Clark State College will expand its athletics department this fall with the addition of an eSports team.
“Clark State Athletics is delighted to welcome Jeremy Anderson as our new eSports head coach,” said Nazarae Butler, director of athletic and student life at Clark State. “The anticipation has been building, and now the wait is finally over.”
Butler said Anderson, a current student at Clark State studying cyber-security, brings a unique advantage of firsthand knowledge about the students the college serves.
“With his extensive experience in eSports, combined with his unwavering enthusiasm and commitment, we are truly excited,” she said. “The addition of Jeremy to our team fills us with great anticipation. We eagerly look forward to the valuable impact he will have on our student-athletes and the entire athletic department. By bringing Jeremy on board, we are confident in the positive growth and development of our eSports program.”
Anderson was born and raised in the Dayton area and has been gaming since he was 4 when his father introduced him to Blood, a game by Monolith and Quake.
“Eventually we moved on to playing Halo together along with my brother and the rest is history,” he said. “
Anderson said his background in eSports includes experience at its inception when it was called Major League Gaming (MLG).
“I participated in many games, from Halo 3 to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3,” he said. “I was part of teams either leading them or working in cohesion with other members. We faced off against top teams that people may be familiar with like FaZe Clan, OpTic Gaming, and more. Since then, I’ll spectate games and play matches with teams as a substitute to keep myself fresh with today’s games.”
Clark State aims to have an eSports team of eight students.
“We are looking into multiple different leagues to get into, but our main focus is to schedule based on what is best suited for our student athletes,” said Butler.
Butler explained that eSports competition is diverse and all games will require everyone to work together as a unit in order to achieve an objective and allow team members to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
“There are multiple different colleges we could face against ranging from Kent State University and Wright State University to colleges and community colleges within the conference,” she said. “The choosing of what games we play will be a collaborative effort with the student-athletes.”
Butler said she is hoping Clark State eSports can get established and stream practices on Twitch and Kick.
“This is the creation of something new for Clark State,” she said. “Not only do I want our eSports team to grow and become something amazing, but I want the students themselves to be able to have fun and grow themselves in the process.”