Published: April 15, 2010

Starting at his opponents across the paintball field, Charlie Puente, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’12, waits in anticipation for the sounds of the starting whistle to blow. The field is dead silent. Only the faint sounds of rustling leaves can be heard in the distant trees. Than in a blink of an eye the whistle goes off and the once quiet field becomes a warzone. Puente desperately runs to find cover but is instead shot. Just like that, Puente’s summer had ended.

With the first day of college just around the corner, Puente pondered on when he would get a chance to play paintball again. But as Puente was walking off the field he was struck with an idea: create a paintball club at college. Because of this idea FCLC newest sports club was born: the Lincoln Center Paintball Club (LCPB).

“Paintball requires great communication between you and your teammates,” Puente said. “For example, you work together in coordinating firing lanes and calling out where opponents are on the field.”

LCPB secretary Sia Tsolas, FCLC ’12, believes that the paintball club can offer a lot of good to the FCLC student body. “It gives us a chance to exercise and have a good time,” Tsolas said. “It gives us that kick of adrenaline that we all need once in a while.”

Puente expressed his interest in a paintball club during a Spring Preview session. “I asked if they had a paintball club, they said they didn’t but [that] it was easy to start one, so I decided to make my own paintball club,” Puente said. According to Tsolas, Puente made it his goal to create a paintball team at FCLC. “He [Puente] got the whole team together and made me secretary because I had some prior experience playing paintball,” Tsolas said.

Although the team was very passionate about starting up, it took some time before the paintball club could fully stretch its wings and begin. “The club started with me and bunch of other people who wanted to play paintball; however, it took a while to start the club because we had a hard time finding a faculty advisor.”

Jean Pak, the assistant director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, agreed to be the club’s advisor, despite a lack of paintball experience.

“It’s a great opportunity for [students] to meet new people and build community,” Pak said. “Its a good way for people to have fun with each other.”

The game of paintball is very simple to understand: there are two teams on a field, each consisting of five players. Each player is given a paintball gun with the objective of hitting the opposing team with paintballs while at the same time trying not to get hit with paintballs. When a player is shot they must raise their marker to indicate that they are out and leave the playing field. On the field there are paintball bunkers which players hide behind and use to their advantage to take out their opponents. The game is over when all players on one team are tagged with paintballs.

On March 11, LCPB had its first ever club event, as 10 students from FCLC made their way to NYC Paintball in Queens. According to the students that went, LCPB’s first event was a success. “I really enjoyed it; I thought it was really fun,” said David Wall, FCLC ’12. “Like any sporting club, it is a great way to meet new people.”

Luciana Taddei, FCLC ’12, believed that the first event was fantastic. “It was really nice being in a big group and being the only girl,” she said. “I wanted show that I could play with the guys. I don’t know what Jesuits would think of a recreational sport with guns, however. I feel that it is healthy in that it gets rid of your aggression.”

As a new club, LCPB will be looking to solidify its future at FCLC by planning new paintballing events. “We’re thinking about doing much larger outings to outdoor venues. There are paintball fields in Pennsylvania and Long Island that we are planning to look at,” Puente said. The FCLC Paintball Club meets at Tuesdays at 4 p.m. in Lowenstein Room 908.