Courtesy of the Times-Georgian -

Carrollton High School student Jarvis Stegall was crowned the nation’s top high school Madden NFL 23 player on Thursday, defeating Cabot High School out of Arkansas in two straight games to win the national championship.

Stegall is a part of Carrollton’s quickly growing Esports (Electronic Sports) program, which started up in 2018. Each team within the program competes in a league called Play Versus that is comprised of schools all over the country.

“Jarvis actually just started this year as a senior,” Carrollton Esports head coach Robby Blakemore. “I met Jarvis midway through the season last year when he heard about our team. It was too late to join, but he told me, ‘I’m going to join next year, and I’m going to win it all,’ and he sure enough did.”

And Stegall’s success did not come easily. Rather, according to Blakemore, it took significant time and effort to become a national-championship-caliber player.

“He’s got a great story, because he was terrible at it when he first started,” Blakemore said. “He would always get beat by his friends, so one summer, he was like, ‘I’m not going to lose again.’ He just watched YouTube videos and was really self-driven to make sure he was the best he could be, and it paid off.”

Not only has the Esports team taken personal investment from students, but it has also taken monetary support, including a mutually beneficial fundraiser the E-Sports team has created in which Coach Blakemore and his students repair phones to support their needs, in addition to the support they receive from the school and several different sponsors.

With this support, the program continues to grow. Along with Stegall’s national title in Madden, other members of Carrollton’s E-Sports team were scheduled to play for a Mario Kart national championship on Friday, further showing the wide success of Carrollton’s Esports program as a whole.

Mario Kart competition is a four-versus-four format, and Carrollton’s national championship team is made up of Brantley Colquitt, Jack Huett, Omar DeJesus, and Michael Fitzgerald, with Riley Ford and Sarah Scholl as alternates.

Both Stegall’s Madden national championship and Carrollton’s Mario Kart championship were streamed live on the Carrollton Esports YouTube Channel and are available to watch on demand.