In A202 the returning team members as well as aspiring ones gathered to discuss the new E-sports season. The video games that will be played by the students are League of Legends and Rocket League. League of Legends came out when Pippert was in high school. He can teach the game but he still has a lot to learn.

“I am willing to learn but (they) also have to be willing to be part of the team,” Pippert said.

Esports is a club where anyone, no matter the skill level, can join. Students gather to play video games and have fun. There’s also competitions for the gamers who play competitively. However, not everyone has to play competitively, some will come just to play games and make friends.

They are the members of the E-sports team who will play League of Legends and Rocket League in the new season. Since the first meeting there has been 33 members and they meet every other Wednesday. Their practice stays at home where they can play with their team members online and get better at their skill.

Coach Pippert will build a relationship with each of the participants of the club pertaining to the identity of the student outside of the learning environment of the school.

“Just allowing them to be somewhere with people likeminded is really awesome” Pippert said.

Pippert used to coach wrestling for three years and now he teaches Chemistry and UT onramps geoscience. The previous co-coach was Coach Palmer. He’s now no longer a coach at Smithson Valley. Pippert basically took over after that.

“I’m really excited especially with all the kids who are trying out, we have a lot of students that want to step up with peripherals and some of the background stuff. So I’m excited to learn and to teach.” Pippert said.

Pippert wants the club to be somewhere the students are welcome and a place where students can stay if they need to. 

“I think Mr. Pippert is going to do great as head coach,” junior team member Alex Dewees said. “He’s always on top of making sure we’re the best we can be and always makes an effort to know everything there is to know about the games we play to coach us the best he can.”

Pippert coached  for three years prior to coaching the E-sports team. Coach Pippert began coaching E-sports last year, however he was not involved for the entire season. His goal this year is to get the team at least to the Sweet 16 which is the play offs for E-sports gamers. 

Some conversations held at the meeting consisted of expectations of the players and their behavior. Others were about the games that would be played like League of Legends and Rocket League and what kind of equipment our school has.

The E-sports club has officially started and the players are excited to start playing.