From our January issue.
Every year at MLEC, Jaguars exercise student innovation by exploring their niches and bringing in new activities tailored to their own interests. By doing so, young minds add a new shade to the spectrum of extracurriculars. However, in the age of a global pandemic, the entire high school paragon came to a halt, overpowering proactivity with idle dormancy.
Despite everything, this does not seem to be the case for three sophomore students in the Engineering strand.
Angelo Aguila, Sergio Paez, and Jaydin Henri — who all share a common hype for rotisserie sports — have taken the initiative to introduce a new club at MLEC: the Fantasy Sports club.
Knowingly, besides Physical Education courses, MLEC has been lacking in serious extracurricular sports for a long time. While the chances of implementing athletics practically vanished in the advent of remote learning this year, that does not mean physical activities are the only form of resonating with NBA, MLB, NHL, and NFL leagues.
“We are just trying to bring something together where students can come to communicate similar interests,” said Aguila.
Fantasy sports involve creating virtual proxy leagues made up of real players in a professional sport through a series of draft, trade, and drops. In these games, the performance of each player in real life is directly complementary to the imaginary team’s statistical win/lose outcome.
Highly accessible on the internet, this fixture draws in millions of players every year — and high school students are not an exception. Researchers from the University of Texas, as well as the University of Illinois, have found that these games have positively impacted the sports industry by over $1 billion through the purchase of publications, league fees (to sweeten the pot), commissioner services, and content advertised on the media.
The leagues themselves offer intense competitive scenes, a chance to build and manage one’s own team, the opportunity to socialize, and an investment in the thrill of victories and losses. If this foundation were to be officially administered as a school activity, it could quickly gain popularity among the Jaguar sports fans.
“This isn’t just limited to something that you can do during club time. You can do this at home, you can do this when you’re bored. It’s just something that you’re able to maintain with and go along with throughout the entirety of the season. It’s mostly accessible everywhere,” explained Paez.
Henri revealed that the idea of forming a fantasy sports circle humorously emerged in five minutes.
Amid a conversation with another classmate about basketball, he had initially suggested creating a Fantasy League. Paez opted in and came up with an idea that would not only revive the concept of sports at MLEC — but also expand extracurriculars in a way that is safe for sports fans during COVID-19.
“It was during Physics where we were just doing our work. My friend, Nelson, and I were talking about basketball. I thought we should do a Fantasy League,” said Jaydin.
“Sergio came up with an idea that we should make this into a club, where all our friends were in it. So we just thought: ‘You know what? Why not,’” he continued.
If the crew does get administered as an official setting at school, it will be open to both the people who have been playing fantasy sports for years — and, of course, any new beginners who are looking to learn more about it.
In fact, Paez stated that Mr. Gonzalez, a Chemistry instructor at MLEC, had told the boys that he does not know too much about basketball, but is open to supporting the club and joining a league as a monitor.
“Our league also consists of a faculty member, which is Mr. Gonzalez. He is in this club, and he was like, ‘I don’t know anything about basketball, but this sounds super interesting. I’ll join the league,’” he said.
Mr. O’Brien, MLEC’s Maths teacher, and as well a sports enthusiast, will also engage in setting up the club too. Reportedly, he had readily accepted the trio’s request to fill in as their group sponsor.
“We finally went to Mr. O’Brien and he was like ‘Yeah, for sure.’ From there, we just need him to get the paperwork done and sign it off,” said Aguila.
Up until now, they are still working to get the informal establishment through the application process and endeavor to open up a hotspot for all MLEC sports fans by the incoming 2021-2022 school year.
The Fantasy Sports club aims to give everyone, regardless of their student-teacher-staff status, to participate in games with their classmates and co-workers.
