With the incredibly quick rise of esports, we’ve seen how it can provide great value in both high school and college. A couple years back, we shared an esports white paper detailing benefits of esports competition, how to start a school program, and even some of the gaming technology that's worth exploring. So, for our latest Rising Resources post, we took a deeper look into the High School Esports League. With their team of professionals who help promote and implement esports leagues and programs all around, the HSEL is a great resource for tech directors or athletic directors if they’re thinking about how to start a program.
A lot goes into creating an esports program, especially if students will be competing against teams from other schools. If you want interscholastic competitions rather than students competing against classmates, the High School Esports League is a useful tool. By joining the HSEL, students on esports teams can enjoy a structured and official esports experience—and one that provides them with the same benefits they’d get from participating in other interscholastic sports, like basketball, soccer, or cheerleading. Plus, participating in a formal program can also help extend the benefits that esports has to offer.
Getting started with High School Esports League programs.
Working with HSEL representatives helps coaches create a program and environment that helps improve student engagement beyond just gaming. Benefits of esports for today's students include improvements in both attendance and GPA since they truly start to feel like they belong within the school community and often begin taking more pride in their school work. At the moment, there are over 3,000 schools in the High School Esports League with over 80,000 students participating. That number, of course, may only continue to go up as the esports craze builds more momentum in education.
The program helps make esports competition accessible to every student and, through those experiences, help them develop new skills—both gaming and soft skills—for growing into a varsity level player. The High School Esports League platform also helps make things easier on faculty and coaches to provide beneficial gaming experiences. Ultimately, they want to help educators help students see that they could achieve the same kinds of success in academics as they can in gaming—even learning to apply new skills they build, like communication, to succeeding in future careers.
Creating connections between esports and STEM.
The HSEL team also provides STEM.org-accredited experiences for esports athletes. These programs and curriculum are available for everyone and can also help teachers secure grant and funding opportunities as well. Since there is a cost for joining the High School Esports League, teachers could also put this funding towards that. They even provide curriculum if you're teaching a class about esports in addition to offering the programming. Students can learn a bunch of career skills and even social-emotional skills with this comprehensive esports curriculum.
The more common function of the HSEL, however, lies in providing esports athletes a structured, safe, and competitive gaming experience. Student teams that sign up to participate can then choose from a long list of many popular esports games, like Overwatch, Rocket League, and Super Smash Bros. among plenty of others. For any sports fans, there’s also Madden and NBA2K. Students could even share their suggestions for new games they’d like to be able to access on the HSEL platform.
Creating a high school esports league or program.
So, if you’re interested in taking the next step into esports competition and have a group of students who'd like some new challenges, registering a team with the High School Esports League is convenient and easy. On their site, there’s a page for officially starting a school team. They even provide tips for administrators and coaches who are just starting out. Once ready, however, there’s a sign-up button at the bottom of the page and other helpful information to read.
The real fun then comes through the competitions. Each fall, for example, the HSEL officials facilitate eight weeks of regular-season competitions for the 12 different games they support. Students can create teams and compete on PCs or laptops—potentially earning prize money for esports equipment or scholarships! These tournaments typically run throughout the fall semester and students must be at least 13 years old to participate. Registration is now open and closes soon.
Learn more about our esports products and resources.
Esports helps create new experiences for students, improves their chances of attending college, and learn team-building skills. If you’re interested in learning more about creating an official esports program at your school by joining the High School Esports League, we’d definitely encourage you to check out their site. You can even schedule a call with one of their representatives who’ll answer your specific questions. After you’ve explored their site, download our white paper and check out the esports equipment on our store! And, feel free to follow us on Twitter and Instagram as well.
