Posted by By: Autumn Grzenia
Over winter break, the Coe College Esports team competed and took first place in the 2021 National Jersey competition. The competition consisted of 134 schools, varying in different divisions all across the nation, and included seven rounds of brackets. Votes were combined from polls posted on Instagram as well as Twitter.
“Initially, I was surprised and shocked,” said Curt Kimm, head esports coach. “I was only expecting us to last a few rounds. I think it was a lot easier for a school like us to make it to the end because we have a smaller campus, which allowed for more involvement from the student body, and I was able to email everyone associated with campus.”
Throughout the competition, the Kohawks had to compete with multiple division one schools that were twice the size of Coe. Once in the final bracket, it came down to the final hour of voting between Coe and Mount Vernon Nazarene University. The final poll resulted in Coe having 1,336 votes to Mount Vernon Nazarene University having only 1,289 votes.
“This competition was a great way to keep the players involved over break and gave Coe some national attention,” said Kimm.
For winning the competition, the team received five free jerseys as well as $500 for their program. As of right now, Kimm and the team are planning on using their winnings to purchase new monitor stands.
“The inspiration for the jersey came from the University of Kansas, actually,” said Kimm. “Their jersey had their logo across half of the body, but the Kohawk goes horizontally instead of vertically, which made designing a little difficult. The designers were able to come up with a design that allowed for the Kohawk to be staring the opponent down no matter what way you’re facing.”
You can watch the next Kohawk Esports match on Saturday, February 19th through their streaming links on Twitter, Facebook, and Twitch.tv/coeesports. You can also find the schedules for their future matches on their twitch page.