Jeff Simke made a business decision. He traded in his golf clubs for weapons, ammunition and air tanks and transformed a miniature golf course and driving range in Loxahatchee into a haven for paintball enthusiasts.
On a recent Saturday, players arrived at Simke's Hot Shots Paintball facility in pairs and groups, and also as lone gunmen. There were several birthday parties for groups of 10 or 12 pre-teens on the 20-acre setting. In addition, a team from Delray Beach came to practice and train for an upcoming tournament.
"Kids who used to take my junior golf clinics when they were 6, 7 and 8 years old are now playing paintball here," Simke said. "It's truly been fun to see."
For Simke, paintball is an activity that gets participants a good workout.
"They're going to work up a sweat out here," he said. "I'm most proud of the quality time moms and dads can have with their kids. To me, that's the real reason for this. It's a wholesome family environment."
After checking in, most players head to the staging area where games are organized, similar to pickup basketball games at local parks.
"You see a lot of new faces, but you end up playing with them all day and becoming friends when you see them week after week," said Wellington's Alex Parks, who operates NSAPaintball.com and organizes day-long scenario tournaments. "You go looking for a game and creating a lot of friendships."
Jim Miller and his 16-year-old son, Brandon, were part of the NLRPaintball.com team that practiced for about four hours around the inflatable bunkers. The Delray Beach residents worked on drills, devised plays and scrimmaged to see what was most effective.
"It's a great thing playing with my son," Miller said. "We have players from 13 to 43 years old and from all walks of life. We have EMTs, a police officer, an electrician, a computer programmer and a graphics designer."
Brandon Blouin, of Loxahatchee, is the head referee and gun repairman. He said paintball requires toughness.
"It is a very physical game," he said. "It keeps kids out of trouble and gets them out from in front of the TV and the Xbox. But everybody is here for the same purpose � to shoot at each other."
Players must be at least 10 years old, Simke said. Grandparents play for free. The facility is lighted, and night paintball is popular on Fridays and Saturdays. All games have referees to ensure safety, as masks must be worn on the field at all times.
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When FAU�s paintball team steps onto the field at the Collegiate World Cup 2009, they will get a five-second countdown before the game begins. They will then have about a half of a second to get to a bunker before their competitors� gunfire gets to them � but that�s not going to be their biggest problem.
Their biggest problem is going to be whether or not they will have it together when they face off with the top collegiate paintball team in the country.
As of press time, only three other collegiate teams are registered to compete against FAU at the World Cup in October. Those teams are the Auburn University Tigers, the Purdue University Boilermakers and the University of Florida Gators.
Of those three, the Purdue team is the strongest competitor and most significant threat. The team won both the Collegiate World Cup in 2008 and the National Collegiate Paintball Championship this year, which is the biggest yearly event for collegiate paintball.
Jim Miller, coach of the local paintball team NLR, has played with the FAU team during practices. He�s also seen Purdue in action.
�They play like a pro paintball team,� he said.
According to Miller, he�s seen games that lasted only 20 seconds on a pro level.
�The shots come so fast,� he said. �The amazing part is they come so fast, you won�t even know where they�re coming from.�
So what should this mean for FAU?
To have practice, and lots of it.
Junior Greg Montalvo, captain of the FAU paintball team, said his players have been practicing at Hot Shots Paintball in Loxahatchee almost every Saturday since the second week of the fall semester. Their practices consist of scrimmages amongst themselves and other local teams, including players from teams NLR and the Palm Beach Vipers.
Montalvo, a business major, feels that an important aspect of FAU�s preparation is that the team spends time apart from practice studying the layout of the field they will be playing on when competing at the World Cup.
�[It�s about] learning the layout of the field on paper while at home to find the shots that the other team wouldn�t expect, and to know their shots and angles on the field regardless of where they are,� said Montalvo. �It�s basically chess with guns.�
Co-captain Tom Colon seconded this opinion when discussing bunker positions on the field. Each bunker is unique and requires a different type of strategy.
�We need to be prepared to play wherever we have to play, not just where we normally play,� said the senior psychology major.
Ultimately, their goal is to win.
�We�re out to win, that�s the main thing that we�re trying to do,� said Montalvo. �I want us to be a team that people fear.�
And they refuse to be intimidated by Purdue.
�[We are] not letting their status and wins in the collegiate paintball world get to us,� said Montalvo. �If we go in with the mentality of it being just another team, we will win. We have the ability and the heart to go out and win, and that is how we will do it.�
About the Paintball World Cup 2009
When: Wednesday Oct. 7 - 11
Venue: Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Fla.
Cost: Free entrance. Grandstand tickets, for the showcase field only, are available for $15 each day or $50 for the whole event.
Hosted by: Paintball Sports Promotions Events.
Description: The Paintball World Cup is the largest professional paintball tournament in the world. It is also host to the largest trade show in the industry, where all of the latest equipment in paintball is on display for players and spectators alike.
For more information on the event, and to view a live streaming Web cast of the World Cup, Oct. 9 - 11, visit www.pspevents.com.