Esports

New Ohio Collaborative to Support Esports in High Schools

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 04/07/20

Two Ohio organizations are working with the North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF) and the Samueli Foundation to form the Ohio Scholastic Esports League Collaborative. The goal: to give students access to NASEF's scholastic esports platform, provide competitive opportunities for student teams and provide a framework for high schools to create esports career pathways. Those involved include the PAST Foundation, a nonprofit that develops problem-based learning opportunities for K-12, and Esports Ohio, a nonprofit with 150 member schools, created by teachers to help high schools set up esports teams and clubs.

Organizers said the new program would give students a community of peers with similar interests in a supervised setting, where they'll develop skills in communication, collaboration and problem solving. While esports often begins with expert players, Collaborative officials noted, teams "quickly realize they need other team members to assist with marketing, promotion, sponsorships, video and production and programming."

"NASEF is having great success developing local affiliates like this one in Ohio," said Gerald Solomon, founder of NASEF and executive director of the Samueli Foundation, in a statement. "Students love playing with local rival schools in addition to national competitions, and educators appreciate the opportunity to work with local counterparts as they implement a new idea like scholastic esports."