Bea Youngs - Fox College Sports NCPA Commentator

College Paintball National Championships this weekend!

4/19/08, 530PM Report: The last match of the day was between Purdue and Ohio. Purdue University played their first match of the weekend since they chose not to play during the Friday games because they had a “bye”. They already had a seat in the quarter-finals and didn’t need to play. The teams that did play did so to have a better “seat” in the quarter-finals. Purdue managed to get the first point on the scoreboard against the Bobcats from Ohio, but Ohio then put four points in a row up on the board, making the score, 4-1 in Ohio’s favor. Purdue answered by putting up 2 additional points, score 4-3, but still were trailing by 1. Going into the second half, that’s when things got hectic. Purdue managed to get two major penalties, one right after the other, allowing Ohio to take away with the lead and put most of their points up on the scoreboard during the last three minutes in the match. Ohio had a couple of penalties of their own, but of the minor kind. However, one of those penalties was during the he last point. Ohio heard the call that the game was over, but apparently, Joe Mennan didn’t; he saw that there was still a player on Purdue’s side at the center-50. He shot him. Joe Meenan was suspended for the first 9-minutes of Ohio’s match up against Illinois State Redbirds. Final score, 11-6. Ohio has been here before, but never got this far at a National Championship. This is their second appearance as a Class A team.

In the match before Purdue and Ohio’s controversial one, it was the Tennessee Volunteers versus the University of Illinois Illini. Illinois is no stranger to the Top 4 bracket and wasn’t about to let Tennessee take away their hope to make it in again. Both teams got each a minor and a major penalty during the entire match, but Illinois capitalized better on the Volunteers error and took away the Volunteers chance to see themselves in the Top 4. Final score: 7-4.

Starting Sunday at 10AM, it’s Illinois State Redbirds vs Ohio. Then, at 12 noon, it’s Irvine versus Illinois.

4/19/08, 3PM Report: September 20, 2000, was the date of the first NCPA National Championships. In 2005, that marked the first year the NCPA nationally televised their College Paintball National Championships. The first two years (2005 & 2006), it aired on CSTV. Last year and here in 2008, it’s been the “JT Sports College Paintball National Championships” and will air during the second week of July.

Redbirds beat the Nittany Lions
I talked to Tyler Nehlig of Penn State and although he’s taking it nicely, considering, he’s very disappointed with the tremendous loss they took from Illinois State University Redbirds. He said, “They just stopped us from getting out to the tapes,” and so the Redbirds are the ones to put out Penn State Nittany Lions.
Final score of Penn State was 11-2.

Irvine continues to surprise, defeating the defending champs, UConn
Next game up was between new team to the Class A format, the Univ of California Irvine Anteaters and UConn. UConn was down by three points, then scored six points in a row, 6-3, then UCI came back and scored 4 points in a row all within 6 minutes. Final: 7-6. UConn were the 2006 and 2007 Champions and got knocked out by a rookie team to the Class A format. Earlier on Saturday, UCI managed to beat Maryland because of a major penalty assessed against Maryland that took place with just 2 seconds left on the clock with a tied score. Maryland’s Josh Emmanuel got called for playing on penalty and therefore, a major penalty was assessed giving UCI an automatic point on the board, final score was just a one-point difference.

History of the Number of Teams Competing
Brought out Class A (Like X-Ball) in 2005 (test year) and there were 6 teams that entered. NCPA had a sharp drop in team numbers n 5-man because of the introduction of Class A, and that’s most likely because alot of the Class AA (5-man) teams were going to the new format (Class A). In 2006, the NCPA doubled the number of Class A teams by half, going from 6 to 13 teams. Class AA/5-man teams saw a drop from 43 teams in 2004; in 2005, it went to 34, then to 25 teams in 2006 with that same number (25) in 2007. Now here in 2008, Class AA is back up to 41 teams.

There are about 32 events in the NCPA’s season. This event, the 2008 JT Sports College Paintball National Championships is the last event of the NCPA season.

