New E-Sports lounge at Lincoln Park Boys and Girls Club

DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) – There’s a brand new space for at the Boys and Girls Club of the Northland meant to bring kids together.

Wednesday marked the grand opening of the E-sports gaming room at the Lincoln Park Boys and Girls Club. This new lounge includes eight monitors, nine play stations, a Nintendo switch, and all kinds of video games for the kids to enjoy.

Todd Johnson, the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club for the Northland said, electronic sports offer an opportunity for kids to expand their critical thinking, problem solving, and fine motor skills.

“It creates that sense of teamwork and it gets that sense of belonging,” said Johnson, “they belong to a team that will be competing against other Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs and other schools.”

Johnson says the club plans to start its own competitive video gaming teams now that more than 300 universities offer gaming as a college major.

“Get our kids foots in the door and make sure you know that were prepping them for kind of some of these emerging careers,” said Jon Phipps, Branch Manager at the Lincoln Park location.

“Now we have a space for kids to kind of hunker down with their friends and explore a new area of programming that we weren’t offering before this,” said Phipps.

He said around 60 kids spend their days after school at the Boys and Girls Club.

“I think it’s like good for the community and if people don’t always want to play basketball, they can play this,” said Londonn Love, a 7th grader and member of the club.

Love said he loves playing NBA 2k24 and wants to play the real thing when he grows up.

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