At 37 I was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's disease. A neurological disease made famous or infamous by Mohammed Ali and Michael J Fox. This disease touches 60,000 new lives a year in the US alone. During my diagnosis, the doctor said about my dancing "I would find another line of work".

At my 38th birthday party I had to be helped across the room by Karen and others that I had dipped, spun and twirled less than a year prior. I remembered thinking "Is this how Mohammed feels?" as I sat there as 50 of my closest friends cried and gave me cards saying how they'd always remember me as I was while I smiled a shaky smile from a face that felt, and looked, like it had been turned to stone. I was not surprisingly, shocked, confused, crushed.

And that was enough of that! What Parkinson's didn't know was that mother always said to us as children "WE NEVER QUIT! If you're still breathing you can try"! Karen echoed that sentiment, her commitment and belief in a bright and rewarding future while living with Parkinson’s has never faltered. Quite simply put we don't understand "giving up" it is just not in our nature.

We learned all that we could about my illness and its treatment. Through the love and support of Karen, my family, my friends, and the incredible staff at Johns Hopkins, I improved until I was dancing and playing paintball again (a sport which I love as does Karen). Many people can't even tell I have the disease. But despite my outward appearance and my ability to compete in my sport, I am reminded by my illness every day that the clock is ticking and I must make the most of my time as an athlete and role model. We knew that I had to do something while I could…

Today, Karen and I are the co-captains of Tremor, a 7 man National Professional Paintball League (NPPL) ( www.nppl.tv ) team from Maryland named in honor of my illness and our cause.

In 2006 Team Tremor was hands down one of the most media covered paintball teams in the world! Tremor press releases have been released in Germany, Japan, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom,Norway, and Sweden.

We estimate that through this network of media outlets our message of Parkinson's awareness has reached over 300,000 people on three continents, most of them young people, who have never been touched by Parkinson's, and THEY CARE! We get calls daily from as far away as Texas and California from people offering to move to MD just to play for Tremor. Members of our team commute from Boston to Maryland every week just to practice!

Team Tremor is a grass roots effort, and is to date totally funded through the incomes of its players.

Last season we had a year of scheduled outreach and community awareness programs including buying NPPL grandstand tickets for Parkinson's patient's, paintball clinics, and speaking engagements at Parkinson's support groups in addition to missing the last two events due to fundraising shortfalls. This also forced us to cancel our 2006 scheduled events and caused us to loose some players as well, but it did not diminish our spirit or our drive to succeed.

In 2007 we are back with a new group of dedicated players and a new awareness, outreach, andfund raising campaign. We are committed to compete in all five NPPL events this year because as the NPPLLIVE.com webcast showed the NPPL provides us with a national stage for our awareness campaign and acommunuity of support that we have worked very hard to gather.

We desperately need your donations and support to continue our 2007 campaign for a cure.

50% of every dollar you contribute though this internet campaign will be donated to the National Parkinson’s Foundation.

The remainder will be used only to support Tremor's 2007 awareness, outreach and fundraising campaigns!

Your Partners in The Struggle,

Team Tremor "

The team is full of a great group of players, and I think that by Kansas city, we'll be vying for a top 8 or 9 place at least in D2.  I have been on teams all over, and I wouldn't trade these guys for the world.

Here's some pictures from Boston, if anyone is interested.

Captain, Chris Clark, laning the tape off break.

The team off break. I'm third from the right. I look slow, but It's only because I was letting another player push off of my foot for a better start.

Karen, Chris's Wife, and Co-Captain. Yes, she is a girl. And, yes, she is a baller.

Dan/"Dubs"



Bob Long. (No, not that one.)  Inventor of the Half-block Cocker/Owner of Turtle Innovations.




Robbie, the other snake player. Even though we both played all the games.

And of course, the pictures of me, I have to whore myself out.

Pardon the unmatching flexes. I just got picked up by the team, and have not had time to color-coordinate.

Okay, so the last couple were from a CFOA, but damn I'm sexy.

And for some humble pie, me getting bunkered at the fifty.

Okay, so I know a lot of you probably won't still be reading at this point, but if you are, check out the team's myspace. www.myspace.com/teamtremor - www.myspace.com/teamtremor .  A small clip of the film is there, along with some more pictures and info.  You can also donate to the Parkinson's fund if you want, but I Don't know if I'm allowed to post that or not. Mods, feel free to delete the link if you don't like the donation option.

Thanks, Nick!

EDIT: And today is my birfday.  Go me!

its great wat ur doing hope u win ur next tournament....good luck

I've heard the story before, seen the paint too. Didn't know there was a shocker out though.

 <--Haha, you can copy/paste that.  Never knew you could.

Anyway, thats a good cause.  I wish I could actually find a good tournament around me to go see.

I bet, you could submit this to a local news station and it could get attention.  They always have that "inspirational" story they want to put on the air.

When I get back from vacation, if you already didnt submit it somewhere, I might just do that.