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Club sports: Paintball club caps inaugural season with national title


Starting an athletic club from scratch can be exhausting. Not to mention trying to find players and equipment. Or events with high-caliber competition.

What about going all the way?

In just its first year of existence, the ASU paintball club won the National Collegiate Paintball Association title Saturday at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

ASU's five-man maroon team captured the Class AA national championship with a victory over Connecticut. Its second-string gold squad placed third.

"Most of my team are freshmen and sophomores, so hopefully we have a dynasty on our hands," said Cisco Vasquez, captain of the ASU paintball club.

Vasquez started the club with just two members last year. Since then, the club has gathered enough members for two teams and has gained notoriety within the paintball ranks.

"We started this club with me and one other guy," Vasquez said. "We wanted to play in the college division, so we trained twice a week and focused on wanting to be the best."

The Sun Devils entered the national tournament with a

No. 36 national ranking. Vasquez claims the ranking had no bearing on what the club believed it could accomplish.

"We felt that we were going to win," Vasquez said. "We've practiced together for a while now. We knew that we were good paintballers, and we practice and train very hard."

Most NCPA events are held on the East Coast. The Sun Devils rarely traveled but managed to finish the regular season on a high note.

Vasquez credits his club's newfound success to its practice habits.

"Our secret is that we have a lot of good paintballers in Arizona that we train with," Vasquez said. "We practice with professionals and with the best players that we can, and we get our [butts] kicked all the time. But that's the way to become the best -- keep playing with the best and lose and learn from it."

Several top-ranked paintball programs, such as Purdue and Connecticut, receive financial support. ASU made its run without any support -- and a meager budget.

"It shows that it's not about the money," Vasquez said. "We wanted to be the best team. That's why we played against professionals and played against the best teams we could find."

Reach the reporter at michael.fowler@asu.edu.


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