Aquinas College is pleased to announce the hiring of Riley Long as the school's second esports head coach, announced by AQ on Monday afternoon (Oct. 4). Aquinas added esports as a varsity sport on Feb. 21, 2019 and in that time, the program has a record of 122-106-3 while competing in games such as League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, and Super Smash Bros., in the first two seasons.
Long comes to AQ from his most recent position at Michigan Tech University, where he served as the Assistant Director of Esports. While at MTU, Long served as the head of recruitment, marketing, and media for a program that was the first public school esports program in the state of Michigan. He also helped guide the Counterstrike: Global Offensive team to the National Association of Esports National Championship in the spring of 2020.
In addition to Counterstrike: Global Offensive, Michigan Tech fields a competitive esports team in League of Legends, Overwatch, and Rocket League. Aquinas is currently competing in the WHAC for its inaugural season of esports as an official sport along with NACE and the NECC, the National Esports Collegiate Conference.
"We couldn't be more thrilled to have Riley joining the AQ community," mentioned AQ Associate Athletic Director of Internal Operations, Logan Weis. "His knowledge and passion for esports is at such a high level that we believe he will continue to the success our esports program has already had in such a short period of time. I want to thank Claudette Charney, Duane Ambrose, and Austin Hicks for their work with the search committee."
Along with his prior experiences at Michigan Tech, Long is currently the President, COO, and Co-Founder of Armada Esports, which is his own company that came into existence in the summer of 2017. There he oversees a staff of over 50 people plus professional esport athletes and streamers, while also scouting and recruiting for prospective players/teams in Call of Duty, Counterstrike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, Gears of War, Paladins, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, Smash Bros. Ultimate, and SMITE. He also has experience securing and managing sponsorships, while executing creative brand activations with companies such as GFUEL, Patriot, and Esports Arena.
"I feel very honored to be selected to lead the Aquinas esports program," Long explained. "As the new head coach of esports, I am dedicated to providing our student athletes with a positive, well balanced experience, as we strive to solidify Aquinas esports as a nationally competitive program in all of our game titles."
To go along with the National Championship from Michigan Tech, Long's Armada Esports won the Frostbite Smash Ultimate Crew Battle World Championship in the spring 2020, had four Smash Ultimate players ranked in the global top 50 in the winter of 2019, and had the number one North American franchise in the SMITE Minor League from the fall of 2018 to the spring of 2020. Long also was a Semi-Professional Competitive Call of Duty Player himself from the fall of 2012 to the spring of 2014.
Graduating from Michigan Tech in the spring of 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering, Long will follow in the footsteps of the first Aquinas esports coach in program history Adam Antor, who recently accepted a job with Florida Southern to head up its esports program at the NCAA DII level.
