Mike Dahle: Welcome back to another installment of Future Fridays. Here with us today is a unique guest. We got Sean Price from the Wisconsin Army National Guard. Sean, thank you for joining us today. How are you?
Sean Price: I'm good. Thank you for having me.
Dahle: It's my pleasure. I think you're coming at this from a unique situation here from the Army Guard, so the first big question that I have for you is how did esports become part of the Army Guard, and how did you find yourself overseeing this type of program?
Price: That's a good starter question. A lot of times people when they think of esports they don't think Wisconsin Army National Guard soldiers or service in general. Quite frankly, I kind of fell into the role. I went to college at Lacrosse for marketing, and I wanted to specifically work in market analytics. I did a bunch of job interviews to work for the Milwaukee Bucks, started in sales, did all the business side of things and then I inevitably got an opportunity to start in recruiting.
I did recruiting for a couple years and then as things progressed and some of my leaders saw potential and found out that I love doing marketing, sales, and they also quickly found out that I have IT love, I love playing video games, they actually branched off and, it's what they call, command directed me into this position. But then very quickly as I was getting support and service and having conversations at the national level, I very quickly found that there was a white space, an opportunity for esports. They were doing it at the national level, but I thought I was, and some of my peers and leaders were, doing a disservice to our soldiers and community by not providing such things in the state, so we expanded and we created something at the state level. Now we're just incorporating ourselves into high school esports, but also doing it within our community service as well.
Dahle: So when you were at La Crosse, were you still a member of the Army Guard at that point? And has this kind of been, I guess, how long have you been in the Army Guard is a good question, too.
Price: Yeah, hopefully I don't show it, but I've been in the Wisconsin Army National Guard for about 12 years now. Crazy to think about 12 years. I joined 2013, but I was, I want to say, either a freshman or a sophomore. I was full-time, so I was going to class 12 to 15 credits. I was working 40 hours a week at Sears doing sales. I was on the sales team. I was doing all the extracurriculars, but I was also part-time serving my country in uniform two days a month and two weeks in the summer, and I was doing military intelligence. I was doing all the things at the same time.
Dahle: That's a lot to juggle, Sean. Good job for keeping that all straight. [laughter] And that's coming from somebody that's worn a few hats in my day.
You kind of mentioned here as far as part-time or just that one weekend a month as far as service. Can you give us an idea of how much of a time commitment that it may be in the Guard and then being able to represent the esports program in the Guard too?
"I'm confident in saying doing things and creating an environment like esports and getting our soldiers involved and doing the things that they love. I think that is making it a lot easier for people to stay in longer."
Price: Yeah. In our esports program we do more of the practice interactions. We do a lot of broadcasting and we do a lot of source sharing at the state level. Not necessarily competing. We do have representation at the national level but all of those folks it was completely optional and open forum and space for. We have 7,000 soldiers, so there's a big group of those soldiers that took on extra and are being involved in our esports program, but their minimum requirement as a service member is usually two to four days a month.
They'll go to class, they'll work, they'll be a lawyer, they'll be a firefighter, they'll be in coding, they'll be in IT, they'll be drone operators, whatever their passion and career is, they'll do that every single day, 28 days out of the month, and then they'll do their National Guard responsibility. They'll go on a Friday afternoon after class or work. They'll do their service. They'll do whatever job they picked in the Guard, so it might be flying, like I mentioned, flying drones or doing cyber security or whatever it may be. They'll do it the whole weekend at their location of their choice, and then Monday comes back around, and then they take the uniform off. They put their normal day-to-day civilian attire, professional attire back on. They do those positions, and then when their occupation or that duty day or that responsibility is done, they jump online and they play games just like the rest of us.
Dahle: Have you seen this make a positive impact with those individuals that are participating in the program?
Price: Yeah. I think that's one of the systemic issues that I'm facing right now is trying to do my best in correlating and finding whether or not it's a correlation or causation in the program in our retention and strength of our units. The Wisconsin Army National Guard soldiers retention and strength—people wanting to stay in our organization longer and make it a career, a part-time career—has been going up, and from my professional position, I think it's because we're preparing and creating more opportunities for these soldiers to be more involved.
