Lourdes University is on the hunt for student athletes who are quick thinkers, team players, and mentally tough.
The private liberal arts university in Sylvania is joining a growing trend of adding competitive video gaming — or eSports — to its athletic offerings, and recruiters need about 30 men and women to strap on headsets and join the sport’s inaugural season in the fall.
Lourdes President Mary Ann Gawelek has been pushing for an eSports program at Lourdes since she took the helm in July, 2016. She rejects the notion that video games have no place in athletics and said the sport develops both body and mind.
“In order to participate in eSports you have to have the mental ability and critical thinking skills to do game-playing in general, you have to have developed the ability to function on a team, and you have to have a competitive nature that drives you toward success,” Ms. Gawelek said. “It links well with a liberal arts education.”
Lourdes is the first in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic conference to offer an eSports scholarship program, but it joins about 30 other colleges and universities nationwide in the National Association of Collegiate eSports, which formed just last year.
Tiffin University in Seneca County is in the midst of recruiting eSports athletes for a fall season start.
Lourdes eSports Director Cory Cahill hopes to field three teams to compete in League of Legends, a fantasy multiplayer battle arena game he described as “one of the biggest in eSports.” He expects the season will run nearly year-round, with practice during the week and most competitions on the weekends.
For elite gamers, joining the team could help pay for a college education. Athletes are eligible for partial scholarships based on combined academic and athletic abilities.
“The scholarship is based on merit, just like any other sport,” Mr. Cahill said. “You’re given a scholarship based on your skill.”
Mr. Cahill also works as assistant volleyball coach for men and women at Lourdes, but he is familiar with competitive gaming. He played Halo 2 and Halo 3 on the professional circuit from 2003 to 2009 and used his winnings to help pay tuition at Hannibal-LaGrange University in Missouri.
He is now on the hunt for athletes and a part-time coach to get the Lourdes program off the ground by fall, but he already has his sights set on expanding.
The university plans to grow eSports to 60 athletes over the next few years and may add more games — such as Hearthstone, Overwatch, and Heroes of the Storm — to the mix. Lourdes, as a Catholic and Franciscan University, will stay away from realistic, first-person shooter games.
“My biggest hope is to bring in 30 quality student athletes; people who are excited about it, who are excited about the program, and who want to be able to use gaming as an outlet to help pay for their college education,” Mr. Cahill said. “I’d like to compete on the national level.”
Alan Grosbach, a spokesman for the National Association of Collegiate eSports, said competitive gaming at the collegiate level really took off in 2014 when Robert Morris University in Chicago was the first to offer scholarships for gamers.
“After that you see a snowball effect of schools small and large adding this program,” Mr. Grosbach said. “It’s very new, and it’s moving extremely fast.”
Lourdes’ eSports teams will face their opponents digitally in a new gaming arena on campus. An existing weight room is moving into a vacant room within the school’s recreation center to make room for the the new, technologically savvy space where the teams will face competitors from across the country.
“It’s not just moving a mouse. There’s a lot of strategy that comes into it. A lot of communication, a lot of mental focus, and a lot of hours spent on the game,” Mr. Cahill said. “It’s a true sport.”
Contact Sarah Elms at: selms@theblade.com or 419-724-6103 or on Twitter @BySarahElms.
First Published January 31, 2017, 5:00 a.m.
