eight girls, but some were captains of their team. It was a great feeling.
“Maybe it’s culture, maybe it’s stereotype, but you don’t see a lot of female gamers. In general, they’re not growing up with video games or competing with other people or they’re treated differently or negatively when they do compete. But it’s something that, judging by the numbers that I see, is improving. I was thrilled to see the number of girls in our tournament.”
Stoeber is learning how to adjust from tennis to esports. It’s not necessarily an easy transition. Playing esports requires faster decisions and different physical requirements.
“I’m in the robotics club, but there is a physical aspect to esports that other clubs don’t have and other sports don’t have,” Stoeber said. “The muscle reactions have to be quick. It’s not the same type of physical requirements that traditional sports have, but traditional sports don’t have the same physical requirements you need for esports.
“You have to make so many decisions in a split second. In tennis, you had to make decisions too, but it was pretty basic and you had more time to make those decisions. The decisions and reactions you need for esports are quicker and happen more often.”
And if a varsity letter isn’t available, a scholarship is. One Pinckney player, Jacob Milburn, has received a scholarship to play esports for the Alma College team. Esports coaches from Northwood University, Michigan and Michigan State are expected to visit the Pinckney esports team during the season.
“Getting the scholarships is encouraging,” Fowler said. “It’s one of the reasons you start this. It gives our students another option to pay for college. It’s another positive for the program. It’s another positive for esports.”
