The Notorious Nerds, Gilroy’s local high school paintball team,
have returned from the April 16 National Collegiate Paintball
Association’s National Championship in Lakeland, Florida with a
third place title
– plus medals and a plaque to prove it.
The Notorious Nerds, Gilroy’s local high school paintball team, have returned from the April 16 National Collegiate Paintball Association’s National Championship in Lakeland, Florida with a third place title – plus medals and a plaque to prove it.
The four-man team consists of Jacob Mandel, 17, Colton Moulden, 16 and Nick Daleo, 17, who attend the Dr. T.J. Owens Gilroy Early College Academy located on the Gavilan College Campus at 5055 Santa Teresa Blvd. The team’s youngest member, 14-year-old Samuel Mandel, is an eighth grader at Solorsano Middle School who plans on attending GECA next year.
During their match Saturday the nerds won 13 matches and lost three.
“In the final game against the first place team, they shot all of the opposing players out, but failed to hang the flag in time,” said Ken Mandel, Jacob and Sam’s dad who accompanied them to the event. “It was phenomenally exciting, and they have vowed to return next year and sweep the tournament.”
GECA is also congratulating Nishant Desai, Kaitlyn Morley and Bac-son To, three GECA students who took the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and met requirements to enter the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program. The three were among the 50,000 highest-scoring participants of 1.5 million program entrants.
GECA Principal Mary Ann Boylan noted freshman spots at GECA are still open for the 2011-12 school year. Potential candidates can visit geca-gusd-ca.schoolloop.com.
