posted Jan 30th, 2006 - The Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales once again hosted the USPA Collegiates 2005 on December 27-31, 2005. A total of nine universities and over 100 competitors participated this time. The event consists of 4-way and 2-way Formation Skydiving, Freefly, Classic Accuracy, Sport Accuracy, Style and Team Accuracy. Eleven teams competed in the 4-way event.

The dive pool of USPA's Collegiates is identical with the A Class dive pool of the National Skydiving League and includes all Random Formations, plus eight selected blocks (2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19, 21). The November event in Lakes was scheduled for a total of six rounds.

The 4-way competition was dominated the teams from the US Air Force Academy. Only the Black Knights Gold from the US Military Academy in West Point were able to break into the phalanx of USAF teams and stole the silver medals. Former Golden Knights member Eric Heinsheimer had prepared the Black Knights for the competition in Lake Wales.

Eric Heinsheimer left the Golden Knights at the end of the 2003 season and took on his new position as the head coach of the West Point Parachute Team. His experiences and coaching efforts show the first results with the the silver medals of the Black Knights Gold in the 4-way competition.

However, it was impossible for any team to keep up with Air Force Prodigy. The Prodigy line-up in December in Lake Wales (Patrick Chapman, Joseph Down, Branden Felker and Matthew Tuchscher) was identical with the team that won the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2005 in November 2005 in the AA Class (11.8 average). Prodigy has already competed in the Intermediate Class of the USPA Nationals 2005, as well (11.4 average).

The A Class dive pool at the USPA Collegiates in December 2005 was no challenge for the team from the Air Force Academy in Colorado at all. Prodigy could focus only on the execution of the team's easiest sequences in a competition of the 2005 season. Prodigy's 18.7 meet average included a 33-pointer in round six.

Black Knights head coach Eric Heinsheimer provided the NSL News with information of the 4-way competition at the USPA Collegiates 2005, and he also sent the video of round six. His team scored 24 points within working time, the second highest score of this round. He also filmed the team by himself while doing his coaching work.

Eric Heinsheimer's mentioned in his event summary that the US Air Force Academy and the US Military Academy showed up in force and battled it out in all events:

"The Air Force entered five 4-way teams, and USMA entered two teams. The four other teams were comprised of students from Georgia Tech, Embry-Riddle, University of Connecticut, University of Georgia, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and University of Wisconsin-Madison."

He was impressed with Air Force Prodigy's performance, as well: "USAFA 4-way team Prodigy opened up round one with a great score of 17 and never looked back. They continued to outscore their nearest competition USMA Black to finish with a record average of 18.7. Round six was a burner, and Prodigy scored a remarkable 33 in time! USMA Black scored their personal best with a 24 finishing with a 13.3 average."

The US Air Force Academy only won one of many battles with the 4-way gold medals. Eric Heinsheimer's US Military Academy won the war with his competitors collecting the record amount of 37 medals in Lake Wales, including several medals of the Collegiates Overall Champion, Senior Greg Hastings, as Eric Heinsheimner explains:

"Cadet Greg Hastings scored three consecutive dead centers in Classic Accuracy, finishing the four rounds with a total score of 0.05 points."

Greg Hastings was also a member of Eric Heinsheimer's Black Knights Gold 4-way team (Pete Crawford, Greg Hastings, Brad Nicka, Shane Sullivan), and he won bronze medals with his Accuracy team, as well.

Head coach Heinsheimer summarized a successful event for his team and all participants, and he also provided a short preview of the 2006 season: "The Florida Skydiving Center did a great job, as usual, to keep the competition moving and the jumpers happy. USMA will begin focusing on 4-way this year, and we expect to bring more then two teams to the meets in 2006."