Paintball players recruit team

When people are learning a new sport, they usually play with beginners. When Chris Medlyn first played paintball, it was against his uncle, who is a sniper for the S.W.A.T. team in Champaign, Ill.\nBefore Medlyn transferred to IU from the University of Southern Indiana, he researched clubs and discovered that IU was the only Big Ten university without a paintball team. When he arrived, he decided to start the paintball club. Medlyn is hoping to make paintball a club sport, which would give the club the ability to play as the official IU paintball team.\n"The first time I played paintball, it was me, my cousin and my cousin's friend on a team," Medlyn said. "I was the last person on my team on the field, and my dad and my uncle were on the other team. My uncle told me I could give up or get out -- I decided to get out. The second I tried to make a move, I was out of the game." \nMedlyn has been playing paintball for the past eight years. Four years ago, scouts approached him and asked him to try out for an amateur team named Invictus. Medlyn made the team and played and toured all over the Midwest. "The guys on the team were all 35-year-olds and were ex-pro," said Medlyn. "My game stepped up 800 times just by playing with people of such experience."\nThe other two founding members of the IU paintball club, Chris Amick and Ian Johnston, are equally experienced at paintball. Amick has been playing for eight years and has been participating in tournaments for three years. Johnston was first introduced to the game 10 years ago by his brother and his friends. All three founding members agree the game is addictive from the start. \n"After my first time playing, I really got into it, and I just began to play more and more often," Johnston said. \nThe best parts of paintball for Johnston are that it's great exercise, it's fast-paced and it's all-around fun to play, he said.\nBut one turnoff to some people is that paintball can be an expensive sport. To make the sport more affordable, the paintball club has created a sponsorship with the local off-campus field where they play. The sponsorship will enable the club to provide paintball attire and equipment to its members at a subsidized rate. The club also receives discounts from Bloomington Paintball Supply, said Amick. \nWhile the paintball club has no fees this year, next year Medlyn may install a $10 annual fee to go toward tournaments dues. \n"The most fun thing about paintball is playing tournament paintball. You really get to know your teammates and have a lot of fun on and off the field," Amick said. \nClub members play in "Paintball Valley" at Valley Branch Retreat, which is near Nashville, Ind., roughly 20 minutes away from Bloomington, and meet once or twice a month to play. Medlyn hopes to gather an interested group to go to Paintball Valley every weekend. Although club members are required to have IDs for recognition purposes to play at Paintball Valley, which they receive joining the paintball club, members will get discounts toward those IDs. \nThe three founding members say despite its reputation for being a risky sport, paintball can be enjoyed without people sustaining injuries. \n"People should know that paintball is a lot of fun, and it is a safe sport when people follow a few simple rules," Amick said. \n"The best way to describe being hit by a paintball is that it's like being popped with a towel," Medlyn said. "It's also unusual to get hit anywhere else besides the mask and the gun."\nThe three founding members of the paintball club recently stood outside Ballantine Hall in full paintball regalia, handing out flyers to passersby walking to class to create awareness for the club. \nCurrently the paintball club is based on recreational play, and anyone who is remotely interested in paintball is encouraged to join. The club has 20 members, with more people expressing interest to join. The paintball club also has a group called the "Indiana Hoosier Paintball Club @ IU" through http://thefacebook.com. \nAs for the future of the group, the three founding members hope to see paintball become a club sport at IU. That way, the team could play against other university paintball teams and generally raise awareness for the sport. \n"I hope that the paintball club will attract as many different people with levels of experience, ranging from the first-time player to those that play at the tournament level," Johnston said. "I would love to see IU with a paintball team that could play against all of the other schools that have been involved with paintball for some time."\nMedlyn said in addition to being fun, paintball offers players team building experiences and a rush of energy.\n"Paintball is extremely addictive and offers a level of adrenaline that can't be experienced doing anything else," he said.\nStudents interested in joining the paintball club can contact club members at paintball3400@yahoo.com.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Laila Hayat at lhayat@indiana.edu.