Reyes Finds Fulfillment in Assistant Coaching Role
Esports Assistant Coach Ivan Reyes joined the team on a whim in Fall 2025 and has seen both himself and the program grow since then.
BENTONVILLE - In the modern age of collegiate athletics, it's commonplace for coaches to move across the country or even the world for a new coaching gig.
For first-year assistant Esports coach Ivan Reyes, however, it was a matter of moving across the hall. Originally from Little Rock, Reyes made the move up to Northwest Arkansas for a gig at Tyson before arriving in Bentonville.
After joining NWACC in summer 2025 as an Information Technology Support Specialist, Reyes was called into the Esports lab for what seemed like a simple computer fix.
"[Head coach Carlos] Merino had come to us with a laptop that he wanted working with League of Legends," Reyes said. "I ended up finding a workaround to get it working, and he was so impressed that he invited me to join the team, and I accepted."
Reyes had no previous experience in Esports and has never previously held a collegiate coaching gig, but he has leaned into his own love of gaming thus far in the process.
"I'm just an avid gamer," Reyes said. "I've never done esports before. I'm totally new to it, it's very interesting [and] I am learning as my team does."
He and his team are learning quickly, having accrued NWACC's first national championship in school history in Spring 2025 before Reyes' arrival and a deep run into the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 1v1 National Finals in the fall via Mauricio Pernudi Jr.
In terms of Reyes' motivations to continue with the program despite his inexperience, it all comes down to passing along a new way of thinking about gaming for the next generation.
"Let's be real--I'm the old man here," Reyes said. "I grew up with video games in a generation where people told their kids nothing would ever come from digital media. To see something like this grow to the level that it is [at], it's fascinating to me. I want to see how far we can take everybody, myself and the team."
The Spring 2026 Esports campaign will feature eight titles with nearly 20 athletes across the three tiers of NJCAAE competition. Schedules are actively being updated and released on @NWACCEsports and NWACCEagles.com, and the regular season begins in mid-February across all titles.
