BOX ELDER, S.D. – It may not be the traditional look for a varsity sport, but trade a court for a classroom and a ball for buttons, and you’ve got Esports.
Douglas senior Lucas Stenkamp says, “Like other sports, you know, practice, practice, practice, and eventually you’ll be good enough to do like competitions for it, join an Esports team and make it to like a whole state tournament.”
For the first time ever, that state tournament will be officially sanctioned. After a pilot program last year, the South Dakota High School Activities Association made Esports an official sport.
“Legitimizes the program. Because I felt like, the first couple years, it was a lot of explaining what it was and its importance and stuff,” says Douglas Esports coach Kevin Militello. “You don’t have to do that for basketball and football and stuff, because they’re sanctioned.”
Aidan Slancauskas, Kian Burns and Lucas Stenkamp are competing at state this weekend at Aberdeen Central High School. Their game is Rocket League, which is like soccer in cars.
“Honestly, I didn’t really think I’d get this far,” says Slancauskas. “It’s very cool that I get the ability to do this, especially the first sanctioned tournament.”
Competing in Esports doesn’t have to be game over after high school. Plenty of colleges offer programs as well, like South Dakota Mines, and competing well this weekend could lead to college scholarships.
“This year there’s going to be colleges right there, like, ‘hey, right here, you can play Rocket League for our university and go to for mechanical engineering, or become a lawyer or a nurse.’ That’s an amazing thing,” Militello says.
“Being able to actually talk to those colleges, get ideas from them, see what they are looking for, is pretty neat to have,” says Burns.
But more than championships and scholarships, Militello says the most important aspect of Esports is inclusivity, and the bonds it creates, “You can be handicapped to the degree that prevents you from doing things. You could be non-verbal, like, you could do things in here and communicate, speak another language. That’s the number one thing I do in this program, and that I fight for is, we’re all in this together.”
Stenkamp says, “I’m gonna miss it when I graduate, but I’ll definitely be coming back after so that way I can help other people learn the game.”
You can watch the state tournament live Friday and Saturday
Brian Mueller has been the weekend sports anchor at NewsCenter1 since January 2025.
