From Pixels to Pioneers: Sparking Our Esports Revolution at Northeast High

The year was 2021, Covid raged on, but a different kind of fever gripped Northeast High. Esports fever. Not a whisper of the EBREL yet, just a raw, grassroots dream. A dream to prove the naysayers wrong, to show how esports could light a fire in students’ hearts, benefitting their minds and spirits.

I just wanted to see esports take off; I remember it like yesterday. The nervous excitement before launching our first ever esports program. The IT Leadership team ( Amy Jones, Jeffery Harrison, Terrica Jamison) rode up to Northeast with the Superintendent Sito Narcisse , made a power up stop at Burger King, and pushed forward northbound to Northeast High for the Ribbon Cutting to. The IT team poured our sweat and tears into setting up the lab, a haven of blinking lights and buzzing consoles. But the real magic was in the students’ eyes. They weren’t just kids playing games; they were pioneers, explorers charting uncharted territory. Their faces glowed with anticipation as they donned their headsets, fingers poised on controllers.