Proper Villains

The CFOA. The largest five man tournament series of paintball in the world. Where people come to prove to other teams and to themselves that they haven’t wasted countless hours of their time and endless amounts of their money, on a sport they have no business playing.  As I sit here and write this, I can’t help but smile. 

 I’m smiling because if you would have asked me a couple of years ago, If I ever thought I’d be playing with a team that could come together and win a CFOA tournament, I would have honestly answered no.  But then again three years we were in a different place.  We were still trying to piece together sponsors.  Still trying to find enough people with the same drive and determination that we shared.  Still learning about ourselves, our abilities and deciding where we really wanted to go with all this paintball hype.  We were a rag tag few with mismatched gear, shooting whatever markers and paint we could afford, driving endless miles and paying huge field fees, just to shoot the like, across fields of spools. 

 But we learned, we grew, we got better and we pushed on.  And now, well now we have a team of people who are willing to help each other grow and learn.  We’ve a coach that knows the sport, our abilities and how to push us.  We’ve sponsors that help us stay on top of the latest gear.  But where is all of this leading? 

 The Tar Heel Open.  Sitting this tournament gave me the ability to do something I don’t normally get to do, watch.  To observe the team from the outside.  To watch the drive of our team grow through out the course of the day.  We wanted to win, we needed it.  I watched other teams fold under the pressure of games, watched them prey on one another as they lost matches, failing to rally behind their teammates and realizing a common goal.  I realized that we have something that other teams don’t.  I don’t really know what word to use to describe it; loyalty, devotion, allegiance, camaraderie, take your pick, they’d all be correct. We have a team that’s come together to form a family.  We share our victories, we share our losses.  We don’t take credit as an individual for wins, we don’t place blame on one another for failure. We’re a team in the purest, truest since of the word. 

 This is what won us the Tar Heel open.  This is what brought us from behind to dominate the event.  This is what got us noticed by other teams. This is what will bring us future trophies and continue to feed our need to better ourselves in our sport and in our everyday lives.  It was hot; we drank water, it rained; we played in the mud, it thundered and lightening; we sat and waited for it to blow over, we were hurt, tired and sore, yet we played on and not once complained.  We knew that whatever our fate, it would be shared.  Everyone had a part to play and everyone went on to do it, for the common goal. We were there to take first place and we took first place.  I’ve never been prouder to be a part of something.  This was the first time we’d taken first place in a CFOA event, but it will not be the last.       

Atleast thats how I feel about it.

Snyder, Jeremy A.