The World Wide Web is an almost infinite source of resource material and a great wealth of knowledge. Lately during my travels on the internet and especially in interacting with different people and organizations there have been some great learning experiences to be had. Enter Cody Larson, Founder and President of the University of South Florida College Paintball team www.usfpaintball.com.
Through some of the work with the World Paintball Union, there were a few matters of fact that were brought forward through some research. In short one of the best ways to have government recognize paintball and legitimize the game is to have it introduced into the school system as an actively played sport..hats off to you Cody!
It was Cody’s little brothers that were the ones responsible for getting him into paintball. It was the NPPL in Tampa 2006 that served as his first ever paintball tournament. Cody went to support his brother Isaac as he played on a D3 team, Deadly Venoms. Following the event, Cody was instantly hooked and wanted more.
When it comes to paintball, Cody is a real mover and shaker on and off the field. 
After being bit by the paintball bug in 2006 he decided that The University of South Florida needed a team so he went to work and started the team in 2007. Today they have 2 teams playing in the CFPS, D4 and D5 team which can be found by visiting the CFPS Website. To date both teams have an excellent record for having been established for such a short time. The D4 team played D5 in its first event at CFPS 2 and finished 5th with an 8-1 record for the day. D5 then bumped to D4 and finished 4th in CFPS 3, D4 team just finished 3rd at CFPS 5. The D5 team finished a disappointing 22nd in the first event at CFPS 3, finished 3rd at CFPS 4. D4 ranked 6th (and lost points in bumping up) and D5 is ranked 15th. The club has an impressive 170+ registered members which include both Scenario and Tournament teams. The Club also includes players from Fierce (Damage’s feeder team) and The New Jersey Jesters. The team will compete next in CFPS 6 followed by the CFPS Florida Cup and World Cup.
The USF team is currently sponsored by Tampa Sports Photography, GoggedPB.com, Social Paintball, Pinokio Hoppers, Paintballers Inc, Paintball X3 Magazine and Central Florida Paintball. Right now the team receives very little funding from the University and is currently seeking additional sponsorship.
Cody’s lists of accomplishments that compliment the sport of paintball are growing daily. Having started Tampa Sports Photography with his father Tim, one year prior, he jumped into the paintball photography portion of the company to photograph the World Cup for Paintball for 2Xremes Magazine later that year. Tim and Cody Larson both work for Paintball X3 Magazine now with Tim being Director of Photography. They shoot all of the PSP events around the country and the CFPS events in Florida.
Does this seem busy enough?…well I am not quite done just yet. To add to all the other impressive feats and accomplishments add the titles of “Director of 
Internet Marketing and Photographer for Paintball X3 Magazine” X3 Paintball Magazine, “Vice President of Marketing and Photographer” for Tampa Sports Photography Tampa Sports Photography Founder and President of the University of South Florida College Paintball team. Brother of the Sigma Chi Fraternity at USF. Mr. Larson is also responsible for founding an Interactive Marketing Firm called Key To Rank Marketing focusing on growing small and medium sized businesses including Paintball Fields and Paintball Leagues. Last but not least he has just launched his own conservative blog with a talk radio show going live soon called the CodyLarsonshow.com.
It is through the active involvement of individuals such as Cody Larson that we need to worry less about paintball and its survival in the marketplace and more about what we as individuals can do in our own regions and corners of the world. Take Cody Larson as an example and find your own niche its there and its just waiting for you to get to work.
You can interact with Cody Larson by adding him to Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin as follows
www.linkedin.com/in/codylarson
