By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A new program through the Boys & Girls Club of Rockford aims to show young people that their interest in video games can develop into a career in the growing technology industry.
The club on Thursday celebrated the opening of a new digital space at its Fairgrounds location, 609 Kilburn Ave. It includes six top-of-the-line competitive gaming PCs, a console gaming area with Xboxes and Nintendo Switches and a dozen academic desktop units. There is also a structured curriculum that covers esports and other gaming education such as development and design.
“You have to embrace what the kids want. The traditional game room 30 years ago — pool, foosball — that doesn’t attract the kids and teens anymore,” said Chip Stoner, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Rockford. “If you can’t attract them you can’t teach them.”
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Now, they’re getting lessons in a global games industry that generated $184.4 billion in revenue last year, according to Newzoo’s 2022 global games market report. By comparison, global cinema box office revenue was just under $26 billion, according to Gower Street Analytics.
“It’s all about creating opportunities,” Stoner said. “This is just another tool that we can use and will use for our kids to know that there are opportunities for them.”
The program and digital space is funded by a $75,000 Comcast Digital Equity & Digital Transformation Grant. That grant also provides access to Esports Foundry, which provides consulting, software and support services, and other industry expertise.
“It’s so refreshing to have a group that is this hungry to introduce this,” Anthony Scala, CEO of Esports Foundtry, said of the Boys & Girls Club. Teenagers are “all gaming, everyone is kind of already doing this anyway. Giving them the space where they can now publicly do it and have a safe and inclusive environment to have access to these things is most of the battle.”
The program is also run in partnership with Cxmmunity, which is designed to increase access for minorities in the esports and video game industry.
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Right now, about 83% of minority teens play video games, but about 14% of video game creators are Black or Latino, according to Cxmmunity.
“One big piece of who we are is helping our end-users explore what they really care about and then pursue that through the different tools of gaming and esports,” said Julian Fitzgerald, cofounder and executive director of Cxmmunity. “We look forward to providing training and expertise to the staff of Boys & Girls Club in changing the face of digital equity and access in the Rockford region.”
Jeremeh Dagdayan, an 18-year-old senior at Harlem High School, aspires to be a professional gamer. Actually, that’s putting his aspirations lightly.
“My main goal in life is to become the greatest esports player of all time,” he said. “I want people, when they think of esports, they think of me.”
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Dagdayan, who has participated in club programs and later worked for the Boys & Girls Club, was named the Illinois Youth of the Year by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
His next step is college, where he hopes to play for his school’s esports team. Rockford University is one of the schools he’s considering as he looks at college possibilities and scholarship opportunities.
For kids who grew up interested in gaming like he did, he said the club’s new program will be a big advantage.
“This is definitely a big step for esports in the whole Rockford area,” he said.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas