By Madelyn Stone

News Correspondent

At first glance, paintball may not seem like the most team-oriented sport. Players fire paint-filled balls at each other with the goal of eliminating all of the other team’s members – get hit once and you’re out. With participants rushing behind barriers and scrambling on the ground to avoid projectiles flying at over 200 miles per hour, it would appear as though all the individuals are fending for themselves. But the president of the Northeastern paintball team offers another view.
“It’s really, in my opinion, the most team-oriented sport,” Kyle Morgan, junior psychology major, said. “There’s no one ball or something that everyone focuses on, it’s just team against team. There’s never any one person who has all the responsibility. Everyone’s working together and everyone can pull each other’s weight.”
Since it was founded in 2007, the Northeastern paintball team has provided participants with this sense of teamwork. As part of the National Collegiate Paintball Association, the paintball team has class A and AA divisions.
“Class A is what’s called XBall format, which is timed matches,” Morgan said. “Right now in our division we play against the University of Connecticuit, The United States Military Academy at West Point and Southern Connecticut State.”
A larger number of teams compete in the AA division, designed more for entry-level players. Rather than having a limited time to gain as many points as possible, class AA paintball teams play the best two out of three games.
Each division participates in three tournament events a semester before competing at a national event at the end of the year.  Nationals take place in Lakeland, Fla., where the team contends with around 150 other colleges from across the country.
For Morgan, the most enjoyable part of the sport is its intense energy.
“It’s a rush. We’re shooting our guns at twelve-and-a-half balls a second,” he said. “Imagine how many paintballs are flying through the air at once – and if you get hit by one, you’re out. So the adrenaline there just can’t compare to anything else.”
Middler international business major Jack Brennan, who started playing paintball competitively in middle school, is a member of the team. Brennan said what draws him to the sport is the exhilaration of the game.
“No matter what sport it is, you don’t get the same adrenaline rush as with paintball,” Brennan said. “It’s pretty addictive.”
In addition to the rush of adrenaline, Brennan mentioned another factor that distinguishes paintball from other sports.
“A lot of the difference has to do with safety,” he said, using an adjective that may not come to mind with the image of high-speed projectiles. “The people that play are responsible; they take lots of precautions to make sure it’s safe. Getting shot kind of hurts, but it’s something that you get used to.”
The team usually practices every other weekend at a local field. With the season just beginning, students looking to get involved with the paintball team can talk to Morgan about participating.
“If anyone wants to come play, we’re going to start organizing recreational play at our local field,” Morgan said. “If anyone has paintball experience or wants to get into the sport, by all means contact me. We’ve had people come join the team who’ve never played paintball before and within a few months they’re just great players. We try to train them quick.”
The paintball team has their first event of the school year this weekend in Coventry, Conn. Morgan said the competitions are usually too far for most Northeastern students to attend but that the players would appreciate other students’ support.
“If anyone wanted to come to the events, that would be awesome to have a cheering section,” he said.
Brennan agreed that the team would appreciate more involvement from other students.
“Having people watching and supporting us would be great,” he said. “We’d love to show people the sport and get more people into it.”