There are few sports that get such a bum rap as paintball. Parents groups and schools frequently deride the sport as violent, warlike and a blight on young people everywhere. “It’s not a violent sport. I know that’s not the common perception, but it’s not,” said sophomore Noah Collin, arguably Guilford’s biggest proponent of paintball. “Paintball is a lot of fun. It’s a really good blend of strategy and luck. It’s a well-designed sport. . Paintball’s different because it’s not played on a standard field with standard rules. There’s a lot of variables.”

A six-year veteran of the sport, Collin is setting up a trip for Guilford students to Greensboro’s Paintball Central.

The reason so many people view paintball as dangerous is clear: there is a strong military feel to the game. Participants, armed with compressed-air guns loaded with paint pellets, are organized into teams and sent into a prearranged field full of obstacles to try to “tag” each other with paint. Comparisons with combat are inevitable in this situation.

However, the sport is no more inherently violent than playing with water pistols. The goal is to mark your opponent and force them to leave the field, and you cooperate with your teammates and friends to tag them, just like capture the flag or dodgeball. Many are skeptical about the safety of the guns used for the sport, but safety precautions are mandatory at all paintball arenas, and the punishment for breaking the rules is usually expulsion.

Even here at Guilford, a surprising number of students have played this sport. Their opinions of paintball vary, ranging from very enthusiastic to dubious in the extreme. One of the negative opinions came from first-year Alex Yockey, who said, “Aw, come on. Paintball’s terrible! It hurts, and then you spend a lot of money on it.”

The spending part is certainly true. Paintball is an expensive hobby – Collin estimates that he has spent “less than ten thousand, but probably more than five thousand dollars” on the sport – and many of the high-end guns will cost thousands of dollars, not counting field rental or paint.

The game is great fun and a good way to blow-off steam. First-year Robin Shores summed up the game by saying, “It’s a lot of fun, you get to go shoot at your friends without hurting them.”

The paintball trip will be taking place on April 15. If you’d like to participate, contact Noah Collin at [email protected]. The cost is about $40 per person, which covers gun rental, paint, mask and use of the paintball course.