CLASS AA (5-man) & High School Info
Class AA 5-man Scores
There are a total of 40 5-man (Class AA) and 10 High School 3-man Teams.
I’ve been so consumed by the Class A teams and doing on-camera stuff that I haven’t been keeping up on the 5-man teams, but if you click on the link above, the scores will tell a story.

4/19/08, 1PM Report: Four of the five fields are running here at CFP during the 2008 College Paintball National Championships with Class A, Class AA (5-man), and 3-man High School Teams have already taken the fields. The fifth field is the Finals field for tv and Fox College Sports will air two semi-final matches and the Finals match. Here in the Class A Playoff for Saturday, it’s single elimination, so if a team loses today, it will put them out for the rest of the event. The schedule and winners, so far, are as follows:

8AM: Penn State Univ. Nittany Lions put Drexel Univ. Dragons out of the running.
9AM: Univ of Maryland Terrapins lost to UC Irvine Anteaters
10AM: Univ of Illinois Illini defeated Army Black Knights
11AM: Illinois State University Redbirds beat West Virginia Mountaineers
1PM: Illinois State University Redbirds beat Penn State 11-2
2PM: Univ of Connecticut Huskies lost to Irvine 7-6
3PM: Univ. of TN Vols lost to Illinois4-7
4PM: Purdue Univ. Boilermakers lost to Ohio 6-11

We did our first day of filming today so Matty and did most of our, what they call, “Stand Ups”! Good times. “Welcome to the 2008 JT Sports College Paintball National Championships,” is what we said over and over again and at first, we would goof and say “JT USA” or “National Paintball College Championships” and get it a little turned around! We laughed it off to then get serious enough to get the line right!

4/18/08, Evening: There are a total of five fields that the NCPA will be conducting their National Championships on this weekend, and already, two fields ran the Class A matches. Class A is similar to the X-Ball format, but here in 2008, the NCPA didn’t change their format to the “race to seven” format like in the PSP. Just like years previous, and I’ve been doing this now, going on my fourth year with Chris Raehl and the NCPA, it’s two 16-minute halves, a 32-minute match, with a flag that’s located in the center of the field.

The first two matches took place between Santa Clara Broncos vs Illinois Illini and Army Black Knights vs Connecticut Huskies. The schedule was as follows:
Field 1
8AM: Santa Clara Broncos vs Illinois Illini - Illini won 10-2
9AM: Rutgers Scarlet Knights lost to Ohio Bobcats - 7-5
10AM: Drexel Dragons lost to Illinois State Redbirds 4-9
11AM: Connecticut Huskies lost to California Irvine Anteaters 2-8
12PM: Ohio Bobcats won against West Virginia Moutaineers 7-2
1PM: Tenessee Volunteers defeated Penn State Nittany Lions
2PM: California Irvine Anteaters beat Rutgers Scarlet Knights 7-3
3PM: Univ of Maryland Terrapins beat Ohio Bobcats 8-5
4PM: Illinois Illini lost to Connecticut Huskies 6-3
5PM: Rutgers Scarlet Knights lost to Tennessee Volunteers 12-1
6PM: California Irvine Anteaters beat University of Maryland Terrapins 6-4

Field 2:
8AM: Army Black Knights defeated Connecticut Huskies 6-5
9AM: West Virginia Moutaineers lost to Tennessee Volunteers 1-8
10AM: Michigan Tech Huskies lost to Penn State Nittany Lions 3-10
11AM: Army Black Knights lost to Univ. of Maryland Terrapins 3-11
12PM: Illinois State Redbirds beat Santa Clara Broncos 13-2
1PM: Drexel Dragons lost to Illinois Illini 3-8
2PM: West Virginia Mountaineers beat Michigan Tech Huskies 9-3
3PM: Santa Clara Broncos lost to Army Black Knights 4-5
4PM: Penn State Nittany Lions lost to Illinois State Redbirds
5PM: Michigan Tech Huskies lost to Drexel Dragons 2-11

I believe that California Irvine Anteaters is the surprise Class A team here and is one to look out for. This is their first event as a Class A team, but it’s their 4th year in existence, coming from Class AA in the #1 spot from last season. Coached by the likes of Jon Millman, former pro player for XSV, I believe that this team will continue their success rate as a Class A team. They’re also being supported by 5-man team, Cal State Long Beach Paintball Team, and their sideline coaching is helping, too.

