Jonesboro-Area Students Are Turning Video Games Into a School Sport at Valley View

There’s a room at Valley View Junior High that sounds nothing like a study hall. Esports coach Chris Jennings has a name for it: “loud organized chaos.” The program schedules four practices each week for its 51-student roster, with students gathering in Room 150 to work on game-specific drills and strategies.

According to a September 4 report from Jonesboro Right Now, the roster stretches from sixth graders up to graduating seniors. Students try out for game-specific team positions and may also participate as substitutes. They keep a schedule and compete for state titles through Arkansas’ official scholastic esports league. On paper, it reads like any other team wearing Blazer blue.

It Started as a Reward, Not a Roster

This wasn’t built as a competitive program from day one. Jennings originally used video games as a simple classroom reward. Then, in fall 2018, PlayVS pitched the Arkansas Activities Association on making esports an official school activity. Valley View said yes, and by spring 2019 it was fielding teams in League of Legends and Rocket League in Arkansas’ very first sanctioned season.

Over the years, Valley View has competed in League of Legends, Rocket League, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokémon UNITE and Marvel Rivals, though not every game runs every season. Arkansas isn’t the only state doing this: Texas high schools currently have until September 15 to join their five-game fall esports season, with several games overlapping.

The current roster includes 51 students across seven grade levels, from sixth grade through senior year.

Nobody Just Shows Up and Starts

A big roster doesn’t mean everyone plays. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate hopefuls fight it out in round-robin brackets; Mario Kart players get timed until the fastest laps rise to the top. For team-based games, Jennings says he watches for more than mechanical skill — communication, attitude, whether someone actually works with teammates — and those things decide who starts and who’s a substitute.

Showing up gets you in the door. It doesn’t guarantee a starting spot, same as on the football team down the hall.

The Practices Look Like Real Practices

Jonesboro Right Now reports the schedule is Monday through Thursday, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., and what fills that hour changes by game. Mario Kart players log their time-trial numbers daily, chasing shaved-off seconds on the same courses. Rocket League players drill aerial hits and ball control the way a soccer team might run set pieces on repeat.

Jennings has also started leaning on newer tools. After last fall’s season wrapped, he said he ran the team’s go-to Pokémon UNITE lineup through an unnamed AI program, hunting for cracks in the composition and ways opponents might exploit them.

For Some Students, Esports Provides a Team of Their Own

Push Jennings on why this matters, and he doesn’t talk about trophies first. Jennings said the program appeals to students who are not already part of another group and may not be interested in traditional sports or extracurricular activities. Along the way, he says, they pick up communication, leadership, the discipline of reviewing a loss instead of shrugging it off, and the instinct to back up a teammate having a bad game.

None of that makes attendance optional. Jennings has been blunt about one rule: three forfeited matches and a team is out of playoff contention, full stop.

The Trophy Case Backs It Up

For a program that started as a classroom incentive, Valley View has real hardware to show for it. The team won the Class 5A state championship in Mario Kart in 2025, then the Arkansas Activities Association crowned it spring 2026 champion too. Its Mario Kart squad, nicknamed the “Bashin’ Blue Shells,” was one of five finalists for the 2026 PlayVS Esports Team of the Year award — an honor Valley View Public Schools announced on May 27.

Jennings said a ranking system covering teams across the United States and parts of Canada placed Valley View 23rd during the fall season and 12th by week six of the spring season. His account of those rankings has not been independently confirmed through publicly available league records.

What’s Next for Room 150

Jennings isn’t done adding games — his stated goal is a Valley View team in every title the Arkansas league runs. And if a current Valley View student wants in, there’s no complicated sign-up: Jennings says just walk into Room 150 during the after-school practice window and ask.

Seven-plus years after that first spring season, this doesn’t look like an experiment that got lucky. It looks like a program that built itself the hard way — through tryouts, practice logs, a strict forfeit rule and, now, a growing trophy case.