The IHSEA endeavors to create and foster competitive esports programs in all Illinois high schools by providing assistance, organizing tournaments, and presenting information to schools and advisers. These programs cultivate talents in potentially underserved populations and provide a pathway to college scholarships and careers in the gaming industry.
Contact usOur personnel volunteer their time to give our students the opportunities that they deserve through gaming and esports.
Cesar Patino is a development officer for the Illinois Math and Science Academy and also the coach of IMSA's eSports program. Coach Patino is dedicated to building a competitive program at IMSA that not only helps students become better players, but also fosters leadership and teamwork that the players will be able to use in their life outside of videogames. Currently Coach Patino's favorite competitive games are Apex Legends and Mortal Kombat, but also likes to relax playing Sea of Thieves and Legend of Zelda games.
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Brock is a lifelong gamer and esports enthusiast. Head Coach and coordinator for Massac County High School esports. Brock is part of the Onboarding team with IHSEA as well as a member of the IHSA esports advisory panel. Through these platforms, Brock helps spread the positivity of esports as well as helps schools implement esports into their programs.
John is a lifelong gamer and someone who has enjoyed bringing esports to the small community he teaches at. He is the Science teacher, creator and coach of the Esports team at Edinburg High School. He has also been a coach of many other sports over the years, such as football and baseball. John is a big proponent of schools making activities like esports available to all students, as it will give some of them the opportunity to be in a club or organization at their school when they might have not joined anything without esports. His favorite video games would be the Halo and Assassin’s Creed franchise, along with the long running MMO World of Warcraft.
These people are experts from around the U.S that help us steer the ship from above. Each Director has the best interest of students at heart, and carry that interest into every decision they make.
Ben has been competing and working in esports for nearly a decade. Starting his sophomore year at Mizzou, he organized coached the varsity League of Legends team. In 2018 he partnered with a local youth esports program called Ukatsu, a company that focused on teaching physical and mental health to gamers. There he coached Hickman High School through Ukatsu's local high school LoL LAN season. After graduation, he moved back to the Chicago suburbs to work in pharmasutical engineering but had a new found passion for coaching and scholastic esports. Working with his old high school, he founded and ran the esports program at Barrington High School. In three years, they were able were able to grow from a new program to one that was competing for state and LAN wins across multiple titles, including a national top 8 finish in League of Legends. Ben joined the IHSEA personnel in 2020, and the Board of Directors in 2021.
I have been a lifelong resident of Central Illinois. I grew up on a farm around Atlanta, IL, lived in Normal, IL for approximately eight years when not in school, and now currently reside in Lincoln, IL. I currently have offices in Lincoln, IL and in Clinton, IL. After law school I opened my own practice and have operated said practice in excess of ten years. I started out as a general practitioner and while that may still be somewhat true today, the majority of my practice concerns municipal matters (i.e. representing cities/towns). I am currently the City Attorney for both Lincoln, IL and Clinton, IL.
I’ve been playing Video Games for 35 years and I am the Director of Unified Initiatives and Esports for Special Olympics Illinois (SOILL), a position I have held since October 2023. I run the Unified Esports initiatives for High School and Middle schools. Unified Esports is sponsored by Special Olympics and pairs students with and without disabilities in Rocket League and Mario Kart. Prior to my position at SOILL I was the Tech Director at Limestone Community High School where I started Esports in 2019. We started with JUST League of Legends, Switched to JUST Rocket league in 2020 and competed in NASEF where we won the Midwest Conference, but lost to an IHSEA team (U5) in the Nationals. We Joined IHSEA in the Fall of 2020 and dramatically increased our offerings! I was drawn to the IHSEA because they offered the MOST opportunities for the best price! In the Spring of 2021 we added the Unified Esports beta and never left and that led me to where I am now! My drive to support scholastic esports comes from the opportunities it provides all students especially those that sit on the fringes of school culture; the non-typical athletes, students that don’t necessarily fit in, and the direction and purpose it can give them. Unified Esports doubles down on that because it provides meaningful competition to even more students and promotes a more inclusive school culture.
