PORT ANGELES — It was a historic day at Peninsula College on Saturday when 15 students signed letters of intent and accepted scholarships to play on the new Pirates coed esports team.
Pirate Esports joins the successful soccer and basketball programs as the college’s newest intercollegiate sport. The 15 athletes are the first who will compete in League of Legends, Overwatch and Rocket League.
“This is a big day for us,” said Rick Ross, associate dean for athletics and student life.
“Esports is hugely popular worldwide, and we’re joining more than 300 colleges and universities across the country who have launched programs that provide this new and exciting intercollegiate sports opportunity to some very bright and talented student athletes.”
Peninsula College will be the second community college in Washington to field esports teams, but the first to do so as an intercollegiate athletic program.
Centralia has esports under student life.
Head coach Charlie Morrow held a signing event Saturday and will begin practice sessions this week.
“My teams are composed of talented, excited and motivated men and women,” said Morrow, who has a master’s degree in performance psychology, specifically focused in skills training for esports.
“Players are already coordinating meetups and outside practice sessions via our Discord server. I can already see that they are ready to take on the big name schools and we’re going to have a terrific first quarter.
“Everyone is getting along, and I can start to see the synergy and team coordination,” Morrow said.
The League of Legends team consists of Marshall Matlock, Joseph Pizzuto, Kyle Rosander, Luke Salvador and Jun Vu.
The team will play in the Collegiate Star League and will take on both two- and four-year colleges in weekly tournaments from Oct. 19 through Feb. 15.
The Overwatch team consists of Ted Cosmez, Damien Cundiff, Levi Foy, Cameron Fouts, Ashley Frantz, Mike Roggenbuck and Katelyn Simmons.
The Overwatch players will compete in CSL’s biweekly tournaments, as well as Tespa’s collegiate preseason.
Tespa’s tournaments will be held Sundays from Nov. 3 through Dec. 15, and CLS tournament dates are Nov. 9 and Nov. 30.
The Pirate Rocket League team, including Nicholas Charters, Drew Eckard and Stuart Koehler, will spend fall quarter training in preparation for winter quarter competition.
Peninsula College is also considering joining the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports conference that begins in January and concludes with national championships in April.
The teams will train in a media classroom that was upgraded to meet the technology needs of a competitive esports program.
Coach Morrow also plans to form a Smash Bros team, should she be able to land a few more players.
This year’s Pirate esports program will lay the ground work for Peninsula College to begin recruiting worldwide. The program offers scholarship opportunities to players who follow the same enrollment and eligibility rules as other intercollegiate athletes.
One exception is that esports rules currently allow high school students who are enrolled full time at colleges to participate.
