 Into the woods go thousands of Young Guns every summer. Photo by Skirmish.com  Ancient Innovations Q-Loader installed on a Raven Primal.  Young Guns-small budgets and big dreams! Photo by Skirmish.com  The Q-Loader pack and pods.  Q-Loader pod filling components and adapters to accommodate almost any marker. |
I'm the captain of Team Ballbuster, a team of five high school players and growing. Most of our players live in Winnsboro, South Carolina. Our home field is Triggertyme Paintball, the second-biggest scenario field in the state. Most of my teammates have played for three to five years, against professionals in speedball and woodsball. Two on my team are pretty new to the sport.
We had a year-and-a-half-long dream of getting a real sponsor, and switched from speedball to scenario. Though we had a good summer and looked into the school year with anticipation, we wanted to get sponsored before the summer ended. We called many different companies and organizations asking about sponsorship. At first, things didn't look so hot, and some of our team members were beginning to lose hope over the months.
Well, one day I called Ancient Innovations in California, the company that makes the Q-Loader. Mrs. Sue at Q-Loader and I got to talking about paintball...and what we anticipated for the school year. I really called about a question on the Q-Loader, but we got into a deep conversation about our team and stuff.
About four or six weeks later, Mrs. Sue called back and left a message on the phone at my house. Within five minutes of my brother getting that message, he came running to me screaming. He found me upstairs on the computer. He told me, "Q-Loader wants to sponsor our team!"
At first I thought it was some stupid joke he was playing and got a little upset, but when I heard the message on the answering machine, I couldn't believe it. We had actually gotten sponsored!
Since then we've been playing many scenarios, and playing on weekends with local teams and families, and doing very well.
We're just like any other team-young team, that is-in school, and some of us have plans for the military; but we're just regular people with a love for paintball. We just want to encourage anyone who doesn't think they can do it-whether it's getting sponsored or financially trying to stay above water as far as playing paintball, or just trying to get from home to the paintball field. If you keep at it and go far (even if it means washing cars door to door so you can play the next day), you'll succeed!
Team Ballbusters sent APG this story as CO2 Mail, to encourage other paintball teams and to share a victory we've had with our walk in paintball. Team members: Ben Bowens, Mike Bowens, Creighton McDermit, Tommy Swearingen, Ben Southerland. Ben Bowens writes from Winnsboro, SC.
Shoot and Be Shot I was playing a game, with younger and older players. Some of the kids were 10 years old. I made a move that would take me behind enemy lines. In the process, I took out most of the other team. At the end of the game, I found out a man had complained to the ref about me. He said that I had shot his young daughter twice. The field rules allow two shots on an opponent for the level of game I was in, but the ref decided to sit me for two games. I was not about to sit two games for playing the game right, so I talked to the ref. He decided that I really did not break any rules. The problem, though, was not the ref's decision. The problem came when the girl was brought to the field by her father. He was thinking no one would shoot her.
When you take someone into a game, you have to accept that they might get shot. This means a player who is deeply into the game might shoot them only because they were in the field pointing a marker and shooting at them as well. Players need to be responsible and accept the reality of the game, which is to shoot back and get shot at, no matter the age of the player. -Rogelio Perez, Carson, California, CO2 Mail
Summer Camps They used to call it "being fat." Today they call it "obesity" or "being overweight." The U.S. reportedly is in an obesity crisis. Fears of the Obesity Epidemic are driving overweight people of all ages-and that includes kids-to reduce their weight. The success formula starts with choosing foods for nutrition and eating smaller amounts of food, plus increasing exercise. Playing paintball twice a week will help, along with going to a summer paintball camp. It's not too early to book your camp reservations!
