By Special to The Henderson News<\/strong>\n <\/p>\nThe Panola College Esports program is officially off to a winning start. After launching the new program last fall, the College entered its first regulated competition on February 10 and earned its first official victory.<\/p>\n
Causen Perrette led the charge in\u00a0Super Smash Bros., competing against an opponent from\u00a0Ellsworth Community College\u00a0in Iowa. \u201cThe Esports program has helped me rediscover my love for gaming, so I am very happy to have won my first set,\u201d said Perrette.<\/p>\n
The Esports program was established to empower students through teamwork, communication, leadership, and critical thinking. While competition is a key component, the program\u2019s mission extends beyond gaming. Students gain valuable life and career skills including strategic planning, collaboration under pressure, problem-solving, and digital communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing how Causen and the rest of our Smash team have been improving, I can say full heartedly that I am very excited to see how we progress in the future,\u201d said Wesley Kemp, Esports Coach at Panola College.<\/p>\n
Participants have the opportunity to represent the College in structured, regulated tournaments governed by the\u00a0National Junior College Athletic Association Esports\u00a0(NJCAAE), the national governing body for two-year college Esports programs. Through NJCAAE competition, student-athletes engage in organized league play that mirrors traditional collegiate athletics in structure and standards.<\/p>\n
As the program continues its inaugural season, Panola College looks forward to building on its early success and expanding opportunities for students to compete at a high level.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Panola College Esports program secures first victory Published 7:59 am Thursday, February 26, 2026 By Special to The Henderson News The Panola College Esports program is officially off to a winning start. After launching the new program last fall, the College entered its first regulated competition on February 10 and earned its first official victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[4218,585,4948,4016,4949,4950],"class_list":{"0":"post-5074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-esports","8":"tag-college","9":"tag-esports","10":"tag-panola","11":"tag-program","12":"tag-secures","13":"tag-victory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}