LAKELAND (March 17, 2021) – Florida Southern College has named Elliott “Hayes” Hayes as the new head coach for the Overwatch esports team.

The Mocs Overwatch team recently finished their first week with their new head coach with two victories in the Spring 2021 Overwatch Collegiate Championship tournament. Hayes has been coaching Overwatch professionally since the game’s release in 2016. For two years, he served as the head coach for the Philadelphia Fusion, an official esports team in the Overwatch League, helping the team secure its second-place finish in the 2018 Grand Finals. For three consecutive years, Hayes has been nominated to coach the United Kingdom’s team for the Overwatch World Cup.

“I’m looking forward to joining FSC and getting myself involved within the collegiate scene,” said Hayes. “My hope is, through my experience, to educate and build players through winning habits and mindsets that allow them to develop skills that will help them move into higher levels of competition.”

Hayes is the second industry professional to join the Mocs Esports program as a head coach, after the Florida Southern League of Legends team welcomed Jiajun “Austin” YuGate as their new coach in February.

“Hayes is another great addition to our program,” said Drew Howard, Florida Southern’s director of athletics and dean of wellness. “He’s been at the forefront of competitive Overwatch since the game’s release. His knowledge from his time in the official esports league for this game is invaluable, and our players are going to benefit greatly from their time with him.”

About Florida Southern College

Founded in 1883, Florida Southern College is the oldest private college in the state. It maintains its commitment to academic excellence through 70+ undergraduate programs and distinctive graduate programs in business administration, education, nursing, and physical therapy. Florida Southern has a 14:1 student-to-faculty ratio; is an award-winning national leader in engaged learning; and boasts 30 NCAA Division II national championships.

It is ranked among the top 10 Regional Universities in the South by U.S. News & World Report in its 2021 “Best Colleges” guide, and is included in The Princeton Review’s 2021 “386 Best Colleges” guide, the “Fiske Guide to Colleges 2021,” and Forbes magazine’s “America’s Top Colleges.”

Home to the world’s largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, FSC was twice named “Most Beautiful Campus in the Nation” by The Princeton Review, and one of the nation’s “Ten College Campuses with the Best Architecture” by Architectural Digest. Connect with Florida Southern College.