“I’ve seen it all now,” Benton-ville school board member Travis Riggs said during a board meeting last week.
Well, not quite, Travis. Not yet anyway.
I thought it was a joke, too, when I first heard about it nine months ago. But it’s true.
Bentonville and Bentonville West will each field teams this season where students sit in front of a computer and play online video games against students from other high schools. It’s called e-sports and hundreds of teams are being formed all over the country, including Arkansas, where high schools in Rogers, Springdale, and Fayetteville will likely field teams as well.
“Worldwide, this is a very popular thing,” said Matthew Possehl, who’ll coach the online team at Bentonville West. “We think that students who don’t normally or historically participate in school clubs or activities will be more inclined to do something like this.”
The school board at Bentonville voted 6-0 to establish esports programs, which has been accepted as a new activity by the Arkansas Activities Association, the governing body of high school sports in the state.
So, what’s next, table top football where kids push a rectangle football made of paper toward each other and kick extra points with their fingers? If that were a sport when I was in high school, then I’d have been a first-team All-American.
The introduction of esports to me is further proof that the lines between sports, recreation, and hobbies continue to be blurred. It’s an everyday event for parents to ask (demand?) their kids to get off the couch, put down their cellphones, and do something that requires at least some physical activity.
Mow the yard.
Take out the trash.
Wash the car.
“Can’t do it, mom,” a video gamer might respond. “I’ve got to do thumb crunches.”
Really?
Yes, really.
Go, fight, click.
More than 100 schools with teams of five players will participate in esports this fall and spring in Arkansas. Students will log onto their computer labs for games and a 64-team tournament will be held following the regular season.
Esports will be listed as an activity by the AAA this season but it could eventually become a sanctioned sport as interest grows.
“We are very excited to add another activity for the students of Arkansas to participate in,” said Derek Walter, assistant executive director of the Arkansas Activities Association. “We believe esports will attract different students that are currently not participating in an activity. We look for esports to grow around Arkansas and around the nation.”
In June, Brody Jacks, president of the Bauxite High School bass finishing team asked the AAA to sanction high school fishing. Jacks said the move would grow interesting in the sport and encourage young people to get outdoors rather than stay indoors.
Hard to argue that and fishing at least requires skill, stamina and strength to cast a line and reel in a fish, sometimes in choppy water.
As a sports writer, I’ve grown to appreciate a variety of sports besides baseball and football, particularly volleyball and wrestling. All involve running and jumping and even bowling requires that an individual bend over and roll a bowl that weighs at least 10 pounds down a lane.
So, esports is going to take some time for skeptics like Travis and I to become accustomed. Anything that allows more students to become involved in school activities is good. But call it an activity, a recreation or even a brain game.
Just don’t call it a sport.
Rick Fires can be reached at rfires@ nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWARick.