Masked faces intermittently appeared in clusters of mustard
flowers, players slinked stealthily through thick underbrush and
ammo whizzed through the air, spraying wooden bunkers with neon
dots of color and exploding on metal barrels in successive
thunks.
Masked faces intermittently appeared in clusters of mustard flowers, players slinked stealthily through thick underbrush and ammo whizzed through the air, spraying wooden bunkers with neon dots of color and exploding on metal barrels in successive thunks.
“Take ’em down! Take ’em down!”
“Back center!”
Thunk thunk thunk.
“Go easy!”
“Did you see that guy on the right?”
Thunk thunk thunk thunk.
“He’s out – he’s out – let ’em out!”
“We got one in the snake – where are the other two?”
“In the center! There’s two in the center!”
Thunk thunk.
Paintball looks like artistic warfare or an intensified version of capture the flag during an action–packed gathering held April 9 at the GreenZone Paintball facility on Hecker Pass Highway.
But above all the game is a dynamic tango of strategic communication between team members – a strength the Notorious Nerds, a four–man team from Gilroy, are banking on when they compete in the National Collegiate Paintball Association’s National Championship in Lakeland, Florida Saturday.
“This game is such a team sport,” said Nerds member Jacob Mandel. “Communication is key. If you’re not talking on the field, you don’t stand a chance.”
Like their alternative education at GECA – Mandel, 17, Colton Moulden, 16 and Nick Daleo, 17 – are owning their alternative sport proudly.
Jacob’s 14-year-old younger brother Samuel Mandel, an eighth grader at Solorsano Middle School who plans on attending GECA next year, is also one of the Nerds. Samuel’s a man of few words but is a dangerous snake player – a member that crawls along the side of a snake-shaped bunker for a more advantageous position.
“People will get mad at me if I get them out and they’re older than me,” he said quietly through a smile.
GECA doesn’t have an athletics program, but the school’s official paintball club is filling that void.
When the club originated in 2010, Moulden explained the four teammates blended right in and have been enjoying a budding community of paintballing comrades ever since.
Now, the Nerds are here to represent.
“It’s really interesting that GECA – a group of academically gifted children who don’t have sports programs – produced regional champs for paintball,” mused Ken Mandel, Jacob and Samuel’s father, team parent and moral support system. “It’s GECA’s only claim to athletic fame.”
Ken’s referring to the Regional High School Paintball Championship at Capital Edge Paintball in Sacramento, one of nine regional competitions held nationally in March 2011. Here the Nerds defeated the Mob Squad – former NCPA champs from Pleasant Grove High School with a considerable number of wins under their belt – in cold, rainy conditions.
“My hands were frozen,” recalled Daleo. “I couldn’t even open a bag of paint.”
The Nerd’s underdog success in Sacramento catapulted them directly to nationals. As regional champs, their winnings helped cover some of the flight, registration and hotel expenses, but the rest is out of pocket.
“We don’t have sports,” reasoned Treva Boyce, GECA English 10 honors/AP English teacher and club advisor who suits up and joins in on the action.
She said the Nerd’s success has bolstered a sense of school spirit.
“This is our one sport. People think of GECA and think of nerds. These guys just go out there and kick butt. There’s more to us than books and brains.”
Boyce added GECA loses “a lot” of students to other local high schools due to a lack of athletics programs.
“They had to make a little bit of sacrifice to come here,” added Ken. “paintball has been a really great thing for them.”
He noted the Nerds are just “a rag tag bunch of guys” who went to regionals on a whim to have fun. Now they’re pitted against the nation’s best.
The championships host two separate categories for high school and college students. Eight high school teams including GECA have registered for the high school portion, which lasts all day Saturday with playoffs going from 3 to 5 p.m. and will be broadcast on ncpapaintball.org.
Boyce – who showed up at GreenZone April 9 ready to rumble in combat boots and camouflage – is hoping the momentum stays solid. She wants to see paintball become a lasting tradition for their small but tight-knit school.
“I’ve taken her out before,” laughed Jacob. “But that’s just because she’s just as much of a threat as anybody.”
Paintball has a gamut of interesting elements constituting its dynamics, from bunkers shaped like Doritos tortilla chips to a capture-the-flag objective.
The main piece of equipment is a paintball marker, which propels paintballs stored in a hopper through the barrel by force of compressed air.
Of course, the pain factor is a looming enigma.
“When you get hit by one of these, it doesn’t tickle,” noted Todd Durham, a member of South Valley Community Church who organizes monthly gatherings at GreenZone.
He eyed players from a raised embankment on the east side of the course behind protective netting, successive pop, pop, pops snapping in the air.
Given their frequent exposure to plump projectiles of liquid–filled gelatin capsules traveling at 300 feet per second, the Notorious Nerds have suffered their fair share of inglorious war wounds.
“On my thigh, the size of a silver dollar.”
“A bloody neck.”
“Three times in the back of the head.”
“Nick shot me in the hand.”
It sounds grisly, but whatever sociological stigmas outsiders have attached to the sport, the team unanimously debunks.
“You have adrenaline going, so it doesn’t sting too bad,” added Daleo.
“It’s nothing compared to a fastball in the arm,” countered Moulden, who played baseball growing up.
Jacob said the worst battle scar he’s ever received was a square hit to the left shoulder – from a 9-year-old.
“I was excited that he shot me, though. If a little kid shoots me, I’m going to tell him ‘good job.’ ”
Moulden added pint-sized players get a little more grace.
“You don’t go there and light up a little kid. He’ll go home crying and never come back.”
Judging from turnout April 9 when fully-suited parents to gung-ho youngsters arrived in droves, paintball has all-age appeal.
“Little kids,” chuckled Ken, watching one exit the field with a face mask full of blue paint. “They shoot indiscriminately. They’ll shoot their own teammates.”
Moulden said some see paintball as “barbaric,” but he highlighted the emphasis on safety and respect – on and off the playing field.
“I’ll see one person out there doing something stupid, and it makes the whole sport look bad,” he said. “No matter where you play, if someone loses their mask, if it falls off, they stop the game completely.”
True to his remark, during recreational games April 9 at GreenZone anyone who came close to the playing fields without a mask was immediately reprimanded by referees.
As for their preparedness for Saturday’s event in Florida, the Nerds are excited – albeit a little nervous – to dip their toes in more competitive waters.
Paintball may be obscure, Boyce indicated, but it’s something GECA can claim as its own.
“We’re athletic guys,” said Jacob. “We need something to do and we found paintball by accident. And that was it.”
