Competitive paintball is a chaotic, high-paced competition, requiring a combination of endurance and finesse — much more than “shooting each other in the woods.”
After claiming a No. 2 national ranking last year, the Texas A&M paintball team swept its three South Central Collegiate Conference tournaments this semester, the last win in a trip to Dallas on Nov. 14.
“It’s a huge rush and unlike any other sport — there’s nothing to compare it to,” said Daniel Morales, general engineering freshman. “It brings out the best in someone, and it also brings you together as a team like a family. You always have each others’ backs and protect one another. The trust in one another goes beyond any other sport. Most of the students don’t know we have a team or even about paintball.”
Maintaining its status as one of the top teams in the nation requires constant vigilance on the practice field, and the A&M club puts in plenty of hours every week to stay sharp. Team members practice mainly on Tuesdays and Sundays, alternating between the Student Recreation Center and trips to Houston for field work.
Jacob Geesin, geology sophomore and club treasurer, said having Tuesday practices gives the team an advantage over other universities, because the practice allows them a day to solely work on fundamentals.
Tuesday practices take place in the archery room inside the Texas A&M Student Recreation Center. The team uses rubber paintballs to simulate in-match action without creating an enormous cleanup project. On Sundays the team leaves College Station at 7 a.m. to travel to Houston for practice.
“We practice all the time,” said Mike Strachan, civil engineering junior and club vice president. “We have practices on Tuesday every week. We also have practices every Sunday, and then right before the tournaments we have a practice on Saturday. So we get two days in where most schools get just the one day before an event. We get twice the work, twice the hours.”
Each tournament is often hours away from College Station, making it difficult for other Aggies to travel and watch.
“Traveling [is] pretty fun, it’s like a little getaway,” Morales said. “Not having our own practice field that’s up to standards for tournaments kind of sucks because we have to travel to Houston on Sundays and sometimes even Saturdays and it’s quite an expense.”
Strachan said he would love for a tournament to be held in College Station.
“That way, all the people we tell about the team will actually come out and watch rather than having to travel to Dallas, or Houston, or Austin, or San Antonio,” Strachan said. “I feel like we would actually have people come and watch and see that we’re actually good.”
Because paintball is a club sport, it can be difficult for it to garner recognition and support from others, said Brady Callen, agricultural leadership and development junior and club safety officer.
“It [would be] really cool to not necessarily be known on campus, but just to have a program that people know about and people can get behind because [we] are successful,” Callen said. “It’s easy to get behind a successful program, but not many people have heard about [paintball] just because it’s not a varsity sport like football or baseball.”
Geesin said the team hopes to reach more students who may want to participate in paintball.
“Every time we go to the MSC Open House and they see A&M paintball, the first question is, ‘Oh, we have a paintball team?,’” Geesin said. “So it’d be really nice having that first question be, ‘How do I sign up?’”
The paintball club welcomes anyone with a desire to learn more about paintball. Experience of all levels is accepted. With multiple teams and strings, everyone has a place.
“We’re a club sport so we don’t really have specific tryouts to say, ‘Oh, you can play with us,’ or, ‘You can’t play with us,’” Callen said. “As a club sport we take anybody. From somebody who’s never seen a paintball gun before, to people that are really experienced.”
To many of the members, paintball is more than just a game. From making friends to making good grades, paintball is a significant part of their lives.
“I just came here and there happened to be a really good paintball team,” Geesin said. “It definitely helped me make some friends starting out and [gave me] something to do during the week and weekends. It made my semesters a whole lot better by joining the team.”