When you have a team competing in a newer sport, it can cause some issues and struggles along the way. Eric McFall is the coach of the Leedey High School E-Sports team. He says that competing against the traditional sports for players can make things tough at times.
“Graduating seniors and the number of players are the biggest issues we face,” he said. “We meet last hour, which is the same as regular sports so that really cuts into our numbers. The games we play are not up to us, so we don’t always have a lot of students who play the games that were picked out. But we are excited to offer esports as an alternative to students who don’t want to or can’t play regular sports.”
The team struggled some this season, trying to fill gaps that were left by graduation. But McFall’s team gave it their all, and that is all he can ask.
“We lost a lot of seniors last year,” he said. “So we have been trying to build up in games that those seniors played. This season was not our best. Last year, we had a team qualify for the state finals, but this year, we haven’t done as well.”
Connor Clem and Kash McFall are two of the teams top players in Mario Kart Competitors. They made it to state last season, and they were also invited to Dallas to play Mario Kart at Dream Hack 2025.
E-Sports is similar to traditional sports in the fact that you have to find replacements for players that you lose to graduation or decide to pursue something else. But McFall and his team will work hard in the offseason and will look to be back in contention next season.
