By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
Students at Great Bend Middle School are not only allowed to play video games at school, but they are encouraged to do so. A new esports club was started this year at the school.
The group, which meets twice a week after school, is hosted by social studies teacher Tyler Rydman. Any middle school student who is academically eligible and wants to learn new gaming skills can be part of the club. Rydman told members of the USD 428 Board of Education on Monday night about how esports can be a valuable learning tool.
“It’s just like a team sport,” Rydman said. “They need to learn to play together, they need to communicate, they need to trust each other just like they would in football or basketball or volleyball.”
About 70 high schools in Kansas already have esports teams. One has not yet been developed at Great Bend High School. Barton Community College fielded its first competitive esports team in the fall of 2020.
Tricia Reiser, the school district's director of teaching and learning, said students may soon be able to learn more about esports during the school day.
“We’re starting out small, and hopefully, when we look at redoing the middle school schedule that it could become an elective,” Reiser commented. “It’s an opportunity for non-athletes to participate in a team sport. We hope it grows. We think it will. I went and visited the other day and [it was] a great group of kids.”
Rydman said involvement with the club may lead some of the students to learn skills such as computer coding, animation and web design that could turn into a future career.