Another team that’s surprising people not because of how well they’re playing, but because of how they didn’t play up to their usual potential. Coming into this event, most teams felt that they would be in the Top 4, for sure, especially since they’re the #1 seat in the Northeast Conference. Although UCONN didn’t play up to par, I still feel that they’re still in the running for the National Championship, and will perform as a stronger, more prepared team in the second day of the three-day College Championships event. Connecticut lost to Army, Anteaters, but beat Illinois Illini by 3 points, 6-3.

Univ. of Maryland is #3 in the Northeast Conference coming into this weekend and in the last match that ran after the sun set at Central Florida Paintball, they put up a good fight against the California Irvine Anteaters and with about 2 minutes and 30 seconds to go in the match, they were tied 4-4. Then, Irvine pulled away, defeating them in the end, 6-4. However, Maryland beat both the Ohio Bobcats and Army Black Knights, so the Terrapins still have a good chance to make it into the Top 4.

Illinois State Redbirds won all three of their matches today beating Drexel by 5, 4-9, Santa Clara Broncos by a huge 11-point spread, 13-2, and then the Nittany Lions of Penn State by a score of 7-4. Solid wins by the Redbirds makes them a contending team at the National title.

Tennessee Volunteers have the most support from their family and friends, it seems, including a new 11-month old nephew related to #18, Joey Bagot! So far, things are looking food for the Volunteers after beating the Nittany Lions, 8-4, WV Mountaineers, 8-1, and Rutgers, 12-1.

A strong program is that of the Illinois Illini who beat Santa Clara Broncos by 8 points, 10-2. Then went to play against Drexel and beat them by 5, 8-3. When they matched up against UConn, the Huskies had to beat this team after losing their first two. Illinois Illini lost by 3, 6-3, to the Huskies, but they’re still in the championship race.

The Ohio Bobcats are without a coach, but hopefully by Saturday, they’ll have a coach in place. Right now, it’s looking like pro player, Mike Venezia, formerly with Strange, and a local resident to central Florida, may be coming in to help in the coach’s box. Even without a coach on the first day of prelims, however, they defeated Rutgers, 5-7, went to play WV Mountaineers and beat them by 5, 7-2, but when they went up against Maryland, they missed the win by 3 points, losing 8-5. Again, this team is another one to look out for and will hopefully be one of the Top 4.

After hearing enough people talk about how Army Black Knights is playing alot better than they expected, especially after beating UConn in overtime by a 6-5 end score, Army went on to lose to the Terrapins by 9 points, 11-3. However, they didn’t lose hope when they went to face off against first time Class A experience, west coast of California team, Santa Clara Broncos. Army defeated Santa Clara by one point, a close match, 4-5. Who knows, these fellas hailing from West Point in New York could be the surprise of the season if they play with the same fervor when they went up against the likes of the almighty UConn.

Penn State Nittany Lions had a tough first day here at the JT Sports College Nationals, having only won one against Michigan Tech Huskies, 3-10. The Lions lost to the Redbirds, 4-7, and the Volunteers, 8-4.

Michigan Tech Huskies, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and Santa Clara Broncos, are all out of the running for the championship. West Virginia Mountaineers were only able to win one of their games against the Michigan Tech Huskies, 9-3.

A THOUGHT
Wouldn’t it be great to see high school teams get recruited to college teams? What about seeing pro teams scout at events like the College Paintball National Championships? At the rate that the NCPA is going now, it won’t be too long before these college players will be playing at the level that a pro team would need. The biggest demographic for paintball participation is between the ages of 18-24.