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05-30-2021, 09:32 AM
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#1
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RETIRED LU Coach
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Lynchburg
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Liberty University ends their Paintball Program.
It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce that the Liberty University Paintball team will come to an end.
Liberty University has decided to discontinue the paintball program due to a decline in student athletes and lack of collegiate tournament opportunities.
The Liberty University Paintball program was founded in 2005 as a group of students that shared a desire to play competitive paintball while representing their university in the National Collegiate Paintball Association. The team made a name for themselves in 2008 by earning third place in Class AA at the National Championships. The paintball team was then welcomed into the Club Sports Department at Liberty under the coaching of Todd Hoglund. Hoglund would coach the team to finish in the Top-4 in Class A annually from 2010, 2011, and 2012. Hoglund continued to coach the team through the 2014 season. During this time Liberty Paintball built 2 x-ball fields on campus and were the first college to host an on-campus NCPA event. At the start of the 2014 season, Hoglund left Liberty as his family moved to Norfolk, Virginia. Assistant Coach and former player, Brian Davidson took over the reigns as Head Coach. Brian was assisted by former player Aaron Thompson. Davidson and Thompson led the team to several event wins and Top- 4 finishes in Class A in 2016 and 2017. On April 22, 2018, The Liberty University Paintball team accomplished their ultimate goal of a National Championship in Class A by defeating the 2017 champion team from University of Central Florida, 8-1.
The Liberty University Paintball Team has become well known in the paintball community as a consistently high performing program and also for the character of their players. Across the 16 years of tournaments, 142 players have represented the University on the paintball field. The Liberty Paintball team has been a part of the development of these students as they balanced their education, their sport, and their lives.
The players, coaches, and alumni of the Liberty University Paintball Team would like to thank Liberty University, Liberty Club Sports, Planet Eclipse, and Social Paintball for their support and sponsorship over the last 16 years.
Sincerely,
Brian Davidson, Paintball Head Coach 2014-2021, Liberty University Class of 2012
Aaron Thompson, Paintball Assistant Coach 2015-2021, Liberty University Class of 2015
Todd Hoglund, Paintball Head Coach 2008-2014, Liberty Class of 2009
__________________
RETIRED Liberty University Paintball Coach
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05-30-2021, 11:07 PM
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#2
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Mowing Fools Since 1987
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Corona, Queens, NY
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very sad to hear
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05-31-2021, 03:33 AM
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#3
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I just came back to paintball and was really excited to play ncaa since I’m back in college. I know corona has hit hard but the extreme lack of communication from the people who ran ncaa tournaments is insane. I get that it’s probably not making money but they don’t post or update at all. Hopefully someone steps up and makes the ncaa scene again because I really want to play.
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05-31-2021, 08:42 AM
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#4
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Tuna On White No Crust..
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Out & about
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Sad these kids were awsome playing
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05-31-2021, 10:34 AM
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#5
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Tractor Engineer
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Waterloo, Ia
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Sad to see it go but you guys definitely weren’t the first college to host an on campus NCPA event. Iowa State built a field on campus and hosted NCPA events starting in late 2002 or early 2003.
__________________
Team Legacy Mechanical Paintball since '97
Iowa State Cyclones Paintball Alumni
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05-31-2021, 02:07 PM
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#6
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Can't find my old account
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Canada
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not good news. is collage ball on hold still?
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05-31-2021, 03:38 PM
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#7
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Unfortunately, since most college clubs are student-run, often leadership doesn't groom the next level or there isn't much recruiting and the club starts to decline. Sports clubs that are successful often have a faculty or staff person that helps coach or lead the team.
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05-31-2021, 04:41 PM
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#8
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☦
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Tyler, TX
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Sad. Great school.
__________________
"Man is equally incapable of seeing the (ex nihilo) nothingness from which he emerges and the (countable) infinity in which he is engulfed." - Blaise Pascal with my additions
METHOD Development
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05-31-2021, 07:13 PM
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#9
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Lets Get Bombed
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: 718
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul77
not good news. is collage ball on hold still?
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There was an attempt at Nationals this year but even with Florida being the location, restrictions from schools are another hurdle. Hopefully things loosen up and change but it looks like a lot will depend on how schools approach travel now. I've kept in touch with some psu guys who run the team now and have seen some announcements from psu itself and it seems that club travel may be reliant on having a vaccine. I would assume a lot of schools may take a similar approach but only time will tell.
The other issue for college paintball is as mentioned by others if leadership doesnt groom the next set of players to continue the team, and even then if it is really difficult to find a group of players or enough players to cover the losses from graduation and anything else. It just seems that the cycle of losing players and possibly waiting a year or two to get another line just isnt enough to stop teams from hemorrhaging players.
