Article written by Alicia Caple, Circleville Herald Sports Editor, February 3, 2023
WILLIAMSPORT — The Westfall esports team kicked off their spring season this week.
The esports team at Westfall has been around for four years, the first two years were as a club sport and the last two years have been as a varsity sport.
Coaches Matthew Greenlee and Devin Schoonover, who have been with the team since the beginning, lead the esports team. Greenlee said that just like other sports, the team practices and scrimmages other teams to prepare for the upcoming season and make sure the technology is up to date.
“Because unlike other sports, we play from our own schools, we don’t travel. So if there is an issue with the technology that puts us either behind or cancels a match.”
The esports team has a seven week regular season and an extra week to make up any missed matches. The end of the regular season is then followed by regional, district, and state tournaments. There are two State Championships each year, one at the end of the fall season that is all virtual and one at the end of the spring season that is in-person.
Westfall has gone to the State Championships in each of their seasons. So, how did the team prepare for the spring season?
“We make sure we get enough time to practice with one another before we moved into scrimmages,” Greenlee said.
The team also holds scrimmages to determine who makes the team.
“We want to make sure we have not only the best players, but the best players that work with one another. It’s such a team sport that some players may play better together, even though they may not be the best individual players.”
The goal for the team this season is to get back to the State Tournament again.
“We have a lot of seniors this year and they really want to make it to the final match,” Greenlee said.
Coach also talked about how esports is the fastest growing collegiate sport right now and how Westfall is connecting their players to local colleges.
“We just visited Ohio Christian University to meet with their esports team and coach and had some scrimmages. We are going to be visiting Shawnee in March for the expo in esports, including game design and management.”
“We want to try and get the students thinking about esports outside of hanging out with friends and just gaming for fun.”
Right now, the Westfall team is ranked first in Fortnite and has the first ranked player in the state in Fortnite after the first week of competition. Mason Jacobs is the player currently ranked first and is a Fortnite team co-captain with Zach Evans. Evans is also the captain of the Overwatch team, Connor Lambert is the captain of Chess, and Matt Mathes is the captain of the Valorant team.
The Westfall esports team is back in action on Monday at 3 p.m. in the game of Fortnite.