Davenport students are excelling at a new kind of sports competition – esports, or competitive video gaming.
It’s become a huge industry over the past decade, with many schools across the world founding their own teams to compete against rival schools, according to a recent release from Davenport Community School District – which says the district has one of the top esports programs in the country.
The gamers in the DCSD esports program are Iowa State Champions, with over 150 student participants, and over $1.2 million in esports scholarship offers since the group’s inception in 2018, the release said.
Esports is one of leading extracurriculars at DCSD in terms of student and classroom engagement, with one of the fastest growing programs in the state, one which has gained national recognition.
Alene Vandermyde is TLCS Tech Innovator at DCSD and the founder of the state-wide organization for high school esports, a robotics coach who became a gaming guru.
“It all started in 2018, when one of my students, Matt Runke, asked me to be the teacher-sponsor for his HSEL League of Legends team,” Vandermyde said recently.
“After this experience went poorly, we talked about other options and things we could play through. We, then, participated in several in person competitions over the next fall semester.
“As we found ourselves wanting a great experience in competition, I decided, in the spring of 2019, to send an email to every athletic director in the state to see if they wanted to join up and make an esports organization,”: Vandermyde said.
“It was then the Iowa High School Esports Association was born. I served as Planning Team Committee Chair and then as inaugural president of the organization. As my term ended as president, I stepped into the national conversation,” she said.
Davenport has won two state titles
DCSD has followed that esports road across the country.
“We have won two state titles, 2019-2020 school year, we won the Fall Smash Brothers: Ultimate state championship and the Winter Overwatch state championship. We have been to the playoffs an additional three times in the past two years,” Vandermyde said. “We compete in two titles per season with three seasons. Games are played with all our students at our school against other schools that are also all together – just against each other online.”
They livestream these matches at . As the program has grown, DCSD and Vandermyde, have been honored in other ways.
“I have won the 2020 National Association of Esports Coaches and Directors (NAECAD) High School Director of the Year,” Vandermyde said. “I founded the Iowa High School Esports Association in 2019, serving as the Planning Committee Chair and then inaugural president for the 2020-2021 school year.
“From there, I was elected to serve as the Iowa representative on the National Planning Committee and am now a founding member of and was elected unanimously by my state level peers to serve as inaugural president of the Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance,” she said of the national group for K-12 associations.
Vandermyde serves on the advisory board for NAECAD and has been a master clinician for new esports coaches for Esports Canada and NAECAD.
“In addition, I have presented at multiple conferences on esports on topics ranging from starting your own team to addressing toxicity in esports,” she said.
Gender equality among teams
The teams are fairly evenly split among genders, and there is an inclusive vibe throughout the esports program, Vandermyde said, noting the program has been one of the fastest growing extracurriculars in the district, and students take it seriously, she said.
“All students must sign a Code of Conduct and guardians must sign a media release and permission form. There are three levels that students can get involved with – Varsity, JV, and Club,” she said. “Varsity is your set of students that practice just like other varsity teams and compete weekly.
“JV teams have a looser practice schedule, with competitions weekly. Club is more of a controlled chaos situation. Students who may want to learn the game, or don’t have time in their schedule to commit to a team and their practice schedule, but still want to come. The students all love it. They come back again and again.”
Many Davenport high school students have received full-ride scholarships for esports, Vandermyde said. “Locally, St. Ambrose, Augustana, and Western Illinois all have school-sponsored teams. EICC has a club team, that is currently being run by one of my former students.
Student esports scholarships
“Students get scholarships in a couple of different ways, and this is one of the places that scholastic esports as a whole is working on improving,” she added. “Right now, there are multiple recruitment websites that students can upload gameplay onto and create a player profile for college recruiters to see. We also have personal connections to colleges and universities.”
The National Esports Collegiate Conference Hometown Series was held last October in Davenport at Rhythm City Casino’s Event Center.
“Because I am connected with a lot of programs on a more national scale, I can send play tape specifically to coaches in programs where I know students will be good fits,” Vandermyde said.
Central High School hosts an Esports Arena in the school, where computers, switches, Xboxes, and Playstations are all only for the esports team.
Vandermyde said she’s proud to see kids be a part of a growing community working together and playing together to create something awesome.
“Not to get cheesy and cliché on you, but this is my passion. I get to see kids come out of their shells and find their communities,” she said in the release said. “For these students, they find the other kids whose weird matches their weird. That makes me feel amazing to provide that experience and witness those moments.”
The purpose of the Davenport Central esports team is to create community among people who love video games and competing against other Iowa schools.
“We want to foster a place where everyone, regardless of race, creed, gender, or skill level, can come and have a good time together,” Vandermyde added. “We have stuck to that creed since we were founded on the idea of community over competition – but competition is fun, too.”
For more information about the program, visit and the DCSD website.
