The Paintball Club hosted a student-faculty paintball event on Sunday, Dec. 16 at the California Paintball Park. Both middle school and upper school students attended the event to play paintball.
People new to paintball were welcome to play paintball for the first time, and rental equipment was available.
“This was my first time playing paintball,” William Lee ’14 said. “I was really shaky the first game and got out quickly, but after a few games I really got the hang of it. It almost felt like a video game. There’s a lot of crouching and ducking, keeping your head low and looking for targets.”
Recreational paintball is played outdoors in a field with specifically designed obstacles and terrain. In team death match mode, teams fight until all members of one team have been eliminated. A person is eliminated when he has been shot by a paintball pellet. Games last roughly 15 minutes.
The Paintball Club was created by Walter Wang ’13 two years ago and also participates in serious paintball tournaments.
“Paintball has always been a passion of mine and I decided that I wanted to bring my passion to Harvard-Westlake,” Wang said. “After being encouraged by people such as Mr. Bird and Mr. Levin, I decided to make an official Harvard-Westlake paintball club. It was made purely to have fun.”
Wang said that many faculty members, including performing arts teacher Shawn Costantino, science teacher Tara Eitner, science teacher Dietrich Schuhl, athletic trainer Milo Sini, Assistant Director of Admission Melanie Leon and Attendance Coordinator Gabriel Preciado, also went to play paintball with the students.
“It was a great event. Faculty, staff and students all came together and had a great time,” Eitner said. “Walter did an incredible job pulling together a wonderful event. It was a great community building activity and was nothing but positive and light.”
The paintballers returned to school, exhausted and wet, but still having enjoyed every moment of it.
“We passed by Six Flags on the way back from paintball,” Peter Kim ’14 said. “I thought to myself, even if there were no lines at Six Flags, I would still go back to paintball.”
