Ogden — High school athletes from across northern Utah participated Tuesday in the final regional event of the 2024 eSports Championships.
Athletes wore the jerseys, represented their schools and showed team spirit while competing, just as one would see at a soccer match.
The main difference is that these athletes play behind a screen.
“We were just playing for fun, and we heard something about the school's e-sports team,” Charlie Johnson said.
Johnson, a senior at Viewmont High School, is one of dozens of high school athletes across northern Utah playing in the tournament at Weber State University.
“Rocket League is about making the right decisions, so you can be the most mechanical player,” Johnson said. “You can be able to do all the cool tricks, but it won't matter if you're not in the right place at the right time,” Johnson said.
High school athletes from across northern Utah participated Tuesday in the final regional event of the 2024 Esports Championship. (Derek Petersen, KSL-TV)
Johnson also enjoys mountain biking and playing baseball.
Those sports — and this sport — share a lot of similarities, he said.
“You have to practice, right too, so you know what you're doing,” he said.
Jason Scanlon, teacher The athletes know what they're doing, said the Davis High School esports coach.
“Esports is a celebration of skill through competitive gaming — video games,” Scanlon said.
Scanlon teaches things like programming, 3D graphics, animation, and game development. He said a lot of the students he teaches are students who went through the eSports program.
“This is more than just kids playing with their toys,” Scanlon said. “They represent themselves for the school and show off an obvious excitement when they cheer each other on.”
It could also serve as a catalyst for the future, he said.
“In a way, this is our way of attracting them to a lot of areas of technology,” Scanlon said. “Not all of them stay in it, but we have a lot of students who go into computer science, go into cybersecurity and that kind of thing.”
The next big event will happen in March at the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus. In this event, the best players from Tuesday's event will compete.
