News Photo by Reagan Voetberg From front to back, teammates Dakota Rouleau, Andrew Bruski, and Tim Hoggard practice competing in Mario Kart on Wednesday at Pied Piper.

ALPENA — Pied Piper, Alpena High School, and Alcona middle school students have teamed up to compete against opponents in Mario Kart in a unified e-sports league.

Coach Ashlie O’Connor said that this is the second year they’ve had the team. The team consists of Pied Piper students along with sophomore Tim Hoggard from AHS and five middle school-aged girls from Alcona. They hold practices and competitions at Pied Piper.

O’Connor said it has been exciting to bring an official sport to Pied Piper. When she brought the idea to start the e-sports team to Alpena Montmorency Alcona Educational Service District Superintendent Justin Gluesing last year, he immediately said yes.

The team exists through a partnership between Special Olympics and PlayVS, which is a platform used to keep score and communicate with other teams during competitions, which is available through the Michigan High School E-Sports League.

Their Nintendo Switch systems, games, high-definition TVs, and ethernet ports were funded through various organizations, including the Regional Educational Media Center Association of Michigan, MiSTEM, AMA ESD, and the Special Olympics.

At their competition today, Dakota Rouleau and Andrew Bruski were waiting for their Alcona teammates to join the race they’d started over the internet. They have not yet met their Alcona teammates in person, but they will all meet each other at a pep rally next Wednesday.

Hoggard was focused on a practice race.

Teammates Garrett Card and Kobe Barrie were competing against a team in Missouri in the room across the hall.

They play Mario Kart every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m., O’Connor said. They practice on Monday, where they will discuss topics like the difference between kinds of wheels, car bodies, and characters, and how those differences affect gameplay.

“We play people from all across the country,” she said.

The team has competed against gamers in Michigan, New York, and Missouri, to name a few.

“What we’ve kind of turned this into is a celebration of sport and movement and gaming and strategy,” she said. “The one thing that’s really unique about video games is it doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, what you’re doing, how old you are, any disability you have, it’s an equitable sport.”

O’Connor explained more of the benefits of e-sports to students.

“E-sports provides a way for kids to think differently and think independently,” she said. “I mean essentially, it’s gamifying thinking. So, you know, Tim’s gotta make a move. Whatever tool or strategy he gets, he sees he’s got to constantly think with his mind but also make the best moves for himself to get ahead.

“Your mind and your coordination have to work consistently in a second matter much like normal sports,” she continued.

The unified Pied Piper team has two weeks of pre-season games and eight weeks in season. If they play well, they could also have two to three additional weeks of playoff competitions. Right now, they are in their second week of the regular season.

If someone were to dismiss the e-sports team as ‘not a real sport’, O’Connor would explain to them the amount of strategy and physical exertion involved.

“You have to keep in shape because of the core work, and the balance, and the endurance of your brain,” she said.

In the future, O’Connor would like to incorporate more movement into practices. She would also like to get varsity letters for all the students.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.