Deering High School wins esports championship in first season
PORTLAND, Maine (BVM) — With the decision by the Maine Principals’ Association (MPA) to add esports to its sports list this past fall, Deering High School decided it would try out the newest competition.
“The idea started around the summertime,” Deering esports coach Cyle Davenport said when discussing their decision to bring esports to the school. “Our athletic director found out that Maine was launching a new esports program and he thought it would be a good idea to start that up because of Covid-19, so kids could still have a way to connect virtually, in kind of a different way than traditional sports.”
With the MPA offering competition in Rocket League, a three-player soccer-based game, and League of Legends, a five-player arena battle game, Deering decided to give both games a go.
“We started with 10 students signed up and at the end we had 28 [students],” Davenport said.
With mixed success in League of Legends, Deering’s three-player state Rocket League team, consisting of Connor Eide, Mick Fennessy and Ian Sullivan, would be a much different experience as the team went undefeated in its first season.
“I had no idea what to expect going into it,” Davenport said. “I knew of Rocket League and my players were telling me their rankings and I thought, well, that can’t be right. I looked it up and sure enough two out of the three members of the winning Rocket League team were in the top 1% of all Rocket League players.”
With their high-level play, the Rams’ esports team would go on to win the Maine Principals Association championship in its inaugural season taking down Spruce Mountain.
Unlike most sports, the esports team doesn’t need to be in one central location to compete together, playing teams both statewide and regionally. The Rams have utilized playing from home using the popular app, Discord, to stay in contact.
In the future, Davenport hopes they can all compete in the same environment.
“Everything is remote… we use Discord for everything,” Davenport said. “I put my announcements on there, we have team meetings on there with voice chat, and that’s also how we have the players talk during the game.
“If we were fully back in school, then I would hope that we can have our computer labs set up to be able to run esports from the school itself. I think that would offer more advantages.”
With the success of the Rocket League team, Davenport is hoping for similar success in the spring as they put together a team in sports video games FIFA and Madden. For the time being, the MPA will offer the same games to be played in both the fall and spring seasons.
For Davenport, coaching a variety of different games doesn’t hinder his ability to help out the school’s different teams, even if he doesn’t have first-hand knowledge in them.
“I’ve been a gamer my whole life so I know the language, and the systems, and the attitudes to expect,” Davenport said. “I would say to coach an esports team, you don’t need to know the ins-and-outs of all of the games you coach. You just need to have a basic understanding of them.
“A lot of what I do is organizing, making sure players are ready at the right time, making sure we have the games set up. Since they’re high school students, making sure they are keeping good sportsmanship and giving our school a good name through this.”
With the spring sports season upcoming, the MPA will look to build off the strong start to their newest competition.
