People find it hard to believe that when I was in school we actually had trampolines in the gym and these were part of our physical education class. Oh we had all the safety procedures well in line so no worries. Spotters (which were other students) lined the perimeter of the tramp and would “catch” you if you jumped over the side. Yea that worked out real well! What would you say however if paintball was a class in your schedule? For some college kids in Ohio it is now a part of their every day curriculum.
Ohio University Southern has teamed up with the Ohio Army National Guard and are now offering paintball as a gym class. The Guard uses this new forum to teach students and to show them what is available.
“The benefits are tremendous,” First Sergeant Steve Stormes said. “Especially for college kids.” “The running and the dodging and jumping,” he said. “Really it’s a good cardio sort of workout.”
Of course this class is the most popular of all the phys ed categories and students are having a blast. 17 students total are signed up but only 7 receive any credits, the rest are doing it just for fun. Paintball is already popular in the area and this gives some of the students a chance to get grades while doing something they already loved.
It would be great to have a course like this in every school in my opinion, well all except the elementary perhaps. Paintball can be quite 
exhilarating and a great work out and just think, you can go to your next period and show off your brand new welt. Many colleges already have paintball teams that compete in collegiate tournaments but this is the first to my knowledge that have offered it as a bona-fide graded class. I wonder if you can get an ‘F’ in this course? Maybe sticking your head up over the bunker too many times might knock some points off but I’m thinking this would be the fun-nest ‘A’ you’d ever get.
