At Edmond Memorial High School (EMHS), the e-sports team is becoming quite a dominating force. Led by Head coach Kate Swearingen, the program has celebrated a number of achievements from their competitions around the state. As a result, Memorial is now known as an esports favorite, gaining popularity over the last couple of years, the 2022 program has plenty of successes worth celebrating.

This fall season was a memorable one for all the members. Some of the recent highlights of EMHS E-sports include every team of Bulldog esports making the State Playoffs. The Rocket League team was ranked No.3 going into the recent state tournament, ultimately winning first place and taking state in November. Not to be outdone, the Super Smash Bros team also ran through the brackets and won state on Dec. 8 this year. 

Swearingen has been the head coach of the E-sports team at EMHS since the start of the program in 2019 and has cemented her legacy as not only a great leader but a great mentor to the players. 

“I’m lucky to have a group of kids who are willing to work really hard and are dedicated to working together,” Swearingen said.

Grayson Hyatt is a senior at EMHS leading the Rocket League squad and echoes the same sentiment of Swearingen’s value to the team as well. 

“Swearingen means a lot to me because she started esports, and without her, esports would not be a thing at EMHS, and I wouldn’t be able to have this opportunity,” Hyatt said. 

Rocket League is one of the most successful teams of esports at Memorial. The group went 37-1 on their road to winning the state title. That record alone is staggering. 

 “I felt really good about the team’s overall performance this season and it was really fun playing with my teammates, and it was just a great experience,” Hyatt said.

Esports at EMHS has captivated the hearts and minds of many students. The fellowship that the roster has amongst themselves is incredible and the close bonds the players developed from each other will certainly continue beyond high school. This also begs the question though: what will EMHS Esports look like in the future? 

The esports team has grown every year since the beginning of the program, and the players returning from Rocket League, League of Legends, SMITE and Super Smash Bros are chasing fresh talent too. Swearingen is always looking for new gamers to add to the team’s star-studded roster of players.

“It’s a growing industry, even one of our middle school feeder programs Central has created their own esports team now as well, so I’m sure there will be new people, especially if we can start getting freshmen involved,”  senior Andy Husues said.

Many of the players feel the same way, hoping more students will continue to join the team to increase the interest and attention, leading to a possible dedicated facility for the teams collectively rather than having to travel to University of Central Oklahoma for practice. Not all of the players can make it there due to not having transportation. 

“My hope is that we can have an area here at EMHS, which will hopefully bring more people in, and it will also help us not lose any practice time from traveling and more kids will be able to participate,” Swearingen said.

Esports at EMHS is still only in its beginning stages and if more is done to help the program grow, then the team might achieve more success than any sport at EMHS has before.  

Contact Ryan White at [email protected]