14 — Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
UMich Esports benefits from recreational
sports status, virtual features
The
COVID-19
pandemic
has sidelined most aspects of
typical club sports, derailing
practice
schedules
and
throwing competitions out the
window. The UMich Esports
team, though, felt right at home
with the switch to a virtual
landscape.
The impact of the pandemic
on
the
outside
world
has
pushed many into the virtual
space in which esports teams
have
traditionally
resided,
potentially
boosting
the
validity
of
esports
in
the
minds of some fans moving
forward. This can be seen with
the increase in popularity of
Twitch — a platform where
fans can watch professional or
recreational esports online —
streams during the spring and
summer.
That boost in popularity has
led to Michigan esports earning
recreational sports status.
In its first year under the
jurisdiction
of
Michigan’s
recreational sports department,
the Wolverines have still been
able to power through their
schedule
full
of
practices,
scrimmages and tournaments —
with more yet to come. Training
and competing remotely had
been a staple of Michigan’s
teams prior to the pandemic,
ever since they lost access to
their usual meeting spots when
they became a recreational
sport over the summer.
Those
meetings
used
to
take place at the Ross School
of Business, where the team
began as a student organization
in 2015 under the direction of
founder Tony Yuan, a former
Michigan student. Now hosting
teams across 10 different games
— including “Counter-Strike:
Global
Offensive,”
“Rocket
League”
and
“League
of
Legends” — the team’s growth
into a recreational sport came
at the cost of their typically
held rooms at Ross.
While functioning has proven
easier for the Wolverines than
many other club sports, teams
across its 10 different games
have lost the opportunity to
host in-person events that drew
in new players and fans.
Recruiting new members for
each game occurred virtually
this
season,
and
although
networking
online
paled
in
comparison
to
previous
in-person events, Michigan was
still able to draw in community
members
and
competitive
players to its Discord server.
Outside of bolstering their
ranks, the Wolverines want
to create an effective virtual
presence. With so many teams
and players to keep track of,
communicating
schedules
and scores to fans has proven
difficult.
A virtual community isn’t the
only home Michigan is trying
to build. In a post-pandemic
world, the Wolverines want to
acquire an in-person facility
where
teams
can
practice,
compete and, most importantly,
bond.
“It is very helpful to have
a space on campus where we
could go and our teams could
compete in the same room
and just help build that team
chemistry in a way that simply
speaking through Skype or
a Discord voice chat doesn’t
really promote,” the team’s
vice president, sophomore Seth
Izzard, said.
That chemistry used to be
created through the team’s
in-person local area network
events
where
casual
and
competitive
players
would
meet up and play a variety of
games together. The ongoing
pandemic forced Michigan to
cease holding those meetups.
Building connections can be
the deciding factor between a
skilled roster and a winning
team. Those communication
skills
and
familiarities,
something Michigan’s teams
utilize frequently, can make a
difference when facing other
skilled teams.
“We’re
almost
like
a
family,” senior Ryan Foley,
Rocket League director, said.
“We all respect each other,
we’re all really good friends,
even in real life, so it makes
it a lot better. (In Rocket
League)
maybe
we’re
not
the best players, but we’re
always one of the best teams
because we have really good
communication, and we enjoy
playing with each other.”
In
order
to
fund
a
physical home to build those
relationships, the Wolverines
hope to find funding through
their newly-christened status
as a recreational sport. Future
sponsorships
and
budgeting
will now be coordinated with
University support.
In the meantime, Michigan
looks forward to another perk
of joining Rec Sports: Giving
Blue Day. The online event,
set to take place March 10,
is a 24-hour donation drive
where
alumni,
companies
and community members can
support
Michigan
student
programs.
Michigan
also
now
has
automatic access to Festifall,
something the team can use to
its advantage when in-person
recruiting events are safe again.
While stuck at its virtual
home for the time being, the
momentum
the
Wolverines
have built has created feelings
of pride and hope for their
members.
