the skinny on

“Yes it’s me and I’m in love again/ Had no lovin’ since you know when/ You know I love you, yes I do/ I’m savin’ all my lovin’ just for you.” That’s the way Fats Domino begins “I’m in Love Again.” A 1956 publication, it remained No. 1 on the R& B (rhythm and blues) Best Sellers List for seven weeks. It continues: “Woo-ee baby, woo-oo-ee/ Baby don’t you let your dog bite me.” I’m thinkin’ the logic in those lyrics, particularly the line about the dog, matches that of putting esports in the category of Falcon Athletics.

But Dylan Gentilcore, new esports coach at UWRF, quickly disabused me of my opinion. When I asked him how his experience at Carmel (Indiana) HS and as co-director of the Indiana Esports Network (IEN) affected his new job at UWRF, he said, “At Carmel, I pretty much did everything a successful college program would want to do at the collegiate level: local championships, national championships, interstate travel for tournaments, tournament series host, and a custom lab funded through donations and sponsorships. At IEN, I gained experience in connecting with and helping rural, suburban, and urban secondary and post-secondary institutions with their esports endeavors. Across the board, whether it was managing my own program of 100-150 students or growing IEN to nearly 100 schools in four years, I essentially acquired and nurtured all of the skills necessary for running a collegiate esports program despite only being a first-year coach here at UWRF.”

I’m not a gamer, and slightly advanced in age, so I had no idea how popular esports are until I read a recent article in the “Star Tribune.” It said they generate more than $240 million in revenue in the US.

“Esports is a global phenomenon,” Gentilcore said. “Whether people are playing or watching on mobile, consoles, or computers, hundreds of millions of people across the world are regularly engaging with casual, amateur, and professional esports. At UWRF, the excitement from all stakeholders on campus has been outstanding. I met the existing student club leadership as soon as I moved to town and took on the role of faculty advisor at their request. My recruiting efforts for our inaugural 2023-24 season are constantly supported by my supervisor and associate athletic director, Kellen Wells-Mangold, and the rest of university leadership. As a result, I’m excited to confirm that we are bringing in players from across the country to form truly competitive rosters that are aiming for top finishes in the most prominent collegiate leagues and tournaments. I’m particularly proud of the collaboration between athletics, facilities, technology services, and campus recreation on the timely launch and continued support of our new esports arena. Starting esports at the scale we’re doing it in such a short amount of time is wholly due to how amazing the buy-in has been from all the different stakeholders involved.

“It’s clear from top to bottom that our university is excited and energized for this program to succeed on campus. This was evident most recently through Kellen’s work with administration to secure us bringing the Wisconsin High School Esports Association (WIHSEA) Winter 2023 Finals for Rocket League to UWRF this March. Pulling off something like this in our first year before even fielding competitive rosters is unheard of. Most universities wait two to three years to begin hosting events for outside groups and organizations at this scale. They trust me, the vision I have for the program, and the projects I believe will elevate our success.”

What games will your competitors play?

“We will be competing across all major esports at the collegiate scenes as well as fielding rosters in more niche games as we find talented, committed recruits in those titles. Year 1, we are actively recruiting for the following titles with consideration given towards any not stated:

• Call of Duty

• League of Legends

• Overwatch 2

• Rainbow 6: Siege

• Rocket League

• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

• Valorant We already have a roster in place for Super Smash Bros. Melee.

What is the gender composition of your team? Is there a competition to get on the team? Will most of the team be freshmen?

“Since we’re still in the recruiting phase with only 10 or so players across several rosters fully committed so far, I don’t yet have numbers pertaining to member demographics. The recruiting process is primarily done through scouting, online tryouts, and on-campus tryouts. We’ll have a mix of current UWRF students, transfer students, and incoming freshmen representing us across our rosters.

“I started recruiting in August and already have committed players from several states across the country including Virginia, Texas, and Oklahoma.”

According to the Strib article, one of the members of a Minnesota high school team said he had never felt that he belonged as a student before getting on the team, but now he is proud to represent his high school. Does that kind of reaction jibe with what you’ve seen?

“This is a key reason why I support scholastic esports. I’ve personally worked with hundreds of students that share this exact sentiment, and I can only imagine how many more would be benefited by the opportunity to have esports at their school or university.”

I think UW-Stout is the only other WIAC school to currently have an Esports team. Do you expect other WIAC schools will follow suit?

“UW-Stout is the only other varsity esports program in the UW system besides ourselves. I think the other campuses are waiting to see how things pan out for us over the next few years. There’s mounting pressure on those universities to make a deeper, more legitimate investment from their large student esports clubs, but we’re really only seeing a select few go as far to even do something like support recreational offerings. We might still be three to five years out from a wider spread adoption in WIAC.”

How much individual coaching/teaching will you be doing with your team?

“I’m as hands-on as possible. I think that’s what recruits will notice makes us unique from other varsity esports programs out there. This is really my life – I’ve made a huge commitment to pursuing this path and developing the best program possible at UWRF. When I was at Carmel, I made the effort to work with all my 200+ debate and esports competitors in addition to the 150 or so students I taught in my classes. I plan on bringing that same energy to our varsity esports team by being there day in, day out to work with our players and bring in assistant coaches to fill in the strategic gaps across the multitude of titles we’re playing. The reality in esports is that no one person, despite how staffing is in the scholastic scene, can effectively coach more than 1-2 games. I can work on team and intangible skill development with anyone, but I want to also provide our players with additional per-game expertise rather than doing what a lot of institutions do which is essentially just let each roster function independently with a team captain effectively serving as coach for that roster as well. That’s not a true varsity experience I want players to commit to for two to four years.”

Finally, he added, ‘’Follow us on social media, Twitch, and YouTube to check out all of the great updates and content we’re putting out even in this developmental year: https:// linktr.ee/uwrfesports. Our monthly intramural tournaments are live streamed with casting, and news about recruits, events, and more is posted regularly on all platforms! If you’re interested in helping out or potentially playing for UWRF Esports, contact me at [email protected] or add me on Discord at [UWRF] Gentilcore#5734.» That’s it for this version of “The Skinny on Falcon Sports.” Do you think most people appreciate sports more than the writer H.L. Mencken does? He said, “I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense.” Would he make an exception for esports?