Posted by pbguide Posted   612 daysago

From Tampabay.com - http://www.tampabay.com/sports/commu...ntball/1099935

"There are those who play paintball on the weekends or at somebody's birthday party when they rent a field for a couple hours.

And then there are those like Clearwater's Alex Spence, who plays professional paintball.

Like most players, paintball started out as a hobby for Spence. It soon became a passion, which led to tournaments. A few years ago, Spence joined the Tampa Bay Damage, a touring team of paintball players who take the extreme sport seriously.

"It's a pretty big adrenaline rush,'' Spence, 22, said. "Once you start getting into it, where you get to compete and travel around with a bunch of friends, nothing beats that.''

The latest trip was to Chicago for the National Professional Paintball League's Super 7 World Series. There were nearly 100 teams overall at the Memorial Day tournament, but there were only 18 pro division teams.

After eight games in its bracket, the Damage played in the championship game on Monday. The team, which is based at PSI Extreme Sports in Largo, won the prestigious tournament.

Aside from Spence, the team members are Bryan Smith, C.J. Botsolas, Chad Busiere, Ramzi El-Yousef, Daniel Holliday, Jacob Edwards, Jason Edwards, Justin Rabackoff and Mike Carthy. The coaches are Paul Richards, Joey Blute and Bill Lofthouse. Spence, Botsolas, El-Yousef and Busiere are the only original members. The team was ranked ninth nationally in the NPPL rankings before the Chicago Open.

"We started in Division II back in 2004,'' Spence said. "Once we started getting better and moving up we added some other players.''

The Damage players are considered professional because they are mostly sponsored and keep any prize money. They usually practice on Thursday nights at PSI Extreme Sports and play weekend tournaments in Lakeland.

Spence said the team is training for another national tournament later in the month."