University of North Florida Upgrades Esports to Varsity
The University of North Florida has upgraded its student esports club into a varsity program competing this fall under the IT division, utilizing the Flight Deck Esports & Innovation Arena.
The University of North Florida (UNF) has upgraded its student esports club, founded in 2018, into a varsity program that begins competing this fall, and has placed it under the university’s information technology division rather than athletics, sports management or student life.
The program is built around the UNF Flight Deck Esports & Innovation Arena, which opened Feb. 27 inside the John A. Delaney Student Union. The 2,800-square-foot space seats up to 170 guests and holds 42 gaming PCs, a 10-seat competition stage, four console areas, a broadcast studio and a shoutcasting booth. It was announced in April 2025 and built with a $3 million grant from the Jacksonville City Council, as previously reported by The Esports Advocate.
Tom Screech, previously a full-time faculty member at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, where he developed and taught courses on sponsorships, live event management, marketing and branding within esports, accepted UNF’s inaugural esports program manager role in December 2025 and arrived on campus in early February. He had overseen Harrisburg’s own club-to-junior-varsity transition, and co-founded the Collegiate Fighting Game Conference (CFGC).
The funding case rested on workforce development rather than athletics. UNF has presented the arena as a hub for students heading into science, technology, engineering and math careers, and UNF Interim President Angela Garcia Falconetti said at the February opening that it would strengthen the regional workforce and generate economic impact for the community. Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan, whose city put up the $3 million, described the investment at the same event as a way to create jobs and diversify the regional economy around a growing esports industry, the student newspaper UNF Spinnaker reported.
The same rationale runs through the program’s reporting line.
Housing the program inside IT addresses a recurring operating problem in collegiate esports: who maintains the hardware and the network the teams depend on. UNF Vice President and Chief Information Officer Brian Verkamp hosted the arena’s grand opening in February.
David Higdon, who was Riot Games’ global head of communications for esports from 2018 until January 2025, quoted Screech on the arrangement in a LinkedIn post published Tuesday.
“I love it,” Screech said, “because we never have to wait to get our computers, wifi, or any other tech situation fixed!”
UNF fields varsity teams in Overwatch 2, Call of Duty, Fortnite and fighting games, and competes in National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) and CFGC competitions. The Overwatch roster leads the fall launch; team member and head coach Justin Tuazon was selected to play for the Philippines at the Overwatch World Cup this month.
Student staff run event management, broadcasting, marketing and team management, and the program’s Discord server has close to 400 active members, according to Higdon’s post.
The arena is also being positioned as a regional event venue. UNF hosted the NACE national convention from July 29 to 31, an event the association expected to draw more than 200 registrants. Elite Warfare Gaming will bring its EWG LAN 3 Call of Duty tournament to the Flight Deck in September, an event the league expanded from 16 teams to 24 in July after meeting with UNF staff, and a CFGC event is scheduled for October.
UNF has not disclosed the esports program’s operating budget, the total cost of the arena beyond the city’s $3 million grant, or whether varsity players receive scholarships.
