By Mike Mitchell

So you want to go to college, but you’re thinking about starting a lucrative professional paintball career someday, too. How can you do both? Easy. Just join the National Collegiate Paintball Association.

According to the NCPA’s Web-site (www.college-paintball.com), ‘The National Collegiate Paintball Association is an incorporated, non-profit organization comprised of college paintball clubs and teams across the country. The NCPA facilitates the creation and growth of college and high school paintball activity and national coordination amongst college and high school clubs and teams. These clubs and teams work in concert with the national organization to create and develop new athletes for the sport of paintball.’

Not surprisingly, The United States Military Academy (West Point), was the first college to start a paintball club in 1986, and less than 10 years later in 1994 the first inter-collegiate competition was held at Sherwood Forest in LaPorte, Indiana. Schools participating included: Purdue University, West Virginia University, Carnegie Melon University, the University of Michigan, Washington University and Wright College in Chicago. First Place went to the University of Michigan.

The NCPA, since its founding by current NCPA President Chris Raehl in the summer of 2000, developed into a very solid organization that now offers college and high school paintball enthusiasts all kinds of resources to help them get into organized competition. From gear and field-use discounts to free online registration setup for tournaments, the NCPA has it all covered. They’ll even help you organize events and get school administrators to see the big picture.

The NCPA even has a Wikipedia page, which explains, ‘The NCPA consists of two distinct classes which competes separately across the United States. Class AA is an open-class division where any college may enter and compete in regional and national tournaments. On the other hand, Class A is a closed-class division where only certain colleges may compete after securing a bid in the previous season. Class A represents the best talent of college paintball and includes universities such as: Drexel University, University of Maryland, Illinois State University, Purdue University, University of Connecticut, Penn State University, plus 10 other teams across three conferences all fighting for a national title.’

Also, the NCPA Web-site proudly boasts that the national college tournament run by NCPA has been covered on Fox College Sports for five years running. The NCPA National Championships for 2009 will air through the end of July and into late August with the last airing date scheduled for August 28. Airings will take place on various occasions, and the full TV schedule is listed on the home page of the NCPA’s Web-site. This year’s tournament took place on April 17-19, 2009 at Central Florida Paintball in Lakeland, Florida.

There are 458 total college clubs listed as NCPA participants. All clubs receive access to the NCPA benefits package, and being an NCPA club is completely free. All you have to do is fill out an entry form on the same page you will find the list of colleges who already have clubs: http://www.college-paintball.com/college/club_list.html (look at the very bottom of the page).

So, while it might be tough to get yourself a full college paintball scholarship, it’s totally possible to keep playing paintball all through your college years thanks to the folks at the NCPA.

About the Author: Mike regularly writes for ProlificPaintball.com, they carry such paintball equipment as the

Empire Invert Mini

and the

Paintball CO2 Tanks

, as well as many other items from a variety of manufacturers.

Source:

isnare.com

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