EHS student makes history with esports scholarship

Daultyn Bradley made history at Enterprise High School on Wednesday, April 6, when he became the first student to sign a scholarship with the University of Montevallo to play esports.

“It’s exciting for Daultyn and his accomplishments and what he’s done in the gaming world,” said University of Montevallo coach Brandon Paramore.

Esports is an online gaming activity that allows students to compete with other schools and is offered to students whose school is a member of the Alabama High School Athletic Association. The Central Board of AHSAA sanctioned esports in April 2018 and EHS began competing in the fall of 2018.

According to the AHSAA website, the same skills a team needs to succeed in traditional sports are required in esports. Teams need to work together as a unit, think strategically and put forth strong individual effort in order to win. Research suggests students who participate in structured esports activities have positive education outcomes, such as increased interest in STEM, a higher GPA and the formation of stronger bonds as a team.

“It opens a window for a lot of opportunities,” said Daultyn Bradley, “because with esports it’s a video game. You can’t be born good at video games.

“It’s the only sport in the world that allows both genders to play against each other because everything’s fair. It’s an even playing field. It also allows people with disabilities and who can’t play other sports to have a sense of competition.

“I used to play soccer,” Daultyn Bradley said. “My asthma was going downhill so esports is where I found my calling. When they (EHS) announced the esports program three years ago I decided to sign up for it and it’s paying for my school. It’s an amazing opportunity to have.”

Daultyn competes in Rocket League, a sport-based video game playing soccer with small rocket-powered cars. Players work with their team to advance the ball down field and score goals in their opponent’s net. Cody Irwin is the coach of the esports students at EHS.

“He puts a lot of time playing the game but he’s never lacked on his studies,” said Daultyn’s dad Donald Bradley. “He’s always made sure they (studies) came before anything else.

“This isn’t the only scholarship he received from Montevallo. He got an academic scholarship there, too. It was more than just games.”

“That’s the thing for anybody who wants to do esports. It may just sound like video games on the surface but it is definitely not just video games,” said Daultyn Bradley. “You can talk to anybody on the team and they can tell you the amount of work that you put into getting into the position I’m in and the position we’re in in the state, that is a very hard position to maintain and that takes a lot of time and dedication, blood, sweat and tears included. It’s a big sacrifice you have to make if you’re able to balance it with your academics.”

EHS currently has 22 students this season with two Rocket League teams, one League of Legends team and three Super Smash Brothers teams. There is no limit to the number of students that can participate. There are 72 teams statewide at this time and Enterprise is one of three teams that is undefeated. Last season two of the Rocket League teams at EHS made the state playoffs and both of them are in the top half of the league again this season.

“A lot of students were made fun of (when esports began at EHS), but now hopefully they see you can win a scholarship out of that. Maybe esports isn’t so bad,” said Donald Bradley.

“It’s more than just scholarships. There’s tournaments out there that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars if you win it.”

“The world championship of Rocket League is in three months and it pays $1 million,” said Daultyn Bradley. “I won’t be going,” he laughed.