Mount Saint Mary College Athletics

Mount Saint Mary College Athletic Director Drew Brown has announced the addition of Esports beginning in Fall 2022 with Brian Venard taking the reigns as the program's first ever head coach. Esports becomes the 23^rd program offered by the department and joins Women's Golf as first year programs beginning in the 2022-23 academic year.
 
"We are excited to add and build these innovative programs at Mount Saint Mary. Initiatives like these are important in today's landscape of sports and higher education. Not only do they add to student life, but they create opportunities for our students to be prepared for the future. We have been working on this effort for more than a year now, building on already existing student-led programming, and I'm thrilled to see it become a reality. Brian is the perfect individual to be our first coach and leader for our program. His enthusiasm for gaming and helping others be their best is unmatched," said Brown.
 
Esports describes the world of competitive gaming and Mount Saint Mary will initially compete with ECAC Esports. The Mount's newest program comes on the heels of the intuition announcing a new Bachelor of Science degree in Game Programming. Students in this program will obtain skills to build video games for a variety of platforms. Graduates will be able to create 2D and 3D games using modern programming languages and software engineering practices.
 
With the addition of Esports, Mount Saint Mary has committed to building a new dedicated gaming center that will be housed in the Kaplan Center.
 
"I'd like to thank Drew Brown, the entire search committee, and the Administration at Mount Saint Mary College for the opportunity to help develop and lead such a cutting-edge program. Collegiate Esports is growing rapidly, and I'm excited to get started on bringing a quality program to the Hudson Valley," stated Venard.
 
Venard comes to the Mount with extensive gaming experience, including serving as the Team Manager/Captain of the Esports program at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine. In that capacity, Venard captained the Thomas Overwatch team, serving as the in-game leader and manger and also created and facilitated proactive schedules and tournament registrations. Venard was also a member of the League of Legends and Magic: The Gathering teams.
 
Venard comes to Newburgh with professional gaming experience as well in Hearthstone, competing on the Hearthstone Championship Tour from 2016-19.