‘A rewarding feeling’
South Fayette Unified Esports Team wins regional title
South Fayette High School has become known for its championship teams with multiple WPIAL titles in football and girls basketball, along with a state boys basketball title in 2010 and a state girls basketball championship this year.
Add another championship to the list – unified esports, whose team members composed of both neurotypical and neurodiverse students (those with special needs) compete using video games.
The new Unified Esports Team Green – made up of Miguel Persechetti, Nathan Snyder, Cole Chichester and Cameron Diehl – recently won the championship of the Eastern United States Region, only the second region in the nation to offer unified esports. Team Green amassed a 7-1 record in Mario Kart before moving on to the postseason to capture the championship by a narrow 2-1 victory.
“That’s the idea of unified – bringing those kids together to be able to work together on these teams,” said Dr. Kevin Maurer, esports program director. “That’s the best part. Seeing the mentorship and peer connection that’s happening that otherwise wouldn’t. Students dealing with any type of disability, we check it at the door and those students are just able to be players of the game just like anyone else. We are so proud of the team. They were one team of 37 unified Mario Kart teams across the Eastern United States Region competing in the Special Olympics League.”
South Fayette is in a league that is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania and includes students from Freeport, Fox Chapel, Pittsburgh Public Schools and Beaver. Funding through a Moonshot Grant from the Grable Foundation was integral in starting the program. Moonshot Grants typically fund research or innovation designed to tackle ambitious and potentially transformative goals.
The team competes in a state-of-the-art esports arena at the high school. Students are involved in the promotion, live-streaming and announcing aspects of the sports. There also is an arena in the middle school.
“In addition to our high school teams and our middle school teams participating in the PIEA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Esports Association), we added a Unified Esports team,” Maurer said. “We are the first teams in Pennsylvania to be competing through the Special Olympics in Unified Sports.”
South Fayette High School has two esports teams. Team White is composed of Cole Froelich, Pranav Mantraratnam, Milan Gupta, JR Wolski and Shivanshu De.
Esports is the third unified sport in the district, along with bocce and robotics.
“What’s wonderful about this whole season was that you had students who may never have crossed paths working together on a team,” Maurer said. “Watching the nurturing of the students, who are mentoring each other, the teamwork that goes into it, the sportsmanship, all of those things you see in traditional sports, we observe through this kind of future focus sport.”
Stacey Barth, one of the coaches, spoke with pride about the team’s accomplishments.
“They did such a great job this year, being the first year that we participated in this,” she said. “They really came together as a team. They got along and worked so well together.”
Snyder, a junior, wasn’t even aware of the team when asked by Persechetti to participate.
“I had no real expectations going into this,” he said. “I thought it was something fun to be doing after school and I would meet some new people. We just kept winning. I think we improved over time. … It’s a really rewarding feeling to actually be good at something.”
He’s also benefited from being part of the team.
“Connections, that’s the whole thing,” Snyder said. “I already played a lot of video games as a kid and I feel like I was able to use some of that to make some new friendships. I’ve always been kind of shy in making connections. Getting thrown into esports, it was kind of awkward. But I feel like I was able to work on communication a lot. I just got to talk to more people, and I feel like that was one of the most rewarding things esports gave to me.”
Persechetti, 18, agreed.
“I definitely learned to talk with people better and how to communicate with a team,” said the senior. “I also learned how to strategize in order to play better.”
Persechetti took on the role of team leader, making sure teammates were calm in stressful situations and were in the right mindset for the competition.
“He made sure that he was always keeping the rest of the team upbeat, even if they were getting a little down sometimes,” Barth said. “He always got them back on track.”
Persichetti enjoyed the experience and winning a championship.
“Being able to win was pretty gratifying since we were unsure we were going to win while we were playing. It was pretty close,” Persechetti said.
Esports have grown in popularity collegiately, transforming from niche campus clubs into a significant component of college athletics. Scholarships are available at some colleges for esports participants. Class of 2024 seniors Lincoln George and Luke MacIntosh were the first South Fayette players to receive collegiate esports offers and scholarships. Macintosh is now a member of the Robert Morris University esports team.
“In the future we’re looking forward to having even more teams,” Maurer said. “We’re excited to have some all girl teams as well. It matches up with our district vision. We want to look at future focus programs, student-centered and inclusive. This checks a lot of those boxes for us. Our students are gaming and we’re meeting them where they are.”