This year, there is only one sporting team on campus that has the bragging rights to say they are playing for a national championship – the paintball team. They will travel to Lakeland, Fla., this weekend to compete in the National Collegiate Paintball Championship.The championship isn’t unfamiliar territory for the team. Last year they went into the nationals ranked No. 2 in the nation. However they were unable to win the championship and finished 12th out of 77 teams. President of the paintball club, Gary Wills, said while the loss hurt it better prepared them for coming back stronger this year. “In last year’s event we lost a couple of games in the preliminaries and I think it got to us when we went into the finals,” Wills said. “It broke our momentum. This time we really know what to expect, and I think if we drop a game or two, it won’t get stuck in our heads.”

Wills is a sophomore at ETSU, and he enjoys the break from class work that playing paintball gives him. “I started playing when I was a freshman in high school,” he said. “I played the first time and fell in love with it. It’s the one escape from reality, when the guys on the team get together, and just forget about everything else.”

Currently the team is ranked ninth out of 100 teams. The ETSU paintball team is composed of all students and is considered a sporting club here at the university. It was founded in 2007, and the guys on the team really enjoy being able to say that they participate on behalf of ETSU. “The school supporting us is the only reason we have been as successful as we have,” Wills said. “If it wasn’t for the school backing us, we wouldn’t be able to compete at the level we do. Plus it’s really cool to be able to say that we play for the school, people remember that. It’s something that will stick with us for the rest of our lives.”

For more information about the ETSU paintball team visit their Web site at etsupaintball.bravehost.com.

Author