HUNTINGDON — Who would have thought that one of the offensive studs on the Juniata College football team was actually a video game nerd in disguise.

Such was the case with former Eagles wide receiver Julian Jackson, also a standout at Mifflin County High School.

Jackson played esports, or competitive video gaming, at Juniata from the spring of his sophomore year in 2021 until he graduated this past May.

Jackson also played wide receiver on the Juniata football team for four seasons. The 6-1, 176-pound wideout led the Eagles with 43 catches for 463 yards and three touchdowns in 2022.

Jackson majored in engineering physics with a secondary degree in mathematics. Now, he works as a field engineer at John R. Wald in Huntingdon.

Off the field, Jackson was a gamer on Juniata’s esports team.

“I was just walking around campus to my next class one day during my sophomore year,” the 22-year-old Jackson recalled. “I saw this flyer for Rocket League, and they were having tryouts for the team.”

Jackson, who played video games socially with friends growing up, admitted his expectations for the tryouts weren’t very positive. “I thought the people who showed up would be way better at it,” Jackson explained. “I ended up being better and was a starter for three years.”

Juniata’s League of Legends team has participated in the Landmark Conference esports competition. Typically, a league for mainstream sports like football, basketball and baseball, the Landmark tournament represents the first conference-wide esports tournament for a Division III-level athletic conference in the country. w

Juniata also offered esports scholarships for up to $2,500. These awards recognize program engagement and participation of students who do well academically.

Juniata’s esports teams compete in and have 24/7 access to a professional esports facility, featuring top of the line equipment.

Rocket League is a vehicular soccer video game where players control a rocket-powered car and use it to hit a ball that is much larger than the cars toward the other team’s goal area to score goals.

In a way, it resembles indoor soccer, with elements reminiscent of demolition derby. Matches are usually five minutes long, with a sudden death overtime if the game is tied at that point.

“It is not violent at all,” Jackson. The school had multiple teams, some of which played more violent games like Call of Duty. “I did that only my senior year because it wasn’t a team yet,” Jackson said. “They had tryouts for it, and I was team captain for it.”

Jackson wasn’t the only Juniata College athlete to play esports. Members of the Eagles baseball team were on the Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate team, and other football players were on his Rocket League team. Juniata fielded a total of eight different esports teams.

Jackson believes video gamers are often stereotyped mistakenly into being social misfits. He said they are often just misunderstood.

“The captain of the Rocket League team – I thought he was very knowledgeable,” Jackson said. “He devoted so much time to playing the game. He would teach us newer schemes and schematics. We became closer friends.”

Jackson said the captain also incorrectly labeled the athletes playing esports as stereotypical rude, dumb jocks.

The two benefitted from playing esports together. “The captain was just not very talkative,” Jackson said. “I feel like I’m good at getting people to open up. He was very introverted, but once we got to know each other more, he opened up more and we laughed more.”

Esports team members worked together in Rocket League as game play was three players against three players in game play. The format was a best-of-five series, so the team that won three games first won the match.

“We were always sitting next to each other,” Jackson said. The team also used an app called Discord to communicate during games. “Communication was important so we could rotate properly. After games, we’ll just play the game (to practice) and watch replays to know what we did good or bad and have things to work on.”

Jackson discovered there was strategy and problem-solving involved with esports, which was much different than just regular video gaming.

He was also on a second esports team, which he helped create for “Call of Duty.” Jackson served as team captain and former Midd-West High School standout Hunter Wolfley, who also plays football at Juniata, was on that team’s esports roster.

Juniata’s most successful esports team has been its League of Legends team, which won second straight and third Landmark League of Championship last year.

Jackson believes high school students would benefit from playing esports. “Having Esports in high school gives them the opportunity to do something different and have a social life,” he said. “I was telling some of my friends about it and they thought it was the coolest thing ever.

“I think it would help the introverted kids get out of their shell more when they are in school,” he added.