Another issue we encountered at psu was even with the involvement fair to advertise that we as a club existed to people on campus, we would get lets say 50-100 interested people talking to us then sign up or willing to come to the meeting and be almost instantly turned off because it was not just oh grab a group and go to the woods. We would have set weekends we were open to having new players come and have a scenario event or advertise for frats to come as fundraisers also but the interest isnt there. So out of that many people we'd be lucky to get say almost 10 who were interested in tournament style paintball then of those 10 a majority may be very inexperienced or no experience so it would be planning for the future while teaching them and bringing them on. It was great when you saw those people who were willing to learn and improve stick with it though for sure and those are some the group of guys at psu now which is awesome to see.
__________________
DZ AllStars DZ Allstars
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06-01-2021, 07:50 AM
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#10
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R.I.P Philly
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Pennsylvania
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That's a shame. Not that long ago, their program had an absurd amount of school funding and was a college paintball dream. Usually had a pretty competitive squad and decent guys too.
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06-01-2021, 08:24 AM
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#11
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Da Sigma
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Chicago
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Quote:
Originally Posted by psumark
There was an attempt at Nationals this year but even with Florida being the location, restrictions from schools are another hurdle. Hopefully things loosen up and change but it looks like a lot will depend on how schools approach travel now. I've kept in touch with some psu guys who run the team now and have seen some announcements from psu itself and it seems that club travel may be reliant on having a vaccine. I would assume a lot of schools may take a similar approach but only time will tell.
The other issue for college paintball is as mentioned by others if leadership doesnt groom the next set of players to continue the team, and even then if it is really difficult to find a group of players or enough players to cover the losses from graduation and anything else. It just seems that the cycle of losing players and possibly waiting a year or two to get another line just isnt enough to stop teams from hemorrhaging players.
Another issue we encountered at psu was even with the involvement fair to advertise that we as a club existed to people on campus, we would get lets say 50-100 interested people talking to us then sign up or willing to come to the meeting and be almost instantly turned off because it was not just oh grab a group and go to the woods. We would have set weekends we were open to having new players come and have a scenario event or advertise for frats to come as fundraisers also but the interest isnt there. So out of that many people we'd be lucky to get say almost 10 who were interested in tournament style paintball then of those 10 a majority may be very inexperienced or no experience so it would be planning for the future while teaching them and bringing them on. It was great when you saw those people who were willing to learn and improve stick with it though for sure and those are some the group of guys at psu now which is awesome to see.
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We had the same issue at Indiana. We would get TONS of interest at our Club Sports Fair and then people didn't want to adhere to a schedule. Plus most everyone in college is broke so when we couldn't fund something most people who weren't on the NCPA team disappeared.
The year after I graduated everything pretty much stopped. We had someone groomed to take over the club but he could only do so much as the president. The rest of the members weren't ready to lead.
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Scrub Status
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06-01-2021, 09:10 AM
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#12
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YOUNGSTOWN CREW
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Sad news.
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06-01-2021, 09:46 AM
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#13
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IMMORTAL
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Lancaster, PA
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Very sad to hear
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GI sportz / JT / Virtue / Planet Eclipse
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06-04-2021, 02:52 PM
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#14
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It's tough to keep a college team going that long. Congratulations to the alumni and coaches for what they achieved. When I was at Buffalo we made the long trip down to Liberty for one of our first long-distance tournaments, it left a big impression on me. IIRC the field was way up on the side of a hill with a view of the valley below, and up until that point was the first outdoor turf field I had ever played on! It was great! And our experience in Virginia showed us what a well organized and committed team could accomplish.
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Paintball
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06-04-2021, 07:34 PM
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#15
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Very sorry to see this organization come to an end. I thoroughly enjoyed the competition you brought to national and regional events when I played for Purdue. Very few teams were as organized and consistently competitive as Liberty. Seeing TWO! turfed fields on a college campus, complete with proper coaching staff and bus service to events, was really special for our sport. To me, that wasn't a source of jealousy. It represented what paintball can look like when the right people present it the right way. The dependability and collaborative attitude this program brought to the table, not just as a team but as a host for fellow competitors, will be missed. Best of luck to all of you on your future endeavors.
Jake
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06-14-2021, 10:37 PM
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#16
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Very unfortunate but not unexpected. Losing a standing program is not only a blow to the local community, but a setback for any other school looking to incorporate similar programs on their campuses.
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09-12-2021, 07:10 PM
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#17
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There is only Zuul
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Land O Drunken Reporters
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I was there in 2008 when yall first competed in Lakeland at the NCPA Nationals in the AA Division. It's really kinda sad to see your program end. I wish the best for yall and congratulations for everyone over the years that played and supported the program.
__________________
The system is down.
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