Club Paintball Goes Hunting

By Ryan Reed

For those who want to shoot guns, but would rather do so for fun and without the possibility of death, the university is home to a club paintball team. Although not widely talked about, the paintball team at Santa Clara competes nationally in the National Collegiate Paintball Association.

This past weekend the Santa Clara team brought six of its members to Lakeland, Fla. for the NCPA National Championships. On Saturday, the Broncos went 3-1 against Clemson University, University of Wisconsin-Stout, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Northeastern University. Santa Clara's run ended at the hands of the University of North Texas on Sunday, but the team's performance was good enough to place 18th out of the field of 48.

"Considering three of our six players have never played a national event before we are pretty satisfied with our result," said freshman Derek Eng. "Next year we are looking to do even better. Only one of our players is graduating, leaving us with a strong core."

Paintball is a sport in which players compete to eliminate opposing teams or individuals by shooting them with non-lethal paintballs from a specialized paintball gun. Research published by the Minnesota Paintball Association shows that paintball is one of the statistically safest sports, with only 20 injuries per 100,000 players annually.

The Broncos are currently ranked No. 48 in the nation in Class AA, ahead of larger schools such as Florida State University and the University of Michigan. The team's ranking is based upon performance in both local and national tournaments. In Class AA, these tournaments consist of teams of five players competing against other college teams during five-minute rounds. Besides competing nationally, Santa Clara also maintains membership in local leagues such as the NorCal Paintball Series and the West Coast Paintball Players League.

The Santa Clara club team is almost entirely funded by its own players, which differs from many larger universities. This financial aspect of the team has hindered the Broncos' ability to participate in tournaments this year.

"Our biggest issue is finances and our number of players," said Eng. "Other college teams that we competed against this weekend receive tons of funding from the school. As a self-funded club, we do a lot of fundraising. Because we cannot afford to play many other tournaments we end up practicing almost every Sunday."

Santa Clara has only competed in one other local tournament this year. But there are alternative playing options for a few of the club's members.

"Some of the players as well as our coach Eugene Bowers play with semi-pro and DII paintball teams that play national events," said Alex Mulcahy. "Oftentimes players will be practicing for those tournaments as well as practicing with the Santa Clara team."

With only one senior graduating this spring, the team is optimistic about the future of the program following this weekend's performance.

"Our goal for this tournament was to get our feet wet and see what we needed to do next year in order to bring the cup home in 2013," said Mulcahy." Above all we made a name for (Santa Clara) in the paintball scene."

Contact Ryan Reed at rareed@scu.edu.