I TOLD YOU...

USA Football takes on the world
PLEASE READ SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND HOW THIS RELATES TO PAINTBALL
1. HOW IT COULD HAVE BEEN FOR PAINTBALL MAYBE EVEN NOW
2. THE TRAIN HAS LEFT THE STATION
3. OUR YOUTH IS BETTER OFF, IT SEEMS, TO DO SOMETHING ELSE.
4. IT IS AWESOME WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER. EVEN WHEN ITS NOT OUR INDUSTRY, MAYBE A LIGHT CAN BE SEEN

Jeff Fedotin
Special to Rivals High
» MORE: The nation's top 100 teams | 2008 high school football state champions

Scrambling between English classes, Chuck Kyle scurried to his office this past May and heard an out-of-the-blue voice mail from USA Football. The words "Junior World Championship" piqued the St. Ignatius (Cleveland) High teacher and football coach's interest.

"Whoa, they're gonna do this in football?" Kyle said. "I'm also a track coach, and when you say 'Junior World Championships' in track and field, that's huge."


Shawn Wood/Studio 7
Scott Hallenbeck and Chuck Kyle are excited for the chance to play an international championship in football
Following an Olympic model, a U.S. team of just-graduated high school seniors will compete in the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Junior World Championship, a football tournament represented by eight countries from four continents. Kyle will serve as the inaugural U.S. coach, and Fawcett Stadium, adjacent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, will host the groundbreaking games from June 27-July 5, 2009.

"The Junior World Championship will stand among the most significant international and possibly domestic events in football's history," said Scott Hallenbeck, executive director of USA Football.

This new event will include teams from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Sweden. A Jan. 24 game between New Zealand and Australia will decide the Oceania participant; games between Bahamas and Panama on Jan. 24 and the Bahamas/Panama winner and Mexico on Feb. 14 will determine the final entry.

Guiding the historic U.S. team will be Kyle, who has led St. Ignatius to an Ohio-best ten Division I state titles. He was picked because of his coaching success, leadership and close proximity to Canton.

Kyle and members of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) helped choose the rest of the coaching staff, which features some of the country's most prominent head coaches: Steve Specht (Cincinnati St. Xavier) as defensive coordinator, Gary Swenson (West Des Moines [Iowa] Valley) as offensive coordinator, Tom Bainter (Bothell [Wash.]) as running backs coach, Marcus Boyles (Wayne County [Miss.]) as wide receivers coach, Ed Croson (Lake Balboa [Calif.] Birmingham) as offensive line coach, Frank Lenti (Chicago Mount Carmel) as offensive line coach, Jeremy Gold (Ann Arbor [Mich.] Pioneer) as defensive line coach, Chris Merritt (Miami Christopher Columbus) as defensive backs coach and Allen Wilson (Dallas Carter) as linebackers coach.

"When I started hearing the résumés and seeing the résumés of the other coaches," Merritt said, "I was kind of floored."

The staff will select a 45-man roster from nominations made by each state's high school athletic association and expects to finalize the squad in the spring. Playing for the national team will not count against participation in high school all-star games. But because many colleges want their prized recruits attending summer school and immersed in summer workouts, the U.S. team likely will not land the elite five-star recruits.

"To sit here and think that we're going to get the 45, 46 best players in America," Kyle said, "I don't think we're going to do that."

The national team coaches, though, hope patriotism and the opportunity to compete in this landmark international event will spark interest among the country's 2009 graduating class.

Kyle will push those themes at January's AFCA convention in Nashville, Tenn. There he will encourage college coaches to allow their incoming freshmen to participate, and his nine-man staff will begin analyzing prospective players.

The genesis for this first international, junior-aged football tournament occurred two years ago as the NFL Players Association asked USA Football and the IFAF to come up with ways to expand the game of football globally. To generate interest they wanted to target a younger demographic on a grassroots level, and the Junior World Championship should spur countries to develop football training programs.

The Junior World Championship will stand among the most significant international and possibly domestic events in football's history.
— Scott Hallenbeck, executive director of USA Football.
"This is the first step in a five-, 10- or maybe even 15-year process of growing this game," said Hallenbeck, who previously aided the operational logistics for the U.S. Olympic Committee. "So eventually football's on par with baseball, basketball and those other sports."

With football a staple of American culture, the Junior World Championship may conjure up thoughts of Dream Team I pounding Angola during Olympic basketball competition in 1992. Consider, however, the 2009 junior team's precursor, USA Football's 2007 senior national football team. Featuring college players from powerhouses like Michigan and Virginia Tech and smaller NAIA schools and with John Mackovic as coach, it eked out a 23-20, double-overtime victory against Japan in the gold medal game at Kawasaki, Japan.

"I was sweating bullets," Hallenbeck said. "How am I going to go back to my country with the first-ever senior national team, and we potentially lose?"

Despite that close call, football remains a second-tier sport overseas, well behind futbol (soccer). The pigskin version, though, is growing rapidly. Canada, Mexico and Japan field strong teams, and each, especially No. 1-ranked Canada, would present a challenge to the U.S.

The U.S. junior national team's defensive backs coach is familiar with the level of international talent, having played or coached in Sweden and Germany from 1994 to 2000. Merritt also won a Euro Bowl championship as head coach of the Hamburg Blue Devils and still maintains European contacts. He relishes the chance to represent his country.

"I'm battling all these fronts with people that I know," Merritt said. "Now I get to be on the American side and — heck yeah — I'm excited."

WTF!! NPPL!! RIP

After ten years of working for the NPPL, it is with a heavy heart that I contact you today regarding the future of the league and all of Pacific Paintball.

Pacific Paintball and its subsidiaries will be filing proceedings under the United States Bankruptcy Code to effect a liquidation of their respective assets and business operations. The affairs and assets of Pacific Paintball LLC, NPPL LLC, XPSL LLC, PB2X LLC, Xtreme Paintball Fields LLC and Camp Pendleton Paintball LLC will be administered by a court appointed trustee in bankruptcy. The bankruptcy court will provide you with written instructions regarding how and where to file any claims in this matter.

Despite doing all we could do, we were unable to make the business a viable concern. Further, in this severe economic climate, we were unable to secure new funding. It is a truly regrettable outcome, though one which is unfortunately occurring more and more frequently in this environment. We thank all those who have supported us.

All the best,
Camille Lemanski

(TWO YEARS AGO I SAY WE NEED TO WATCH OUR BACKS AND START WORKING IN DIFFERENT WAYS- I TOLD YOU SO)
Read the back blogs of the rant! But no, the industry does not want to address publicly because death needs to be evident so the strong (or the quiet) survives. See, even in times of trials, this industry will not act to save itself. Get mad people! They will eat its own young!