Welcome President and Team Captain for the Northern Michigan University Paintball Team in Part II of our feature article with the team and its various aspects of interest. Why did The Catshack Reports look up this team to feature on our site? What caught our interest was the comments made in the student newspaper about working to have the sport of paintball recognized by the University. If successful this endeavor lends to legitimizing paintball as per a previous article we did with Cody Larson.
In the article there is also mention of being a full competition team, does this encompass both the speedball and woodsball groups and which events have the teams competed in to date and how has the teams fared competitively speaking?
The competitive tournament team only encompasses speedball and is registered within the NCPA. Currently we are listed as a AA team because we have yet to be able to compete at an NCPA event. Because of where we are located we haven’t been able to travel to any tournaments as of yet the nearest one to date this year has been a 10 hour drive from campus. We wanted to go to the U of M open this year but when the event was finally posted as being hosted in Ohio we could not afford the trip. Money became an issue again recently when we tried to budget a tournament coming up in the Twin Cities on the 6th. This is why we want help from the university and hope to find more sponsors. As a team I feel confident that we would be very competitive at any tournament. We have practiced with semi pro players along with players from Michigan Tech and done well. If we can make it out of the break without loosing anyone we have a really good chance of winning the point.
In a quote from the North Wind Online …. Vice president and co-captain Brian St. Amour, a junior business computer information systems major, agrees that paintball has this false impression and negative connotations associated with it. The club is taking action to change minds.
“We’re trying to get a presentation together to show people what it’s really like and make the decision [to become an official sport] and not the misconception that it’s just shooting,” St. Amour said.
What all is currently involved in your efforts to have the University recognize paintball and the team itself? What all is involved in your presentation and knowing the different individuals forming the decision makers for NMU, do you foresee success with this endeavor at this point ? Is the entire process for the right designation a “long road”? … what does it take to have a University Team recognized and endorsed by the University itself?
Currently we have been doing little things around campus to get peoples attention. We have served concessions at our “Campus Cinema” and had tables set up on campus were people can come and ask any questions people have. Once we start talking to them and explain exactly what paintball is and they quickly get excited about the sport. We have also been working on a power point to present to NMU and show what paintball really is and clear up any misconceptions people may have about the sport. I think we have a good chance of changing views of the sport within NMU if we approach this as what we can do to benefit the university after we explain what our sport is exactly. We defiantly have a long road ahead of us at this point. But with the sponsorship from the ROTC I hope that the university will be more willing to reconsider their view of us.
The university has an entire club sports manual that we would have to follow. Basically we have to prove the organization of the sport, that we can find a coach and that the university would benefit from supporting the sport of paintball.
What is of the most importance to the NMU Paintball team as far as the team is concerned as a whole and what is your vision for the future of the team?
Personally I want to see the team compete at the A level in the Midwest 
Conference and make a run for the national championships. I can see this team becoming a powerhouse with serious recruiting power. We already have to players coming in with PSP and Millennium experience. And once we start competing full time and get our own practice field we will be able to bring in even more players to our organization.
In another article with the head of the College Paintball Team at Florida State, I mentioned that the very best way to have paintball officially recognized by governments as a legitimate sport is to have it introduced and played throughout the school systems….would you agree and might this be a part of the team mandate?
Yes, as with any sport that you see in the college system there is a “feeder system” that supports the need for new players to fill spots left by players who graduated. Even though the NCPA does have a High School division there are not many schools that actually support the teams. I tried starting a team at my high school but was shot down right away because of the misconceptions that there are about the sport. If younger teams were more widely established within an organizing league and the basic misconceptions were addressed, it would be much easier to work with universities when it comes to supporting our sport. But as with any new program or organization, there is going to be some rough times until you are able to find your footing.
Whats on the books for the NMU Team in 2010?
For 2010 we are looking to compete in our first tournaments and hopefully be able to get some new sponsors now that we have the support of the ROTC. We will be doing a lot of fundraising to help purchase a new field. We also have several players that plan on participating in tournaments over the summer to get the team more exposure and a few of us have talked about going to the Chicago Open. As long as we are having fun and enjoying the sport we love I don’t see how this organization can go anywhere but up.
Tomcat,
I would also like to ad that we are still looking for sponsors of all kinds to help us out. Unlike some teams we are always willing to work with sponsors to build relationships between us. We just signed with Bomswabs to supply us with barrel swabs for our team. We are not looking for handouts; we want to build our organization around the mutual benefit between our sponsors and our organization.
We are also always looking for new players to join our organization as we grow. Our web site has a player interest form for new and interested players to fill out.
Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to interview me. I am really hoping that as our organization grows we will be able to grow the sport in our community as well. I can only see this organization growing and promoting this sport to help build it up and showing what a positive impact it can have on the community. I also hope we can one day give local youth a place to enjoy themselves and stay out of trouble.
For more information on the NMU Paintball Team please visit www.nmupaintball.com
