Scholarships for gamers? Colleges now fielding varsity eSports teams

PITTSBURGH — When you think of varsity sports, especially at the college level, you usually think of football, basketball and baseball. Now, it might be time to add eSports to the list.

Channel 11 News anchor Gordon Loesch took an in-depth look at how video games could lead students to college and even scholarships.

There are at least three high school eSports teams in our area, including Upper Saint Clair High School, Fox Chapel High School and Westinghouse Arts Academy Charter School, offering eSports as a program.

Westinghouse said its eSports team operates like any other high school sports team, meeting after school to practice and facing off against other teams. At the end, winning a regional matchup could mean scholarship money for college.

Channel 11 went to Edinboro University, where the school is launching a new eSports program. Swim coach Chris Rhodes is heading up that effort for next year.

"Our enrollment has been down," Rhodes said.

He said the school was looking for something inventive and new to promote that wouldn't cost the college a lot of money in travel expenses.

Edinboro is joining several universities within a three-hour drive of Pittsburgh, including Harrisburg University and Ashland College in Ohio, to offer college varsity eSports programs.

About 80 schools nationwide now have programs, offering about $9 million in scholarships. Edinboro University said there has already been a lot of interest to its eSports program, with more than 100 people contacting it and wanting to join.

Educators say that kids are already playing video games, so why not make it productive?

"As students get interested with the technology that supports video games, it leads them to have greater engagement in STEM subjects like math, science and technology," said Amy Heathcott, the CEO and principal of Westinghouse Arts.

Educators say eSports teaches a lot of the same lessons you'd find in other competitive sports, like leadership and teamwork.

Edinboro University will put eSports under its athletic department, so they'll be held to the same standard as other student athletes. This means they'll also have to maintain GPA requirements to compete.

Map of universities in our area that offer eSports programs

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