MOSES LAKE — Among the activities that students can participate in, e-sports, or organized competitive video gaming, often goes unrecognized but is growing quickly across the nation. In the Basin, Ephrata Tigers and Wahluke Warriors teams have established strong gaming programs that have developed in their own ways. 

“Probably the coolest thing is when they come in and ... have a space to be in and play and be excited about something,” said Tigers Head Coach Scott Sandberg. 

The Ephrata and Wahluke programs operate as competitive clubs that run after school, much like any other program. Sandberg said the programs also compete in different games depending on the season. This season's games include Valorant and Rocket League in the fall, Marvel Rivals and Mario Kart in the winter and Super Smash Bros, Splatoon 3 and Overwatch in the spring. 

When the teams compete, they're physically located their classrooms at the school and connect through other teams online, said the Tigers coach.  

“We have a schedule just like a sports team would,” said Sandberg. “We have a regular season and then if we qualify, we have a postseason as well.” 

He said the Tigers have found success in the postseason in recent years, going to the state tournament for League of Legends in 2023 and becoming Super Smash Bros state champions in 2024. The state competitions for e-sports are the only ones not held online as the competitors meet at a venue. 

In the 2025/26 season, Ephrata's "Valorant" and "Rocket League" teams both made playoffs. 

Warriors coach Gregory Towne said their program started around five years ago. His intention was to start an organization for students who are often underrepresented in school activities, and the solution was video games.  

The year following the creation of the Wahluke gaming club, he said The Washington Interscholastic Athletics Association officially recognized e-gaming as a sport the year after Wahluke started its team.  

“I took the club and said, ‘Hey guys, do you want to compete? Do you want to make this a sport?’ And they said yes, so we officially became a sports team at the school,” said Towne. 

During that first season, the Warriors made the state finals, he said, but the WIAA decided there wasn’t enough buy-in from other schools to classify gaming as an official sport and the official season was cancelled.  

Despite that setback, Towne said an organization known as the Washington State Scholastic E-sports Association has allowed the teams that were formed during the WIAA’s trial period to continue competing statewide. 

In recent years the Warriors team has opted not to compete in a competitive setting and has instead focused on playing games against one another in the classroom. 

“The kids have a great time,” said Towne. “We meet twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. They come in, we play video games, we do fundraising to get equipment. Each year with the money we’ve raised we do a field trip where we try to include gaming as part of our field trip at the end of the year.” 

The gaming program in Ephrata has been going on for a while, but each of the current coaches — Sandberg, Blake Jensen and Francisco Ramirez — started coaching in the last five years. Sandberg said that as the games started to expand, more coaches were needed with expertise in individual games.  

Both Sandberg and Towne said the upperclassmen had the opportunity to watch the program and e-sports as a whole grow.  

Devin Smith, a junior and the president of the club in Ephrata, said that his journey through the e-gaming program has been important to the development of his character over the years. 

“I’ve been interested in gaming ever since I was a little kid, started on the Xbox and then about five or six years ago I got my first computer. That’s what really got me into gaming as a whole,” said Smith. “Once I heard about e-sports in middle school I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m definitely going to join that,’ and then I asked if I could be president my freshman year, and I’ve been president since.” 

Smith said when he first started in the club, there were not only 13 to 17 players competing. This year’s roster lists 40 students, filling multiple classrooms. 

Participating in e-sports provides the students an opportunity to compete in ways that they wouldn’t experience playing games on their own. One skill that comes from this is teaching the players strategy. 

“All these games are strategy-based, so they have to learn strategy just like they would in chess or checkers or anything like that,” said Sandberg. “Believe it or not, there’s a lot of math involved in these games that the kids don’t realize.” 

Players also learn gaming etiquette and how to behave in an online setting. The Tigers coach said when players first join in for their freshman year, they’ll yell and curse while playing, which is not accepted in a competitive setting. 

“We put a kibosh on that pretty quick and then the upperclassmen respectfully demonstrate the proper way to do it as well as the coaches,” said Sandberg. “The etiquette, I think, is the most important part.” 

The camaraderie built among the e-sports players over the years has been the cornerstone of success for the two e-sports programs. In both Ephrata and Wahluke, the players enjoy spending time outside of their designated club hours playing games with their teammates or just hanging out with one another. 

“I think being around friends and actually competing with other schools just makes the experience a lot better than being able to just play at home,” said Smith. 

Towne said that when he first started the gaming club, the seniors, then freshmen, were struggling to find a group in school.  

“I gave them a community here in the school and now they’re all really good friends,” he said. “They all hang out all the time; they bring new kids into their little community.” 

Players need to keep their grades up to compete, just like any other sport, said Sandberg.  

"Their grades are better; they participate in school activities more,” said Towne. “It’s not just about giving them a community; it gives them ownership in the school too. School becomes more important when you have a group of people at the school that are important.”