Paintball, spinoffs growing in popularity By TED GRIGGS tgriggs@theadvocate.com Newsfeatures staff writer Advocate staff photo by Mark Saltz For paintballers, it's the ultimate rush. Three hundred seconds of pulse-pounding, testosterone-cranking, nerve-racking, adrenaline-mainlining, paint-throwing fun. "The best thing I can equate it to is if you're a baseball player and you're coming up to bat," said Don Prieto, avid paintballer and co-owner of Paintball Command in Mandeville. "The pitcher's winding up, the adrenaline's going up. He throws the pitch, boom, the adrenaline's over. That only lasts four seconds. "These guys kind of got that going for five minutes." The intensity helps explain why paintball games became the country's fastest-growing sport in 2002, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Some 6.9 million people played last year, an increase of 24.4 percent. Speedball junkie Thomas Monteforte of New Orleans, 44, has been paintballing for eight years, playing speedball for about five. Like everyone else, Monteforte started out playing scenario games, which were often battles between armies set in a post-apocalyptic world.

Speedball began about five years ago as an "end-of-the-day type thing," Monteforte said. "It was 30-on-30, guys just running at each other," Monteforte said, laughing.

Now, speedball has taken over, Prieto said. Scenarios are still popular, but they take longer and lack the immediate and constant adrenaline rush of speedball.

Speedballers play tournaments throughout the country and world. There are paintball camps, professional teams and a pro circuit, magazines and hundreds and hundreds of Web sites devoted to the sport. LSU and Southeastern Louisiana University are among the 150 member schools in the National Collegiate Paintball Association.

The number of people per speedball team varies, but tournaments often feature five-man events. The game's goal is simple: eliminate your opponents or capture the flag at the center of the field and hang it in your opponent's flag station. The strategy is often a lot more involved.

Prieto said many teams call plays and speak in code to disguise their strategy.

Advocate staff photo by Mark Saltz

The team Monteforte now plays with meets twice a month just to discuss tactics and design plays. Team members also practice just about every weekend when they're not competing in a tournament. They play other teams and practice offensive and defensive drills, such as one man against two, two-on-two, or trying to pick off an opponent on the break.

At the beginning of a five-man game, also known as the break, two players stay in the back and "throw a lot of paint" to provide cover for the three forward players, Monteforte said. If you can knock out a man on the break, it's a tremendous advantage.

Monteforte organized his previous team and even ran a speedball league for five years, but the team broke up because of personality conflicts. The sport's speed and high adrenaline levels can lead to some heated disagreements, he said. A couple of his friends' marriages disintegrated because of paintball. "At the level that we're at, this can demand a lot on a relationship … on a personal level ... because this becomes an addiction," Monteforte said. "At the peak of it, my phone and e-mails and cell phone was all the time paintball, paintball, paintball."

Curt Colson knows the feeling. He has been playing for nine years and founded The Paintball Club @ LSU in fall 2001. In October, LSU's team finished third at the X Ball Collegiate World Cup in Orlando, Fla. In order to compete, team members had to take three days off from school and pay their own way to the tournament. Colson said it was worth every penny.

In X Ball, a speedball variant, five-man teams play two 15-minute halves on fields of varying size and layout. They score by successfully hanging the center flag in their opponents' flag station. Whoever scores the most wins. Fields have bunkers, or shelters the players can hide behind, but there's no set number per field, Colson said. The idea is to make the game fast-paced without crowding the field. "X Ball, that honestly is where I see paintball in the future. When you see paintball on TV, that's what it's going to be," Colson said. 

Colson said communication is the key to succeeding at X Ball or speedball. The team that communicates the best, relaying the opponents' positions, will win. It also helps to make yourself the smallest target possible. "You don't want to leave anything hanging out. If your elbow's sticking out, they'll shoot it," he said. "If your foot's sticking out, they'll shoot it." This is because people like Colson practice religiously. Every Sunday, he and other LSU paintball club members can be found at Paintball Command, blowing through a case of paint or so apiece. There are 2,000 rounds in a case, which costs from $50 to $70. Colson said recreational players might shoot about half of what he does. Although the costs can add up and the sport is time-consuming, Kathy Dicharry of New Orleans said she encourages her 14-year-old son Lee and his friends to play. "It's good, clean fun. It's good exercise. They can get together and just keep out of trouble," she said. "To me, I wouldn't want to do it; it's painful. They come home with bruises. But they like it." And it's better for Lee than sitting at home watching TV inside an air-conditioned house, she added.

Colson said anyone interested in paintball should go to a field with some friends -- that way you know someone -- and start playing. "Guys that go out there playing paintball, we're not training for guerilla warfare or anything. It's like playing football or any other sport," he said. "I like to say it's the ultimate game of hide and go seek."