I'm confident in saying doing things and creating an environment like esports and getting our soldiers involved and doing the things that they love. I think that is making it a lot easier for people to stay in longer. Our direct state leadership, they see something like esports and they go, "Hey, it's allowing our soldiers to feel more part of a family and a team.” It's growing. They're giving us more resources to do more cool things. Hopefully that answered your question.
Dahle: I think so because now I have another question based off of that. Number one, how long does the average member serve, and then is this then an opportunity for them to stay connected to the service even after they choose to not reenlist?
Price: Sure. Those that started in high school or in college, they have an opportunity to join the service, the part-time service that I like to say, extremely part-time service, the two days a month. They could do that for three years or they could do it up to six years for their first contract. Let's say you do, I'll just as an example, you do three years and then all of a sudden at the end of the three years you're like I got my college paid for. I like the community. I like doing the esports. I like doing my position but I'm off to bigger and better things. They could essentially be done with service but that doesn't stop them from being involved. Our prior service people, people who have retired or got out of the organization, they still stay in those communities. For example, they still are in the chats. They're in the Discord channels. They're still participating.
"I didn't pay a dime for my undergraduate degree so I had no debt, no expenses. The Guard paid for everything for my part-time service."
Dahle: Nice. One thing that I like to hear is, beyond the four years of participation in high school or three years in the Guard, that this is then a community that will keep people involved together, and I think that's something that is really needed moving forward is just that sense of community and belongingness, and so that's, I think that's a really good, I hate to say selling point, but participating in these things is beneficial.
The other thing that you mentioned there too is college paid for, so can you shine us a little light then as far as the scholarships or financial support or benefits from participating in the Guard’s program too?
Price: Sure. I like to use myself as an example because a lot of times if you talk in figurative situations it's really hard to understand. I joined in 2013, and I joined as a sophomore and I was a double major in, like I said, marketing and economics. I'm from La Crosse. I went to school in La Crosse. I didn't pay a dime for my undergraduate degree so I had no debt, no expenses. The Guard paid for everything for my part-time service, and then if I wanted to go back online or go get a master's degree right now, I actually have benefits to do that, too.
If I wanted to go get a master's degree, I could do that. I'd essentially get eight years worth of scholarship and grants, and then after my service, if my kids want to go to a public institution in Wisconsin, there's statutes out there that allow them, depending on my status, to also go to school for free.
Dahle: That is a very big benefit. As students are looking to participate I assume then most of them would be participating in a remote setting not necessarily on the base there because obviously you have your job to do when you're on site. Does the Guard then help procure any sort of equipment for them? If they're looking to do broadcasting and streaming at home, is there any sort of support in order to help get some of that tougher equipment?
"I got back online and just getting back into playing games and talking to these guys and just realizing how almost depressed I was. And it really saved my mental wellness."
Price: We have channels. Just to answer your question, it is all virtual. It is all remote, but we have channels for resources. For example, there are websites that service members specifically get that get deals through Best Buy or whatever it may be to acquire technology and equipments, so whenever there's a deal or there's a discount, veterans discount or whatever it may be, or if there are recommendations that need to happen, we have IT professionals up and down our organization, so we provide recommendations, examples on how to get it, and deals to get such things.
Dahle: Do you help troubleshoot internet problems? [laughter]
Price: We do. Yeah, we do. Yep. There's, it goes as far as, for example, we've got people who are in the community, one of them is a commander of the cyber unit and he actually works for Amazon, an executive in cyber, so we can't really get any better as far as people who can recommend how to get through things. It's funny when we offer problems or we put in problems there, it's funny because, well, it's like your friends, they poke fun at you and they're like, "Anyways, this is how you fix that." [laughter]
Dahle: That network of resources is very vast is what I'm hearing there.
Price: Yeah. It's like you always hear it’s not what you know, it's who you know, and sometimes that's even better with us.
Dahle: You did talk too about national competition earlier too or those that compete at the national level. Can you give us a little insight as to what games that they're competing in at the national level or if there's a league or something that they participate in?
Price: Sure. I'm not up to date as much as I once was. My job has gotten excessively more difficult and complex. I don't want to sugarcoat it and give you all bad information. I know right now the last I know it was there was a racing platform that one of our representatives, he was actually in the one so up in the northern part of Wisconsin, like towards the Eau Claire area, one of those representatives, one of our soldiers, was competing in Call of Duty and then one of them was in the racing platform, but there's a plethora of different games and if anybody's ever curious they certainly can reach out and I can do my due diligence and answer any questions that anybody has.
