Pasco County's Saint Leo University has launched its own esports team and designated esports area, known as an "arena" in the industry.
It's an announcement that Saint Leo President Jeffrey Senese says with a chuckle, acknowledging he understands how it must sound to a lot of people.
"I was a runner and it was what I did beyond academic work; there is a big group of students where, this is what they do," he said. "And there's companies that are out there that sponsor them, and there are people that play these games professionally."
Once Senese began seeing universities across the nation launch their own esports teams in the last year, he began doing more research. What he found was a growing, potential billion dollar industry. After seeing the statistics, he asked Saint Leo students and his own son, who is also a senior in college.
"I began forwarding the emails to the senior team saying, 'Who’s going to do this? Because we need to do this," he said. "And then I asked (my son) who said we had to do it."
The university now has a roughly 35-person esports team, which also has a coach with Saint Leo staffer Joel Madru, who is also the university's residence life graduate assistant. The "arena" is a 12 station set up in a residential building at the university's Pasco County campus. The new arena will be used by the team and also available to students.
"It's an investment in a student activity, that students will eventually demand," he said. "These are the students that would play in their rooms, but now are with each other. So, it's a way to keep them interested and invested in Saint Leo."
The team will play competitively play League of Legends, Rocket League, and Super Smash Bros: Ultimate, with plans to compete with surrounding regional institutions in the Southeast. If the sport continues to gain popularity at Saint Leo, Senese said he could even foresee sports scholarships being given to esports players similar to other sports on campus.
Senese believes while the concept may be new to many universities — Florida Southern College is the only other school in the region a with competitive esports teams — embracing innovation is crucial.
"It's an innovation that really is something that students want," he said. "Every university should pay attention to what students are saying."
Saint Leo has been a bit of a trailblazer when it comes to embracing tech: it recently launched an autonomous vehicle and two new STEM degrees with plans for programming in robotics.
"I have a 30 year vision document and if you read anything about the future, a lot that's out here is robotics and AI and it will augment a lot of what humans do," he said. "We have the data science program and are designing the robotics program, so yeah, we're trying to stay ahead of what the industry needs. And as Tampa grows, we will need more in the technology area."
