Kingsville - Texas A&M-Kingsville has announced the hiring of Tony Kramer as the department's first Esports coach, Javelina Athletics announced on Thursday.

Texas A&M-Kingsville announced Esports as the newest varsity program in August of this year and have hired Coach Kramer to be the inaugural coach for said program. Javelina Esports will begin competition in the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) in Spring 2027. The program will compete across a variety of competitive titles, providing students with opportunities to compete at the collegiate level while establishing Javelina Esports as a leading esports program in the South Texas region.

""I'm incredibly excited to join TAMUK and have the opportunity to help build the future of Javelina Esports," said Kramer. "I'm looking forward to working alongside our students and the university community to continue developing the program into something special. I want Javelina Esports to be a place where students can compete at a high level, but also somewhere they can find a community, develop as leaders, and turn their passion for esports into skills and experiences that will stay with them long after graduation."

Kramer joins Texas A&M-Kingsville after spending over 17 years involved in the collegiate and professional esports scene, most recently spending the previous two years at the University of South Florida as a coach of the Bulls Esports program. Prior to joining USF, Kramer was the Team Manager for the New York Excelsior (NYXL) in the professional Overwatch League during the 2023 season.

Before joining NYXL, Kramer spent seven years in South Korea as an educator and ingratiating himself with the professional esports scene abroad. Kramer began his esports journey at Eastern Carolina University, founding the university's esports program in 2010. During his time at ECU, he organized and hosted Local Area Network (LAN) events and helped build one of the state's largest gaming communities, growing the organization from just 8 members to 1,254 by the time he graduated in 2014

"My goal is to establish TAMUK as the premier destination for collegiate esports in South Texas and to build a program that our players, students, alumni, and the entire Javelina community can be proud of," said Kramer. "There is a tremendous amount of potential here, and I'm excited to get to Kingsville, meet our students, and get to work."

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