AURORA – With the third year of the Colorado High School Activities Association’s sanctioned fall esports underway, Cherry Creek’s esports squad is looking to accomplish a pair of feats no other program has.
First, there’s the opportunity to become the first esports program to defend a sanctioned CHSAA state championship by winning back-to-back titles in the same game. However, it should be noted that Creek did claim consecutive championships in the same game during the activity’s trial period.
The first year of sanctioned fall esports saw Cherry Creek capture the Rocket League title, while Grandview won the League of Legends championship. Then, last year Cherry Creek won the League of Legends crown but watched Valor Christian nab the Rocket League state championship.
Second, considering that the Bruins already have a League of Legends and a Rocket League title in their possession, they have a chance to become the first school to win a state championship in all three sanctioned fall esports games, with Splatoon 3 becoming a CHSAA-sanctioned game for the first time this fall.
“My goal as the Splatoon 3 captain is to lead my teammates to make it to state,” Zaylix Terhune, who doubles as the Esports Club Secretary at Cherry Creek and the Splatoon 3 team captain, said. “This year is their first year ever to be able to go to state for Splatoon. As a senior, I would love to go to state for the game I love passionately, as it’s my last year.”
That sentiment is carried throughout.
“A couple of our games are newer or have yet to win state,” Esports Club President Liberty Mack added. “I want to be able to push those teams and let them win or get close to winning state.”
At the helm of the operation is head coach Alexandra Bak, a League of Legends player in her own right, who has overseen the process of Cherry Creek establishing itself as one of the foremost powers in the Centennial State’s new esports landscape.
“Esports coaching is basically multitasking and chaos management,” Bak explained. “We usually have six or seven different things happening at once, so you have to be able to brainstorm solutions and help address conflicts. It’s also so much fun – I have learned so much from the students who I have worked with over the past seven years.”
Back in 2018 – four years before the first CHSAA-sanctioned esports season – a batch of Bak’s science students learned about her League of Legends background and approached her about starting up an esports club, and in a few short seasons, a juggernaut was born.
“We started small as a school club seven years ago with a small group of dedicated students,” Coach Bak explained. “They worked hard to find competitions to participate in, and events to try. As esports has grown across the state and worldwide, new opportunities have opened up for our club every year. Since the CHSAA sanctioning, our program has really expanded, and now we are bigger and have more teams than ever before.”
That growth has only been bolstered by the program’s tremendous success. Now, with a pair of sanctioned state championships on the mantle, Cherry Creek’s esports program boasts over 140 members, making it one of the largest student organizations at the prominent Denver-area high school.
Despite this mass influx of talent and new faces over the past few years, since CHSAA’s sanctioning of esports, Coach Bak and her staff have had no problem maintaining the program’s high standards. Why?
They say the nature of esports makes it simpler.
“It’s easy,” assistant coach Dan Crawford shared. “Our players love the games they are playing, and they enjoy being the best at them. It’s a huge source of pride for them. So, we help them organize what needs to happen, and then they come in and do great things.”
Coach Bak and her staff have also developed a player-driven culture, where the captains can almost serve as coaches themselves. The captains help form the teams and, once the season starts, help their teammates get gameday-ready.
“I definitely attribute the program’s sustained success to the contributions of our amazing captains,” Coach Bak said. “Coaching so many teams would be impossible without them.”
Since the club’s creation, Cherry Creek’s students have formed 80 different esports teams over the years.
Now, the Bruins will look to further bolster the program’s outstanding legacy with some more hardware.
CHSAA’s 2024 Fall Esports State Championships for Rocket League, League of Legends, and Splatoon 3 will take place Tuesday, Dec. 10, at Localhost, in Lakewood.