NCPA

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The 7th annual Xbox 360™ College Paintball National Championships presented by JT USA is once again headed to prime time television. Highlights of the event will be broadcast on Wednesday, May 3 at 9 pm ET on CSTV: College Sports Television, as part of the weeklong CSTV Collegiate Nationals programming. The CSTV Collegiate Nationals is a collection of college championship events showcasing more than 1,000 athletes from more than 60 colleges that took place in Reno, NV April 21-23. Seven sports are included in the inaugural CSTV Collegiate Nationals - boxing, snowboarding, beach volleyball, triathlon, paintball, wakeboarding and whitewater kayaking. Viewers can also catch the complete paintball finals match on CSTV later this summer.

Paintball has found a stronghold on college campuses in the last several years, thanks to the emergence of the National Collegiate Paintball Association. 65 different colleges from across the country competed in 30 events, all leading up to the National Championships held at the Xdrenalin Zone Paintball Park near Dallas, TX on April 7th, 8th and 9th.
In the Class A finals, the University of Connecticut Huskies blasted defending champion Illinois in a thrilling overtime championship match on April 9 to claim the national title. Tristan Heinmiller helped his University of Connecticut paintball team take the win, but he hardly has time to celebrate. "I know some of the guys have gone out a bunch and lived it up, but I haven't had time," he says. "It's my last two weeks of school, so I've gotta crack down and get a couple of senior projects done."

Heinmiller played a role in getting the Connecticut club team off the ground three years ago. But he admits the team was fortunate to receive significant funding as a student organization from the school. In fact, the 2005-2006 school year, the UConn team received a cool $35,000.
"That's one thing: To be good at paintball, you need money," Heinmiller says. "That's one college kids don't have, so it can be hard. It's only with the support of our school that we've done so well. And we have a local field about five minutes away from campus and we go down there every weekend and practiced our asses off."

The Huskies' commitment to the game and the support from the school paid off. UConn blasted Grand Valley State and Maryland by a combined scored of 21-7 in the preliminary rounds.

In the championship fray, Illinois — which has won five out of the last seven national championships — jumped to a 4-0 lead over UConn. But led by Heinmiller and fellow senior Matt Brierton, the Huskies rallied back to tie the game before eventually winning in overtime. Other key contributors on the UConn squad included Steve Potter, Tony Costa and Brian Richards.
"We watched Illinois play in their semifinal game and we were blown away at how good they were for a college team," Heinmiller said. "I was really impressed with their play. We wanted to win, but we knew it was going to be really hard to beat them."

In Class AA play, NCPA newcomer University of California-Irvine advanced two teams to the semifinal round, earning a 1st and 3rd place finish over veteran teams Kansas State University in 2nd place and Ohio State University in 4th. The Anteaters 1st place finish crowned a season of consistently impressive play, narrowly edging out UConn to capture the team a Season Championship title as well. UCI’s performance marks the first time a team outside of the Midwest and Northeast conferences has won a National or Season Championship title.

The National Collegiate Paintball Association is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization created by college players to promote paintball at the interscholastic level. The NCPA and its member clubs organize recruitment drives, informational meetings, recreational club outings, scenario and big games, charity events, intrascholastic events for other university organizations, and of course the national intercollegiate tournament league. NCPA members play a vital role in presenting paintball to the public in a positive manner through various volunteer and legislative efforts. For more information about the NCPA, visit www.ncpapaintball.com.