Michael Pleasant is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Xavier College Preparatory for AZPreps365.com

This fall the Xavier College Prep started its first year in Esports under the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

The AIA tried to start the Esports program last spring, but they ended up needing more time to get the new program launched. That didn’t stop Xavier from getting its program up and running.

Erika Pienado, head coach of the Esports program, experienced some initial challenges when she started the program in the spring without the assistance of the AIA.

“When starting something from scratch, it’s all about creating the awareness,” Pienado said. "The people were there, and they just didn’t know they wanted to play this sport.”

Once Pienado got girls to come and see what Esports was all about, getting them to stay required little persuasion.

“Once they actually got in and started playing, they didn’t want to leave the computer lab,” she said.

They played a wide variety of games ranging from “Super Smash Bros” to “Overwatch.”  

The Xavier Esports team competed last spring in the High School Sports League, which is an online gaming league where teams compete against each other from different states They played “Overwatch,” a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter.

There are two teams of six, with each player selecting certain characters known as heroes. The objectives range from securing and defending control points to escorting payloads across the map in a limited amount of time.

In every sport, having a rival adds more intensity into the game for both schools playing. Pienado said that competing in matches against teams that aren’t in your city takes away that rivalry aspect of the match.

“Keeping it local will definitely create more motivation and push forward harder…when you keep it local it helps build that comraderie," she said.

This year the Gator girls will be playing "League of Legends" and "Rocket League."  Both games are new to everyone on the team this year, since they only competed in "Overwatch" last year.

”When you are playing at home you aren’t focused on the game. Here it’s a set team and it’s more competitive,” said Sophia Pauly, a first-year player.

Pauly plays on the "Rocket League" team for Xavier, which is coached by Peinado.

Eric Lambert will be the primary coach for the girls playing "League of Legends."  Lambert always had a passion for video games, and he notices that peaked curiosity amongst the girls.

“We have a player meeting and we explain what esports is and if people are interesting in that they come in and try it out,” Lambert said.

When it comes to coaching the players on the team who have never really played "League of Legends," Lambert has his strategy ready to go.

“I try to remember all the things I did really poorly and do my best to have people do that,” he said.

They expect their season to begin in October, but do not yet have a schedule in place for this season.