UW-Platteville Paintball Club looks to be a tough competitor in the national competition after falling one win short of making it to the finals last year.

Ten members of the club are making the long road-trip down to Lakeland, Fla. April 17-19, where they will compete in the class A and class AA competitions.

In previous years, the paintball club has competed in class AA, but this will be their first shot at class A.

Kevin Banks, a first year business major, said that class A was more difficult than AA. Class AA is a 5-minute match with a 5-man team, whereas class A was two, 15-minute halves with a 10-man team. Five people are on the field with the remaining five people as substitutes.

“If we make it past the first round in class A it is televised,” said Banks.

The club practices every Sunday year round. In the winter, the club goes to Kewauskum to practice indoors at Stinger Paintball. They practice at Steeple Paintball in St. Donatus, Iowa in the summer. Steeple Paintball is a sponsor of the club.

Chris Schnurr, a second year business administration major, said that Steeple, “helps us out a lot with expenses.”

Alex Kornely, a third year business administration major, has been the president of the paintball club for the past two years. This year will be his third year competing at nationals.

Kornely said that competition has gotten a lot better since his first trip to nationals.

“Schools have started to recognize paintball as a sport,” said Kornely.

Last year, Corey Horning, a second year business administration major, was one of the members to go to nationals. Horning said that the team went 7-1 in the preliminaries, and only needed one more win in the semi-finals to advance to the finals.

“Last year we were expecting a lot,” said Horning, “we started this year ranked first.”

The team has high hopes for this year’s competition. To prepare for nationals, they have been studying the field and reviewing their strategies.

“This year we want to go back and rank high,” Horning said.