Some
even
look
forward to a future home in the
athletic department as a varsity
sport, a long-term goal of the
Wolverines.
“Esports
viewership
is
skyrocketing, but it’s still
not at the same level as your
football, or your basketball or
your soccer (games),” Izzard
said. “And that has actually
been helped by the COVID-
19 situation because so many
people are at home and the
traditional
sports
aren’t
competing at the same level.”
While future growth plays
into
the
team’s
planning,
UMich Esports also wants
to make its impact felt right
now.
Izzard said that he hopes
breaking down the stigma
surrounding esports will drive
improvements
surrounding
the
team’s
community
events. With more resources
and a permanent home, the
Wolverines can show that
esports is a legitimate team
worthy of one day attaining
varsity status.
CONNOR EAREGOOD
Daily Sports Writer
Courtesy of Charles Hinkley
UMich Esports is finding ways to grow its brand in spite of the
pandemic.
‘M’ flips Benny,
adds three DTs on
National Signing Day
After
an
Early
Signing
Day headlined by talent on
the offensive side of the ball,
Michigan addressed its biggest
need on Wednesday, defense,
with three signees on National
Signing Day.
All
three
signees
were
defensive tackles, a position
at
which
the
Wolverines
have little depth. That lack of
depth showed in the defense’s
performance this year, and
in the early period, Michigan
failed to add a single player at
the position.
However,
the
Wolverines
were able to flip four-star
Rayshaun Benny — now the
sixth-rated
commit
in
the
class — from Michigan State,
where he had committed after
the Spartans beat Michigan in
October.
The Wolverines also flipped
three-star Ikechukwu Iwunnah
from Colorado and added a late
commitment, four-star George
Rooks.
After Jim Harbaugh inked
an extension in December, he
revamped his staff, going much
younger and fortifying both
the offensive and defensive
staffs with more recruiters. The
National Signing Day returns
seem to vindicate that strategy.
According to 247Sports, new
co-defensive coordinator Mike
Macdonald was one of the
primary recruiters for Iwunnah,
while
Benny
and
Rooks
were primarily recruited by
defensive line coach Shaun Nua
and co-offensive coordinator
Sherrone Moore.
Even after a 2-4 season,
Michigan was able to land five
of the top 15 players in the state,
according to the 247Sports
composite. Following Benny’s
last-minute
flip,
none
of
those 15 players signed with
Michigan State. (Penn State
had four, Northwestern two,
and Alabama, Notre Dame,
LSU and Nebraska secured one
each.)
With the new additions, the
Wolverines have the 10th-best
2021 class in the country and
second-best in the Big Ten
behind Ohio State. The class
ranks as the fourth best in the
Harbaugh era.
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Shaun Nua landed three commitments along the defensive line after
Michigan failed to sign a defensive tackle in December.
Steve Shields accomplishes his goal as development director
Over his 30-year relationship
with the Michigan hockey team,
Steve Shields has held a lot of
different titles — player, coach,
director — but, through it all,
one thing has stayed the same:
He’s been looking out for others.
That role, though, goes back
much further than 30 years.
Shields was adopted from a
foster home when he was just a
couple months old. Growing up
with his adopted parents and
sister in North Bay, Ontario
— the Canadian equivalent to
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula —
Shields never considered being
adopted to be anything out of
the ordinary. It wasn’t until he
was older that he realized his
experience differed from most
of his friends and had most
likely shaped who he is today.
“When you’re an adopted kid,
you have that innate feeling, that
instinct that you were left or
abandoned at some point when
you were very young,” Shields
says. “When you’re growing up
adopted, there’s an instinctual
feeling that you don’t have that
unconditional love. So what do
you do when you don’t have that
unconditional love? You please
people so they don’t leave you.
You can come to terms with that
as you grow up if you deal with
it, but it never really goes away.”
As an adopted child, Shields
feels he’s much more aware
of how others perceive him.
While that can have negative
consequences, he thinks it’s the
reason he’s always gravitated
towards those who need help,
something he does every day
in his role as director of player
development.
