What you need to know
Beginning next school year, AISD high school students can participate in an esports curriculum through the district’s graphic design and multimedia arts program.
In the four-year curriculum, students will learn content creation, esports analytics, digital design and multimedia skills. After school, students will compete in gaming through campus-sponsored esports clubs.
While some students dream of being professional esports gamers, the industry offers a myriad of other jobs and roles to sustain the $1.38 billion industry, including tournament organizers, talent managers, coaches, sponsors, game analysts and “shoutcasters,” who comment on the games in real time like sportscasters do for games played on the field or court.
AISD scouted other school districts that have already developed esports programs and were impressed with the way they reached a section of the student body schools have previously struggled to reach, namely gamers.
“It kind of pulls them in together and creates ... a family, and it ... gives kids ... a sense of belonging but also gives them something that they're actually interested in and that they can study in school,” said Brandy Johanson, director of career and technical education.
Johanson said 26 students have enrolled in the program’s first course.
What else?
In 2022, Manvel High School hosted its first student club for esports and attracted 85 students to meet once per week and play esports games, such as Valorant, a game similar to capture the flag with tens of millions of players worldwide.
In esports, players compete by using video games at events that often take the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions.
Jacob Mokarzel, who will be a senior next year, was one of the first students to join the club in 2022 as a sophomore.
“I was really interested in playing games because I’ve played games all my life, [but] I've never played competitively, ... and it seems so cool to be able to play games after school and as a club,” Mokarzel said.
In 2023, the University of Houston hosted an esports tournament that 40 members of the Manvel club participated in.
“It was a really fun, good competition—just a way for our kids to compete on a different level,” said Mark McMahon, Manvel High School assistant principal who sponsors the high school’s esports club.
In June, the Texas A&M University Esports team won the National Valorant Championship, becoming the first SEC collegiate club to win the title.
Because AISD is enrolling in the new curriculum, esports clubs at schools in the district will have access to new funding to pay for better equipment, such as gaming keyboards, and new tournament opportunities, McMahon said.
Other higher education institutions are also making huge investments into esports. Last year, The University of Texas unveiled the 3,400-square-foot Alienware Longhorn Esports Arena, which houses wall-to-wall gaming equipment and 43 gaming stations.
One more thing
The curriculum is based on the Texas Education Agency's graphic design and multimedia arts program. Although this program doesn't specifically focus on esports, the school district plans to incorporate that focus.
“Eventually, the goal is to get them to a point where they can actually create their own tournaments and competitions, and set them up to where they're learning more the business components,” Johanson said.
McMahon said he hopes that, in addition to preparing students for careers in gaming and technology, the skills they acquire can prepare them for other high-performance careers, such as air traffic controllers.
It's actually amazing to watch how they work together to communicate to be able to do this activity,” McMahon said. “A lot of those skills just translate around to other high-performance-type professions.”
