RIPON, Wisconsin – This fall Ripon College will launch its first season in the World of Esports, competing in the Wisconsin Esports Conference. The Red Hawks are excited to announce the following incoming freshmen to start off the Fall 2025 season: Cooper Ahrens, Ethan Arts, Vaschon Blount, Avery Brinkman, Shelby Buddenhagen, Madison Discola, Lyric Goelzer, Jackson Manley, Mark Mcginnis, Connor Schmidt, Garrett Schroder, Antwaun Simmons, Hailey Sponholz and Terrell Williams. Additional Esports team members may be added before the start of the academic year.
 
Director of the program, Andy Sotter, is thrilled to bring Esports to Ripon College and feels Ripon's program already has a strong foundation combined with a substantial gaming culture on campus. The fall semester of 2025 will be its inaugural season competing for multiple state championships with schools from around the state.
 
Player Spotlight: Ethan Arts (Bay Port HS). Coach Sotter first recruited Ethan in the Fall of 2024 with a visit to Bay Port's Esports lab. Sotter noted: "Ethan is a very strong Super Smash Brothers Ultimate Player and has the desire to compete at the highest levels. He led his program to the playoffs and is a state champion in Smash Singles. A player of this caliber is what we hope to attract here at Ripon College, and his commitment to academics is also extremely impressive."
 
Ethan Arts expressed his excitement and commitment to Ripon College and the Esports program. "I am looking forward to being a part of the Ripon community as I admire their passion and work ethic towards the things they are interested in. I am planning on majoring in Physics and Math. I joined the Ripon Esports team because I was impressed by the commitment to Esports as a whole, and I want to help build an incredible community there as well. Giving Esports players an incredible place to go not only for their respective games, but also for a phenomenal college experience with a supportive community, is something that is very important to me and I found that at Ripon."
 
When asked about how Coach Sotter plans to utilize the new updates around campus, he said: "Ripon College has an amazing community of current students and alumni that really loves their campus. With the incredible renovation to the Franzen Science Center, I have been able to attract students like Ethan that hope to study the Sciences. The addition of multiple areas of study has brought attention from students all over the country to Ripon, especially in Engineering and Computer Sciences." The newly designed Esports arena is outfitted with multiple top of the line Alienware Aurora R16 PCs, OLED TVs, Nintendo switches, Xboxes and Playstations to fit the needs of all players.
 
The atmosphere at Ripon College is filled with life and excitement from all the additions happening around campus, and as the campus continues to grow and evolve, programs like Esports will continue to expand.

Any current and/or prospective students that are interested in Esports at Ripon College should fill out the attached form. We are actively seeking players for: Overwatch 2, SuperSmash Bros. Ultimate, Rocket League, Valorant, Mario Kart, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Rainbow Six: Siege, Counter-Strike 2, League of Legends, Fortnite, Marvel Rivals, Fifa, Madden, NBA 2K and College Football 2025.
 
FOLLOW: Follow Ripon College Red Hawks Athletics on Facebook and @RiponRedHawks on Twitter for immediate updates, results and more. Go to riponredhawks.com for all information, releases and schedules.