As Keiser University associate athletic director James Shoemaker walked into the NAIA National Convention four years ago, he sought out one presentation in particular — from NACE, or the National Association of Collegiate ESports.
Shoemaker’s fellow directors struggled to understand his interest in the fledgling competition, believing that ESports “just isn’t really a sport.”
But the Keiser athletic department tuned out the cynical commentary of its contemporaries and heard the pulse of the athletic world’s avant grade: competitive gaming.
The university transformed a vacant classroom on its flagship West Palm Beach campus into a state-of-the-art E-Sports lab, hired head coach Ross Adams to lead the team and launched its inaugural campaign in 2019.
“To bring in a new program that a lot of schools aren’t bringing in — it’s great to be at the forefront of something really…
