By Nate Owen, News Staff

Despite being in existence for just two years, the Northeastern club paintball team is no’ stranger to success.
With its most recent tournament win, the team claimed sole possession of first place in Class AA Collegiate Paintball.
A big part for the team’s success has been its chemistry, which plays an integral part on the field.
‘There’s a lot more camaraderie this year,’ club president Rick Seeger said. ‘We practice twice a week’ and travel 300 or 600 miles for tournaments. You’ve got to trust that the guy behind you is doing his job, if you don’t trust him, you won’t do well.’
The team won their third tournament in as many tries Feb. 7 in Greensburg, Penn. at the All American Paintball Park. Entering the tournament, the Huskies were tied with three teams for the top spot in Class AA, but found themselves all alone in first at the conclusion of the tournament.
This is the team’s second year as an official club sport. Seeger said the team was a student group a few years ago, and fell apart until last summer, when he found a Facebook group of people who played paintball. From there, he said he cobbled together a team and gained club status.
An infusion of new talent this season has been another key in the team’s rise.
Freshman Kyle Morgan is one of those newcomers. Morgan, a Revere native, said he met many of the team members at Monster Paintball in Woburn before he came to Northeastern.
‘We all get along really well and that shows on the field,’ Morgan said. ‘I’ve made a lot of really good friends.’
Morgan said each player on the field has an assigned job. There are front players and back players.
‘The back players communicate, they yell to the front to do the dirty work, like eliminating people on the other team,’ Morgan said.
This year, the team added two coaches, Kevin Hampton and Greg Hendrickson. Both are NU alumni who were on the team last season.
‘ ‘Don’t get me wrong, I love playing,’ Hampton said. ‘But it’s underrated how mental paintball is. There’s a lot of calculating on the field. I more or less try to educate them on different scenarios and how you would react.’
‘ The 17-member team, including one female, is preparing to go to the National College Paintball Association National Championships at Central Florida Paintball in Lakeland, Fla. in April.
The Huskies will not only be competing in the Class AA tournament at Nationals, but Class A as well.
Hampton said Class A was more fast paced with a lot more strategy, comparing the jump from AA to A to the jump from the regular season to postseason in professional sports.
It’s likely the team will move up to compete in Class A on a regular basis next season, Seeger said.
Despite the team’s success, members have struggled at times to raise the money necessary for tournaments and recently had to relocate their practice field to Boston Paintball in Everett after Monster Paintball shut down, Seeger said.
Seeger said the university provides roughly 20 percent of their money, or enough for one tournament throughout the year. The rest of it is up to the team, which raises money by working as event staff at Gillette Stadium and having fundraisers
However, the team isn’t letting this damper their spirits for nationals this April.
‘We like to stay humble,’ Hampton said. ‘But we’re looking good for nationals.’