Spring Break
Paintball team defining success despite low profile
Mike Mazzeo
Issue date: 1/18/08 Section: Sports
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You probably create a depiction of guys in camouflage shooting each other in the woods.
Not so, said junior Michael Zapantis, a member of the Drexel club paintball team since 2004.
"I don't run around the woods at all," Zapantis said of the stereotype he hears all the time when he mentions he is part of the paintball team.
However, paintball is certainly intense.
The game is played on "a half-soccer field" with various obstacles separating the two opposing teams. Strategy, including the use of set plays, is essential if you want to win.
"People would be surprised how competitive it is," Zapantis said.
Founded in 1994, the club paintball team, which was one of first teams in the National Collegiate Paintball Association (NCPA), has served as a haven to those who grew up playing the sport and want to continue playing it on the collegiate level.
Currently there are 388 total college paintball clubs.
"The league has been growing at such a phenomenal rate, always pulling in talented players," Zapantis said.
Drexel is part of the North-East Intercollegiate Conference (NEIC) which is one of, if not the most difficult, divisions in all of Class A (varsity) club paintball.
The division boasts reigning back-to-back (2006, 2007) champion UConn as well as Rutgers, Maryland and Penn State.
So far this season, the Dragons have compiled a 2-4 record - but it's a deceiving 2-4.
Two of their four defeats have come in overtime, while their other two losses have come by just one point.
"I think that it's the fact that the division has grown so much," Zapantis said of his team's tough start.
The team is led by veterans Zapantis, Jonathan Popovitch, Morris Clarke, Andrew Antonioli and Corey Young while two new players, freshman Billy Brudi and Charles Maliska, a sophomore transfer from Army, have made a significant contribution.
Drexel will participate in two upcoming matches in February which take place at Lehigh Valley Paintball in Emmaus, Pa. Feb. 16.
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Thomas Ryan
posted 1/24/08 @ 10:56 AM EST
This story is so true! Every weekend you will see Mike Zapantis a.k.a "Deimus" and Jon Popovitch proudly wearing their Drexel Jerseys at New Jersey Jesters practice. (Continued…)
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