T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Gamers including incoming MCC freshman Ethan McGerr, front, of Marshalltown, put in the work at the college’s first ever esports camp held Tuesday through Thursday.

Marshalltown Community College esports Coaches Andrew Goforth and Nate Rodemeyer are still riding high off of the momentum they were able to build during the program’s first year in competition — which included a Mario Kart national championship for Amber Lawthers — and the number of athletes they’ll have on the roster for the second season has nearly tripled, from 22 last fall to 57 heading into 2023-2024.

From Tuesday to Thursday, they held the first ever MCC esports camp for current athletes, potential future recruits and anyone else interested in learning more about the fastest growing competitive activity in the world.

“We have had a lot of our incoming players (here). They were really fired up to come and get some practice time in early, and I’m really liking what we’re seeing from our incoming players,” Goforth said. “They are fired up, they’re ready to go and the quality of student-athletes that we have coming in is very high.”

As previously mentioned, MCC is also greatly expanding its competitive offerings this year with multiple rosters for games like Overwatch, and they’ll still have Rainbow Six Siege, Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart and Madden with Fortnite, League of Legends, Rocket League and a potential Valorant team being added. Rodemeyer has found himself extremely impressed with the leadership of his returning players headed into the new season.

“We’ve called on a lot of our second years, our captains, to come and lead their games, and they have been doing a phenomenal job stepping into that role of leader and coach in ways that we weren’t sure that they would be able to do,” he said. “But they are really stepping up and identifying what these players need to be working on and helping them get there.”

Lawthers, the champion herself, was on hand to provide drifting tips for aspiring Mario Kart players, and she’ll be back on the team for the first semester before her eligibility is up. Goforth was excited to see community members in attendance and has been overwhelmed with the support the team has received so far.

T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Mario Kart National Champion Amber Lawthers, right, gives Ryder Hill of Tama, left, a lesson on drifting during the MCC Esports Camp earlier this week.

While they’re happy with where they’ve gotten, the coaches and players are also hungry for more, and Goforth hopes they can improve their national placing in Overwatch (seventh last year) and Rainbow Six Siege. As Rodemeyer noted, it’s on the players to uphold the standard once the season starts in October.

“With us going from 22 (players) to potentially 60, that’s a lot to manage. Thankfully, we’ve got a lot of resources that way, a lot of fantastic coaches in addition to the two of us, that are helping out, but we’ve talked to them a lot about the culture that we built last year,” he said. “That lives and dies with you picking up the torch and carrying it with you because if it’s only Andrew and I enforcing that culture and enforcing those values, it’s not gonna go. But if those students are modeling it and showing it every day when they come in here and practice, that sets the tone for those students, and that’s what’s really gonna set them up for success.”

That culture, he added, can be explained in a few simple questions.

Are they taking it seriously?

Are they treating each other with respect?

Are they putting the time in?

The Tigers have pulled a lot of their talent from local high schools like MHS, BCLUW and South Tama, to name a few, but they’re also drawing recruits from communities in southern Iowa as far away as Osceola, Fairfield and Van Buren County. One of them, Jeffery Putnam from Fairfield, will be competing in League of Legends this year.

“I’m excited. I wanna help it grow. I wanna see some of the players because I know a lot of the players are a lot less experienced than me, so I wanna help them grow and reach their potential,” he said. “I’m kind of egotistical so they’re gonna have to try and knock me down a peg.”

Ethan McGerr, who served as the captain of the MHS esports squad last year and will be competing in Overwatch, is relishing the opportunity to stay in his hometown and build on the success MCC has already experienced. Both he and Putnam can see themselves becoming coaches themselves someday.

“I just really wanna help out the community, help out the players and also just meet some new people. I might go down to the high school, just help coach a little there and help build community,’ McGerr said. “I think (the camp) has been very beneficial. I mean, just having a few reps with the teammates and just some other people so I kind of figure out what I’m doing here.”

Now that the foundation for a successful program has been laid, Goforth and Rodemeyer are turning their focus to giving back and being more involved in the community that helped them get off the ground.

“We’ve had a lot of meetings with the Chamber of Commerce and local businesses and things like that to really kind of increase our public presence and kind of give back to those places as well and kind of be more embedded in the community,” Rodemeyer said.

And of course, above all else, they’re just ready to get back to gaming.

“Watching these people come in, whether they’re our recruits or just community members, is firing us up for the season (and) getting us excited because now we’re back in the saddle. We’re seeing people play or we’re getting our hands dirty with coaching, all of these things that we haven’t done since the end of May,” Rodemeyer said. “So it’s really exciting and motivating to see that.”