Inside a brand new, state-of-the-art facility on the Marshalltown Community College campus full of high tech equipment and competitive spirit, a group of about 15 athletes convened for the first time hoping to find a spot on the roster of the school’s newest athletic program. But they weren’t lifting weights, running sprints or throwing deep balls — they were playing video games.
After the launch of the program was announced last year, MCC esports coaches Andrew Goforth and Nate Rodemeyer officially got it off the ground Monday and Tuesday with tryouts at the aforementioned esports lab — which, as recently as a few months ago, still sat almost completely empty.
It’s been a lot of hard work for Rodemeyer and Goforth — who, along with IT Special Projects Coordinator Nate Bloomquist and two student athletes, installed the gaming computers themselves — but it has most certainly been worth it to see it through to a point where what was once a dream has finally become reality.
“You’d be amazed at how much trash 25 desktops produces, but yeah, we put them all together,” Goforth said.
The inaugural team will spend the fall semester training (with the exception of Conrad native Lane Schnathorst, who plans to compete in Super Smash Bros. in the coming months) before competing in Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege with teams of five in the spring. Although the coaches predict more students will want to get involved with the team once classes actually start next week, they were excited to see the level of interest they did over the past few days.
There is no set limit on the number of players allowed, but the goal from the beginning was to have a team of around 15. According to Rodemeyer, about 17 showed up on Monday, and a few decided to drop out before joining.
“It was kind of a situation where (I thought) ‘What if we have 30 people?’ That’s going to be hard, (but) what if we have three people and we don’t have enough to field a team,” Rodemeyer said. “We ended up getting, I wouldn’t say ideal, but certainly good (numbers). We have an Overwatch roster. We have a Siege roster, (and) we’ve got a couple other people who have some roles.”
Although esports differs substantially from more traditional offerings like football, basketball, soccer or baseball and softball, Rodemeyer stressed that teamwork and cohesion is incredibly important, especially in team shooter games like Siege and Overwatch. Because he previously coached at the high school level, he worried if some of the kids who hadn’t played competitively before would acclimate well, but his concerns already seem to have been assuaged.
“We didn’t know what their communication would be like, their social skills and their ability to work together, but on both teams, we’ve been incredibly impressed,” Rodemeyer said. “They’ve come in with the right attitude. They’ve been willing to put in the work.”
Tryouts went for two full days, he added, as part of an effort to separate the wheat from the chaff and quickly identify any red flags, but Rodemeyer hasn’t seen anything that gives him pause so far. To say that was a relief for both coaches is an understatement.
“Very, very low negativity. Very low toxicity. We really didn’t know what we were going to get with that, and like Nate said, we wanted to put them through it. We wanted to see it,” Goforth said. “Nothing.”
For the players who comprise the Tiger team — several of whom hail from Marshalltown and the surrounding areas originally — having the opportunity to play competitive esports at the college level is nothing short of a dream come true. Holly Albertson, an MHS graduate entering her second year at MCC, said she had mentioned her love of gaming to Goforth but had no idea she could turn it into anything more than that until he sweetened up the deal with one of her favorite games, Overwatch.
“I never thought that that would be an option here,” Albertson said.
Nicholas Goforth, Andrew’s younger brother, said it didn’t take him much to talk him into moving from West Des Moines and joining the team.
“He’s like ‘Look man, you play video games all day anyway. Just come play for Marshalltown,’” Nicholas said.
Travis Tran is another MHS alum in his second year at the college, and he said joining an esports team has been a longtime dream of his. He only wishes he had more time.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep playing, so it’s a one-time opportunity for me,” he said.
Each athlete had his or her own story about how they came to love gaming. Schnathorst, in particular, said he played Mario Kart “religiously” on the Nintendo Wii, and Alex Saldana, another Marshalltown native, got addicted to Just Dance and watched her brother play Playstation until she decided she could do it too.
Regardless of which specific game or system got them hooked, they all share a common passion and a common goal going forward. Most of them have been playing in some form or another since they were five years old or even younger, and the fact that they get to do it in college as part of an officially sanctioned team is still a bit surreal for the players. But who are they to complain?
“For someone who has a popcorn class schedule, I have esports practice on my off days. So I get to play games Monday, go to school the next, then play games the day after,” Albertson said. “I think that’s pretty hard to beat.”
Students who are still interested in joining the team can contact Rodemeyer at nathan.rodemeyer@iavalley.edu or Goforth at andrew.goforth@iavalley.edu. Some scholarship money is still available, and walk-ons will also be accepted.
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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or
rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.