Trials and Tribulations of A Rookie
Paintball Team.
Part 1 The Beginning
I want it on record that this is all Jeremy Compton’s fault. Why
you ask. Well it all starts with him. Let me present
my evidence. Jeremy was Brian’s best man in his up coming wedding.
Jeremy decided that it would be fun to play Paintball for Brian’s
Bachelor party. Jeremy booked us a day at Stalker Paintball in Lyndon
Station, WI and this was to be our first taste of paintball and the
beginning of our team. We played for about 8 hours straight shooting our
rental Tippman 98’s at each other and having a blast doing it. We had a
great ref who made sure we had a good time while still stressing safety.
Although we didn’t know it that day most of us were hooked. Jeremy
was also the first one to buy his own marker. He went searching for a
good price on Ebay and purchased a Spyder TL. Jeremy and some of
his other friends from Beaver Dam started playing Paintball on his
family farm. He purchased several extra Paintball markers for others to
use as well.
Back in La Crosse the addiction that Brian and I had lay
dormant do to a lack of exposure to the sport. That all changed when
Brian went to visit Jeremy one weekend and of course ended up playing
with them. When Brian came back to La Crosse he made sure to tell me
about his time at Jeremy’s, which of course got me thinking. I called
Jeremy and asked him to get me a marker so we could start playing the La
Crosse area. Brian and I are both from a town called Hillsboro, and it
is located about half way between La Crosse and Beaver Dam, so I figured
we could all meet and play there. Compton sold me his extra Tippman 98.
As soon as I had it in my hands the need to play and to know more about
paintball started.
Shortly after this I was looking at a magazine rack and noticed
a copy of Action Pursuit Games. Feeding my need for more
knowledge, I bought it. This was my first look at the world of
tournament Paintball. I enjoyed the woods ball we had played but was
hooked on the idea of competitive paintball. A couple of weeks later,
Brian and I had planned to go visit Jeremy and this was to be my first
taste of paintball since our day at Stalker. It was not to be, Jeremy’s
first born son, Evan, decided it was time to enter the world the night
before we were to play. (Congratulations to Jeremy and Katie!)
Talking to my friend
Troy one day I discovered that he plays scenario ball with a group of
his friends. If you read Paintball 2Xtremes you may have heard of them,
they are the Scenario Tank Team,
The Gryphonians.
Troy lent me a couple of copies
he had of Paintball 2Xtremes and the articles in there, particularly the
Staying Power ones, made me decide I wanted to play tournament ball.
At this point its November and Paintball is officially over in the State
of Wisconsin.
After doing some research I realize, I know nothing about paintball and
if I’m going to be on a team and I had better start preparing early. I
start calling anyone I know who I think would be interested in being on
team. This is where the trials and tribulations truly start. I get lots
of. “I’d like to try it” but few yes’s. Out of those few yeses’ even
fewer commit. After more phone calls and a few meetings I end up with 4
solid players here in La Crosse. I also purchased my first electronic
marker, my Spyder flash. (I never shot my Tippman once and sold it to
buy more gear)
In Beaver Dam, Jeremy was trying to put his own team together and was
running into similar problems. After a few phone conversations we
decide we will just be one big team instead of two separate teams. This
really solidified it. With six full time players we are a Team. Jeremy
and I researched Tournament Paintball rules, tips and tactics, gear, and
things to expect. We then passed that info on to our team in the form of
printouts from Internet articles or stuff copied from magazines. We made
sure everyone knew the costs and equipment needed. We helped them make
their purchases by finding the best deals. We had one meeting about
every 3 weeks. Two of the hardest things we had to decide on were team
name and what jersey’s we wanted. After weeks of discussion, and hundred
of names tossed in and out, we decided on Team Wraith. Next
was jersey’s, I liked the JT jersey, Brian like the Dye jersey, and no
else one wanted to spend $50 for a flashy jersey for our first year as a
team. Jeremy found the solution; Kingman USA was running a close out
sale on its Raven Jersey’s and after a short discussion we all agreed on
the Flux.
During our last meeting we discussed field walking, what positions
everyone will be playing, moves during the game, shooting drills and
sponsorship. As I listened to the discussions I realized how far we have
come in a short four months. In November I didn’t know the difference
between a bunker move and an insert, now we have a field diagram drawn
on my dry erase board and we are planning our moves off the break, our
secondary moves, and who’s in charge of what shooting lane. I’m not sure
how well we will play this year but I have high hopes we will make a
good showing of ourselves. We’ll find out on April 13th, at
the Stalker 5 Man Trophy Dash. Wish us Luck!
Part 1
Story by Todd Lawrence
Team Wraith
March 2003
See Part 2
See Part 3
