Paintball Magazine Paintball Extravaganza Special Edition | Page 46

Interview with Larry
Cossio from The CIA and
Travis Koontz from
Weekend Warrior Sportz
Words & Pictures
by Alicia Bane

Yes, you read that right. Larry Cossio is the

owner of Cossio Insurance Agency. The CIA is the main
insurer for paintball fields all over the country. We had
the pleasure of meeting with him and interviewing him at
Paintball Extravaganza on his life in the paintball industry
and what exactly he does.
Larry, can you give us the history of Cossio Insurance
and how you got involved in paintball?
In 1995 I first played paintball with some buddies and fell
in love with the adrenaline rush and went and bought an
Automag, mask, and pack. Two months later bought a
Autococker and more masks. I was playing paintball every
weekend and ended up playing with the same group

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of guys and started Tsunami Paintball Team. I wanted a
cool t-shirt and went into a Proshop and asked if they had
any cool shirts, he said shirts don’t sell. I told him that is
because they were cheesy, he said then make your own
shirts. I walked out and called my wife and said we are
in the t-shirt business now besides our insurance agency.
So I started making t-shirts, bags, packs, gloves, and
under Warrior Sports Gear.  I went to the AM Open in PA
to sell them and was approached by Dan Colby from Air
America. Dan asked why I was selling t-shirts if I was an
insurance guy, and I told him that it was more fun than
insurance. He asked if I could write paintball field insurance,
I replied “sure” and it was on. 35 carriers told me no until
I finally found one to write our first field program. The first
year we had a claim for an eye injury where someone shot