Drury esports no longer classified as a sports organization
Campus News, Sports September 24, 2025, Comments OffA week before finals last semester, Seth Scoggins received a text message from former head esports coach, Tyler Clanton, two minutes before he was to give a class presentation final.
“The head coach texted me, which isn’t something he normally did. He normally sent me a Discord message, but he texted me so I knew it was serious,” said Scoggins.
The text he received was sent in a more formal form a day later to all esports players, notifying them that both Tyler and their assistant coach were to step down and Drury’s esports program would no longer be considered a sports organization.
Both the coaches and the most involved esports players were caught off guard by the cost-saving measure.
“We didn’t have enough time to register as a club or get a budget or anything, so we have basically no funding right now and no way to get anything,” commented Scoggins.
With esports being a club, it no longer gets funding directly from Drury. Instead, they must request a piece of student government’s (SGA’s) pool of money alongside every other club on campus.
However, being a club can come with its advantages. While it’s less competitive, it’s much more accessible to the average student, which has led to a double in population and the ability to bring back previously abandoned games like “Overwatch” and introduce new games like “Marvel Rivals.”
Another tough piece of the puzzle that the esports president, Seth Scoggins, has to grapple with is learning to mold his job to be more reasonable.
With so many players, he’s enforced a more rigid team captain system for each video game, so he doesn’t have to coordinate practices for each game and spread his advice or guidance too thin.
There’s also now an executive council with a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Additionally, an already existing media team is now able to fill gaps in the organization like handling streaming which was once handled by the assistant coach.
Seth often seeks advice from former coach Tyler Clanton, especially with his ability to see issues through every angle.
“He was head coach for two or three years, but before that, he was the assistant coach, and before that, he was a player. So, he’s kind of seen it all and been through it all,” Scoggins said.
He went on to say, “even though he was my coach, he’s one of my best friends, so I miss him a lot, honestly.”
Even with that gap in the organization and a lack of new recruits on scholarship, Seth Scoggins continues to look towards a bright future.
“This has only happened to like, five to 10 schools where they’ve gone from athletics to a club and fired their head coaches. And almost all the time, their esports teams just die off. We’ve been pretty lucky that we’ve got growth.”
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