I taught social studies for ten years across Virginia, Mexico, and Ohio, and I founded my first school esports program in 2016 because students deserve to compete at the things they love. Since then: state championships with my high schoolers in Ohio, a nationally ranked university program in San Antonio, and a statewide nonprofit that gives Texas schools and colleges a season of their own.
The job title keeps changing. The work doesn't: esports is a classroom, and students in it learn preparation, communication, failure, and leadership in front of a scoreboard. What I care about most is who they become.
Schedules, standings, eligibility standards, coaches who prepare, and a championship with lights: esports students deserve what school athletes get.
Titles rotate and rosters turn over. Preparation, communication, and leadership don't.
Students should hold the clipboard, call the broadcast, and run the bracket, with professionals close enough to catch them.
I was recruited from Ohio in 2022 to lead the Texas A&M System's first esports program. Four years in, the record:
- Top 8 national finishes in varsity Overwatch, back-to-back seasons (Fall 2025, Spring 2026), with consecutive Super Conference qualifications
- Seven competitive teams, every one post-season eligible, every season
- A dedicated training facility, designed and opened; grants including the Army National Guard "Build an Esports Lab" award
- The inaugural Texas A&M System Showdown at the Boeing Center at Tech Port: six campuses, the System's largest in-person collegiate esports event, and the traveling trophy stayed home
- Partnerships that let a regional program compete nationally: Boeing Center at Tech Port, SAMSAT, the R20 Premier High School Esports League, Texas Army National Guard
- NACE Director of the Year finalist (2026)
Beyond the placements: program alumni work in esports management, broadcast, and live-event production, and current students coach high school teams across San Antonio. As the university moves esports into a student-led sports-club model, I'm writing the university's first sports-clubs handbook to govern it.
The Texas Esports Collective exists so that a school anywhere in Texas can offer its students a real season. I founded it in 2025 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with two institutional membership tracks, Texas Esports Scholastic for high schools and Texas Esports Collegiate for colleges and universities, with written eligibility standards for both tracks before the first match was played.
In its pilot year TEC ran a statewide season and an in-person championship at the Boeing Center at Tech Port alongside Rally Cry and the FORGE Scholastic Esports Championship weekend, signed its first collegiate institutional members, and put San Japan (September 2026) and the Metroplex Major (February 2027) on the calendar.
The vision line is the whole point of the org. If it works, the people running Texas esports in ten years will be the students competing in it today. texasesports.org
Eligibility policy is student advocacy in its least glamorous form: somebody has to make fairness enforceable.
- NACE Eligibility Enforcement Committee: Chair (2025), Chair-Elect (2024), member 2023 to 2026
- NACE Seeding Committee, 2022 to 2026
- Directors Advisory Council, VOICE
- Presenter, NAECAD National Convention (2026)
- Author, Texas Esports Collective scholastic and collegiate eligibility policy
- Esports consultant: Arbolus expert network (2022 to present); advising Texas A&M-Central Texas on its varsity esports proposal
Esports doesn't have a teacher-prep system yet, so the programs I run double as one.
- TAMUSA student-athletes coach high school esports teams across San Antonio, and every student-athlete completes ten hours of community service each semester
- Monthly partner to the R20 Premier High School Esports League
- Mentor Coach with Esports Ohio (2021 to 2022), supporting first-year scholastic coaches statewide
- Designing paid Federal Work-Study roles, gameday operations and school support, so students can afford to do this work
- Texas Esports Collective, Founder & Executive Director, 2025 to present
- Texas A&M-San Antonio, Head Esports Coach & Assistant Director of Recreation, 2022 to present
- Arbolus, Esports Consultant, 2022 to present
- NACE, Eligibility Enforcement (Chair 2025) & Seeding Committee, 2022 to 2026
- VOICE, Directors Advisory Council, present
- NAECAD, National Convention Presenter, 2026
- Esports Ohio, Mentor Coach, 2021 to 2022
- Shaker Heights High School, Esports Coach, 2020 to 2022
- American School Foundation of Monterrey, Esports Coach, 2016 to 2018
- James Madison University, League of Legends, 2011 to 2012
- NACE Director of the Year Finalist (2026)
- Top 8 National, NACE Varsity Overwatch, 2025 & 2026, Texas A&M-San Antonio
- Champions + traveling trophy, inaugural Texas A&M System Showdown (2025)
- Division 12 Champion, Collegiate Chess League Spring (2023)
- State Champion, Esports Ohio Overwatch (2021, 2022), Shaker Heights
- Regional Champions, Fortnite & Overwatch, Esports Ohio Northeast (2021)
- Army National Guard $25,000 "Build an Esports Lab" grant; Learn and Build STEAM (LABS) winner
- Partnerships: Tech Port Esports, X-Raypad, KovaaK 2.0, Cavs Legion Lair Lit by TCP
- Top 500 ranked, League of Legends (2010); Starcraft II tournament champion, multiple (2010 to 2021)
- San Antonio Report: TAMUSA and Tech Port want to make San Antonio a hub for esports
- Texas A&M-San Antonio News: Esports Showdown of System Campuses from Across the Lone Star State
- Texas A&M-San Antonio News: Esports Program Teaches Students Valuable Personal and Professional Skills
- Port San Antonio: Esports: Building a Community of Tech-savvy Students
A three-day fighting game major from the Texas Esports Collective: open singles, collegiate crews, and a scholastic Friday in Dallas, February 5–7, 2027. As TEC’s founder and executive director I run the event end to end: venue and partner agreements, publisher licensing, sponsorships, budget, and the event brand itself, from the crown mark and stream package to the live teaser page.
View the Live PageIf you're launching or rebuilding an esports program, writing the policy that governs one, or looking for a season your students can compete in, I'd like to hear about it.