Tyler Shelt is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Sunrise Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com.

Esports are a relatively new concept, especially at the high school level. But, since it was added as an official Arizona high school sport in 2019, many schools have had early success at the sport. One of those schools is Sunrise Mountain of Peoria.

It isn't very hard to find high schoolers who want to play video games competitively. The Mustangs built their program quickly and found the best players to represent their school.

The main games that Sunrise Mountain plays are Overwatch, League of Legends and Rocket League.

Overwatch is a first-person shooter where teams match up and try to secure points on the map for the longest time possible. 

League of Legends is a 5v5 MOBA, aka a multiplayer online battle arena where players enter an arena or the Rift where the objective is to infiltrate the enemy team's base and blow up it's Nexus. 

Rocket League has a simple premise. The game is very similar to soccer, but imagine that you're playing in a giant arena with a huge metal ball in demolition derby-type cars. Also, in Esports it is only 3v3. 

"It's a really cool experience," said Aiden Fuhrmann, the Vice President of Sunrise Mountain's Esports team. "Especially after COVID, it has helped certain people get to know more people. It's a lot about the game, but it's also a lot about the social aspect."

Fuhrmann and other student-athletes in the program talked so much about how they were trying to build a bond by playing together. They spoke on how the Esports team gives them a platform to grow stronger together.

"It's unifying," said Peter Bartos, a League of Legends player. "I've never talked to any of these people before, but once we played League of Legends, we actually started to form bonds."

We're seeing a new generation of athletes at the high school level and these students are becoming pioneers in the Esports world. Being exposed to Esports at the high school level most definitely inspires many to strive to continue their journey past high school. 

"I would love to play college Esports," said Gavin Schutt, a Rocket League player. "It would be a good gateway to get into maybe professional or amateur [Esports]." 

This pathway to college may be in the back of a lot of these students' minds. Some of the Mustangs said they saw it as a serious possibility and some saw it as a possible fun hobby throughout college. But one thing that is obvious: the students at Sunrise Mountain take this program seriously. 

"I think it's definitely a possibility," Bartos said on doing Esports in college, "I love video games, I kind of always have. My family actually got me a Wii right when it came out and I've been hooked ever since." 

For League of Legends, the Mustangs are 6-2 so far this season, and they're ranked number six in the state. In each League of Legends match against other schools, there are two sets played, and each of those counts towards a team's record.

Meanwhile, the Overwatch team is still in their preseason. The Rocket League team is currently 2-1 in their young season. 

"Our main goal is to just create a nice space for people to hang out and enjoy the games," Fuhrmann said.