Redwood’s eSports team has had an incredible 23-24 season. For Super Smash Bros, the Redwood team is 3rd in the State of California and for Mario Kart 8 they came 2nd. The team members reflect on their experiences.
By: Noah Dilsalver
Jonathan Woodbury, a science teacher at Redwood, is the coach of the console team. He says, “I get paid to play video games! Esports is a club and a sport that combines friendship and competition through video games.”
“I run the console side of things, while Mr. C runs the PC side of things. We play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (SSBU) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (MK8) competitively for the Nintendo Switch.”
Woodbury details the requirements to become a part of the exclusive teams. He says, “In order to be on a competitive Smash team, a student has to consistently beat me in Smash. I’ve been playing Smash since 1999 on the N64, so longer than these students have been alive.”
Marlene Aguirre,’25, is the captain of the Mario Kart 8 Team and shares that this was her first year involved in Redwood’s eSports. She says, “I believe that we have a very strong season ahead of us. We did great with our first 2 games.”
”This is a great team-building game and it makes it feel like you are in a community, with not only the competitive side of it but the club as a whole,” says Aguirre.
Aguirre adds the amount of hours spent preparing and advancing her skill. She says, “I put a good amount of time into this game. I like to look at recent game patches and I enjoy keeping up with the current meta and what combinations are good or not. On a week’s average, I put at least 4 or 5 hours into research and actual gameplay. I love this game a lot.”
Jayro Vargas, ‘25, is on the Super Smash Bros Ultimate Team. He reflects on the season and says, “It’s been going extremely well. We’ve made it 5-1, making us top 5 in the state and it’s pretty impressive.”
Teamwork is very important in making sure that the team can succeed as they play. Vargas says, “It feels really cool. It’s just a bunch of nerds, just going together and doing the best they can and we’re doing pretty good.”
He details the time he has devoted to his craft. He says, ”I check my hours. I probably have like 1000 hours in Smash, so I’ve been preparing for this for a while.”
Members of the Mario Kart 8 team share their thoughts after placing second place in the State Tournament.
Liz Garcia, ’26, says “It was very stressful, but happy to be part of Redwood history.”
“It looked like a lot of late nights of practice and preparation. Figuring out the right combination of karts, characters, and shortcuts. Countless hours of research for a video game,” says Garcia.
Michael Flores, ‘25, is another piece of the Mario Kart 8 team’s puzzle. He says, “For our first season, it was great being able to accomplish what we did. We made the playoffs after being 2-3 halfway through the season and finished 5-3 and got 2nd in the State.
“I’ve noticed some recognition around campus after the announcement of us placing 2nd. Most recognition is from classmates and friends, but that’s from what I noticed,” says Flores
After the teams placing so well in State, Mr. Woodbury shares his future expectations and pride in his teams.
He says, “This semester our Smash Team is ranked #5 out of 226 teams in California (5-1), so we’re the best team in Visalia, beating El Diamante, who were the state champions last year.”
“3 out of the 4 players on the Smash team are Sophomores, so they’ll be absolutely KILLING IT in the years to come as they get better and gain more experience.” says Woodbury.
“These kids are top-notch, and playing competitively has made them waaay better today than at the beginning of the semester,” says Woodbury.
“I’m super proud of all the competitive players! Now that we’ve gotten our toes wet with playing in a competitive format under lots of pressure, we’re gearing up for an even better spring semester season. I’m super excited to see where they’ll be next semester and next year, so stay tuned,” says Woodbury.
Noah Dilsaver
Noah Dilsaver ('27) promoted to Redwood High school from Oak Grove K-8 Elementary School. He is a Journalism 1 student and enjoys video games, photography, reading, playing the drums, and baseball. Noah has played baseball for 10 years and is passionate about telling the story behind it.