Beggs Middle School coach plans esports team's future after winning state championship

In its first year as a competing team, the Beggs Middle School esports team brought home a state championship.

On the Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Porch, the team's coach, Brandon Bookout, is sharing what they are planning for the future.

Q: I know you guys play Fortnite. What are some of the other games that you play?

Bookout: It's broken up into the fall and spring seasons. This last season, they competed in Rocket League and Fortnite, of course, and that's what they won in the state championship. There are four of them on a team, we actually had three different teams competing in that, and these guys were the ones that came out of state champions this spring. Though, we'll compete in two different Fortnite [brackets], and then Mario Kart and Rocket League and Super Smash Brothers.

Q: What are some of the benefits? What can they learn from video games? Because traditionally, people feel like video games are a negative thing.

Bookout: It's really not, and with more and more universities offering scholarships, this is just an opportunity for us to offer another avenue for students to gain those scholarship opportunities. When you're playing on squads, or you're playing duos, you're playing on a team, as you can tell, you have to work with your teammate, and if you don't, you lose., so it kind of does teach a little bit of a team building aspect of it.

Q: You have 35 students for this first year, how do you see this program growing?

Bookout: We had success early on, which is a true blessing, but honestly, I think moving forward, we're going to see a little bit more growth. As it gets bigger, people are not going to be so apprehensive.