Dahle: I think the racing sim, I'm starting to see a little bit more of the competition come up with that one as well, and then drone racing has been something that's kind of been a growing hot topic, I'll say, as far as participation within schools, too. I've heard it's relatively easy to get your Part 107 Certification, too, so that's just what I hear.
We kind of briefly talked about community participation, but I guess do you have any core memories from being involved in this community, that you've seen success come from or something that you look back on and that was a really cool thing to be a part of?
Price: Are you talking about service or specifically with esports?
Dahle: Let's say yes. Let's say during your time in uniform and then also during your time involved with esports.
Price: I love my job. I think that's something that I always like to use and say because it's important. The passion that I have as a professional is second to none behind video games which is crazy to say, so I can talk about both so easily. I used to play a lot of Apex and I got to this point where when you don't have that video game, that new game or whatever it is, that obsession where you just race to get home even when you're in high school you race to get home to get online to play the game, and there was a point where I was dealing with a little bit of stress, a little bit of anxiety and things like that and it was dark during COVID right, and it was dark for a lot of us.
There was a portion of the community in our Apex Legends channel on Discord that there's these gentlemen that basically are poking the bear. We’re very competitive, naturally, in service as National Guard soldiers, and they were saying, “you don't still got it, you just don't still have it,” and they kind of reeled me back into this competitive nature just online and doing the ranking systems and things like that, and I remember just kind of like, it was almost peer pressure, but got back online after some time during COVID because I was so obsessed with being a sole provider in a family, and I got back online and just getting back into playing games and talking to these guys and just realizing how almost depressed I was, and it really saved my mental wellness.
I think I wouldn't have been able to get out of it as fast and as efficiently if I didn't have some brothers in arms to play games with me, which is crazy to say, so from a gaming standpoint, I can just think of my own example, but as far as professionally, there's nothing better in this world than when I was a recruiter, honestly, because you have people who are so close to dropping out of school, going through quarter life crises, literally getting emotional in your office, when life hits them in the face and being like, “I don't know what I'm going to. I had this plan and nothing's going to plan,” and then finally talking to these folks and not trying to sell them, not trying to aggressively recruit them, but just give them information or resources that they didn't know about, and I assessed almost 100 people into our organization and joined the Guard and may have saved or given them a path to have financial freedom and get to the career that they want to get to. Just basically help facilitate their goals and aspirations.
I'm confident saying they might not have been able to do that without our service, and I might be completely wrong, but the moment when that anxiety turned to reprieve and seeing them graduate and do all the things that they wanted to do, but doing that at a level at 80 different opportunities, being able to provide and help 80 different people every single time was amazing and a core memory for me. Honestly.
Dahle: I can respect that change having worked 10 years in education, watching the developmental process and all of a sudden, them getting to the point to where you're like, “you don't need me anymore.
You're on your own and I'm proud of you for getting to this point.”
I can very much respect that perspective there.
To close us out here then today, I think this is a good opportunity to base off this last conversation is what advice do you have for our high school juniors and seniors that are starting to look to the future? Whether it's in esports or just kind of in general. What advice would you recommend to them?
Price: This is a blanket response, but don't miss an opportunity. Try absolutely everything. Your time is valuable. Use it efficiently and effectively. You might try a hundred things and 99 of them don't work out, but you found one thing you never knew about and it changes your life.
Dahle: You don't know what you don't know until you try it. I think that's a perfect piece of advice, Sean. I would like to thank you again for taking some time today to chat with us just about what your role is in the Guard and the way that esports also helps our members of service. Sean, thank you again for your time today. I greatly appreciate it.
Price: Yeah, thanks for having me, but then also just a quick plug, if you ever want to get in contact with us, you can go to nationalguard.com/wisconsin. You can find us on social media as well on Instagram. It's WI_guard and then on Facebook at Wisconsin Army National Guard.
Dahle: And I will make sure that that is all available in the YouTube description as soon as this episode is done as well too. Sean, thank you very much. Have a great day.
Price: Thanks.