***
When Shields graduated from
Michigan, he knew very little of
life outside of hockey.
As
a
goaltender
for
the
Wolverines,
Shields’s
world
revolved around practices at
Yost Ice Arena and his classes.
He graduated in 1994 with a
bachelor’s degree in education,
but very few practical skills
that would help him get a job.
When asked if he was focused
on his future at that age, Shields
laughed.
“No, absolutely not. … I was
solely focused on playing hockey.
I had no idea that hockey could
end in a day. Telling me that at
that age would mean nothing to
me.”
The
opportunity
to
play
professionally allowed Shields
to put off his future a while
longer. He played 12 years after
college — 10 in the NHL — but
eventually retired in 2006.
By that time, Shields was in
his mid-thirties with little idea
of what to do next.
“I didn’t know anybody,”
Shields said. “First of all, I didn’t
have any idea how to network. I
didn’t know what my options
were, I didn’t know what my
interests were and I didn’t know
what I was good at.”
He
spent
a
couple
years
working in software development
and bouncing between different
pet projects, but he found himself
drawn to positions where he
could help others. Shields has
always felt an innate ability to
sense when someone is stressed
or unhappy, and he wanted to put
that skill to use.
Two years after leaving the
world of hockey, he jumped back
in with a new purpose: helping
players reach their full potential
on the ice. Shields worked as
an assistant coach under then-
Michigan
Tech
coach
Mel
Pearson before joining Florida
Panthers’ coaching staff in 2013
as a goaltending consultant.
In 2015, Shields returned
to Ann Arbor to assist with
the goaltenders under then-
Michigan coach Red Berenson.
And as he worked with more
and more players over the years,
he started to see a hole in the
system, the same hole that had
left him feeling so unprepared
years earlier.
While the University offers
countless resources for student-
athletes, Shields found that his
hockey players weren’t taking
advantage of them.
“When
a
student
athlete
comes to Michigan, they have
two things that are mandatory:
They have to go to class, and
they play on their team,” Shields
said. “The hole in the system
is that anything that has to do
with their future in the business
world or life after Michigan is
optional for them when they
have time.”
Here, he saw his opportunity
to help.
He pitched his idea, first
to Berenson, then to Pearson
when he replaced Berenson.
Pearson approved, and Shields
became the program’s first
director of player development
— a position he’s held for the
past two years.
He
works
closely
with
athletes and advisors, serving
as a “touchpoint” between the
two to make sure the hockey
players don’t get lost in the
shuffle. Michigan’s Athletics
Career Center consists of only
two staff members for 900
athletes.
While his job isn’t to prepare
the players for any certain
career, his goal is to get them
to think about a future outside
of hockey — a Herculean task
when you consider most of his
players are primarily focused
on making it to the NHL.
“For how many of those guys
is it going to work out where
they play in the NHL, retire
from hockey and never have
to worry about finances or a
career?” Shields said. “One or
2% of the time.”
Shields
starts
small.
Initially, he just asks the
younger players to identify
interests and skills they have
off the ice. He knows that it’s
unrealistic to get any of these
players to focus on a career,
but he hopes his work will get
them a little more prepared for
whatever life has in store after
graduation. The hockey team
was the first at Michigan to
have all their players make a
resume.
As much as Shields still loves
the game of hockey, he’s happy
with his current role and can’t
imagine a return to coaching.
To be a coach, you have to put
the total wins and losses about
all else, something Shields
doesn’t think he can do.
“The score of our games is
probably the least important
thing to me,” Shields said. “So,
does that make me coaching
material long term? Probably
not.”
But
being
“coaching
material” isn’t Shields’s goal.
Now, he wants to help players
access resources that he didn’t
have.
LANE KIZZIAH
Managing Sports Editor
LUKE HALES/Daily
For the past two years, Steve Shields has served as Michigan’s Director of Player Development, helping players
prepare for life outside of hockey.