0
Tuesday, May 20th 2025, 4:58 am
Will Neurauter, a Senior at Konawa High School, will soon be walking the halls of East Central University all thanks to a sports scholarship, but this sport isn’t like the rest.
Neurauter didn’t expect to be walking the halls of a university continuing his education, but with the help from ECU’s Esports program, that idea is now game over, as Esports is gaming up to start its 3rd season.
“When I got to campus about two years ago the program wasn’t really doing anything, I saw the value in the students getting engagement, getting development and being able to compete at a high level, so I pitched this to the school to get this program from the ground up again,” said Cody Soden, director of Esports at East Central University.
Leveling up, Neurauter is the fist student recruited to the Tigers Esports team.
“It feels amazing and I’m so grateful for the opportunity and I will put in countless hours grinding to do the best I can and give it everything I have,” Neurauter said.
Neurauter helped start the Esports program at Konawa High School and now being less than a half hour away, he’s able to continue his love of the game at a university.
“I’m so thankful that we have Esports because a lot of schools are having physical sports, but ours is having electrical sport and a different avenue to show students that there’s different ways to get recruited and different ways to get to college,” said Brandon Preston, the Esports coach at Konawa Public Schools.
Soden said getting players who are local is what’s important to him, that way he can start healthy relationships with the coaches and the players, before they ever step foot on campus.
“My past teammates told me about Cody and how amazing he was and that he was interested in pursuing us ot come play Esports aat ECU and I was like ‘that’s amazing I’ll just keep grinding’,” Neurauter said.
“It’s incredibly important to me because that’s who I was, I came from a small rural Oklahoma town and to come to a school like East Central University and be able to do Esports, something that is very innovative and new,” Soden said.
Like most kids, Neurauter has been gaming since he was young, but it wasn’t until high school when Konawa go their team, that he took it seriously.
“I love that we get to have Will because I want the good kid from Konawa,” Soden said. “That’s who I want on our program because this experience will change his life and it will make him into a better person.”
Neurauter doesn’t have to wait for the fall to start gaming, he signed up to compete this summer with ECU.
“I just want to do the best I can to win and have a really good relationship with my teammates so that we can win and have fun as well and win so that we can make ECU look good as well as Konawa and pave the way for little kids,” Neurauter said.
Neurauter plans to study communication and hopes to become a commentator or a football coach once he graduates.
Be among the first to get breaking news, weather, and general news updates from News on 6 delivered right to your inbox!
May 20th, 2025
May 20th, 2025
May 20th, 2025
May 20th, 2025
May 20th, 2025
May 20th, 2025
May 20th, 2025
May 19th, 2025
