Beyond the Screen

An inside look at what makes club esports one of the University's most important teams

From the Spring 2025 issue of Sacred Heart University Magazine

Brandon Moore ‘26 arrived at Sacred Heart more open-minded and optimistic than most of his peers. He began to spread his wings on campus more quickly than many freshmen in the fall of 2022, joining various clubs, meeting new people and even trying his luck on the fencing team. Despite others’ warmth in welcoming him, Moore felt off; he still was searching for a true home. Finding that home would require self-reflection and research. He concluded that the University’s club esports team was the group who would transform his college life.

“I think a lot of people experience this when they’re just starting college,” Moore says. “I decided to join esports because I had a genuine interest in playing as part of a team, and that’s where I’ve formed lifelong bonds.”

Community, passion and friendship are just a few reasons why sports are such a vital aspect of everyday life for so many people worldwide. However, these feelings are not only the byproduct of major sports like football, basketball or soccer, but also sports that are played in front of a TV screen.

“For the longest time, I was a doubter,” says Sam Schelfhout, assistant professor of sport management and director of the club esports team at SHU. “It wasn’t until I found a game that I was interested in that I discovered the potential that esports could have to build a valuable community.”

Before his career in academia, Schelfhout was a semiprofessional esports athlete, and his game of choice was Hearthstone, a strategy-based card game that requires lightning-quick decision-making. These years provided Schelfhout with a valuable lesson on just how popular and important esports was to anyone interested in video games.

When Schelfhout was asked recently to take over as coach of the University’s club esports team, founded in 2016, his answer was a resounding yes.

The team is broken up into two sections, competitive and noncompetitive; athletes play the games they’re most interested in. “There is something for everybody,” Schelfhout says. “Right now, we have people who play Rainbow Six Siege, Valorant, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The list goes on; we’ll sponsor any game.”

Schelfhout does not consider himself a coach in a traditional sense. “So much of what goes on in the club, how it’s run and the decisions that are made, all comes down to the students,” he says. It’s this mantra that helps shape the club and those who have found a home in it.

“The community that’s been built in the club, by the students and for the students, is something that I love about my job,” says Schelfhout. “The connection that’s built among this group of people who share a rather uncommon hobby has been so rewarding to see.”

Moore shares Schelfhout’s gratitude for the community that the club has provided.

“I’m proud to say that the community within club esports is incredibly welcoming and inclusive, embracing people with a wide range of interests,” he says. “I’ve formed everlasting friendships. This club brings together people from all different walks of life, and we connect through our shared passion.”

It’s this communal mentality that has helped the club rapidly expand over the past few years. This spring, to celebrate the community esports has provided its members, the University repaid the club by opening a dedicated location for the team to practice and host events—a new space in Toussaint Hall where the club’s members can lay down well-deserved roots.