Everything You Need to Know About Ncpa Paintball
The Drexel Paintball team is back and gear up for action after a four-year hiatus.
The Drexel Paintball team is in the midst of a improvement.
Twenty years ago, the Drexel Paintball team, a lodge sport at the University, was founded as one of the earliest college paintball clubs in the country. In fact, Drexel'due south order was a founding member of the National Collegiate Paintball Clan (NCPA), which governs college paintball.
In 2010, Drexel'south squad had an amazing season, and won the NCPA Championship and was fifty-fifty featured on "Flim-flam College Sports." Simply shortly after, there were issues, namely administrative ones and, every bit 1 can look, members slowly started graduating.
Last Jan, the squad started the 2d chapter of its two-decade history. The team gained re-recognition, and played every result in the regular season, earning several podium finishes and a place in the final eight of l teams who participated in the college championship tournament. This year, the goal was to gain more players and move up in the ranks in the Northeast Intercollegiate Conference (NEIC) of the NPCA to further solidify the team's improvement story.
"Paintball is definitely one of the most intense sports you lot can play," said Anthony Varenas, the club's president and an undergrad studying psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. "Information technology's loud, it'due south dingy (we've played in the snowfall, mud and fifty-fifty torrential rainfall), there'southward a lot of yelling beyond the field, and plays happen during separate-second windows of opportunity."
The best way to describe the sport, he said, is similar an intense combination of dodgeball and capture the flag — just non the elementary school, gym-course versions. And, the squad members are not "creeping around out in the woods in camouflage," Varenas says — Drexel's team is not to exist dislocated with the more widely-known type of paintball, woodsball, which is played in a wooded outdoor infinite.
Instead, the team plays speedball, which ways the games take identify on a netted l-thou field, with inflatable air bunkers placed in a specific layout that's mirrored on both sides. Each team plays five players who start on opposite sides of the field then sprint, dive and take cover to eliminate opposing players past hitting them with a paintball, a gelatin capsule filled with h2o- or oil-based paint. The goal is to capture the flag at the center of the field and hang it at the opposing team'south start box.
Oh, and 1 more thing.
"Every bit much equally competitive paintball is about eliminating the other squad and hanging the flag, there is also a manner element to the game," said head coach Michael Zapantis, who played on the 2010 Title squad and graduated that year. "Everyone tries to be unique and have their own style when it comes down to wearing headgear, matching or non-matching equipment colors, jersey or pant designs and cleats. Players will get great lengths to stand out, on and off the field."
The squad's flashy uniforms are also accompanied by a paintball marking (or gun) setup, pods of paintballs for reloading, and, virtually importantly, a mask and goggles. The players must have measures to protect themselves from paintballs, which can travel upwards to 300 feet per 2nd.
"A person is non fifty-fifty allowed on the field without a mask," said Varenas. "Condom is taken very seriously and enforced by numerous referees on the field whose responsibility is to ensure players are safe and the games are adequately played."
Fortunately, interested students don't need to take the equipment or skillset to bring together, said squad captain Luigi Cervantes, an undergraduate educatee in the LeBow College of Business.
"We desire players who tin can be committed to attending practices and team workouts to better and play tournaments," Cervantes said.
Practices are on Sundays, at the Playground Paintball Park in Mantua, N.J., Drexel's home field. The team runs drills on shooting and target obstruction courses, and even plays against other local teams or schools, including Temple University, Rowan Academy, Rutgers University and Penn Land University.
Currently, the team plays in Class AA of the NEIC, playing against other schools in a bracketed tournament format. They promise to move on to Form A next season, which promotes a higher level of play and the opportunity to play more competitive schools in a faster-paced format. To become at that place, though, the team will need more funds and more than players, for substitutions.
As ane of the splashiest and colorful club sports programs on campus, Drexel Paintball is also ane of the most familial.
Terminal season, for the 2014 National Collegiate Championships in Florida, the team decided to bulldoze a rented RV downward the East Coast, since it was cheaper than airfare and included sleeping arrangements.
"Everyone was digging our RV when we rolled up to the field," said Orlando Lam, a 2014 graduate and one of three alumni who coaches the team.
Several of the players too play on a local team with alumni when the college season finishes in April (college paintball flavour runs from September to April). Zapantis and Orlando Lam autobus the team with Jon Cuccinello, as well a 2014 grad.
"In that location is a camaraderie involved in the squad," Zapantis said. "Nosotros try to make sure everyone is having fun."
For anyone interested in joining or learning more well-nigh the team, contact Anthony Varenas at drexelpaintballclub@gmail.com.
Source: https://drexel.edu/news/archive/2014/october/drexel-paintball
0 Response to "Everything You Need to Know About Ncpa Paintball"
Post a Comment