Paintball club expands

The Norwich paintball club continues to expand, according to club members.

"We are just people who come together who want to have fun and play paintball, we do what we can to represent the school and have fun," said S. Addison Szumigala, a 19-year-old sophomore who majors in war and peace and is from Strykersville, N.Y.

The club started small, mostly a storage club for students to store their gear and paintball guns.

Paintball, according to Paintballology.com, occurs "either in the wilderness or in an arena. Realistically, the game is very similar to laser tag, although there are rather important differences in the rules."

Sean McCormack, a 19-year old sophomore communications major from Epping, N.H., said, "We go out and play hard and we try to get fundraising for our club, we play hard so we can eventually get a sponsor."

The NU paintball club lacks a sponsorship so members use their own money to cover the cost of events and games.

"We used to go to events by ourselves, we carpooled, but the administration stepped in and now the club travels in the many Norwich vans," McCormack said.

"The paintball club is made of 100 members with 50-60 active members, and believe it or not we do have a lot. We are looking into getting a compressor so we can play on campus, and we love the idea of possibly playing on top of Mt. Paine," said Zachary McLaughlin a 22-year-old criminal justice major from the Cayman Islands.

Club members have had fundraisers to reduce the cost to participate.

Clifford Pebbly, a 20-year-old junior from Wakefield, Mass., said, "We have gone to New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire. We are trying to get some Student Government Association (SGA) funds but it's mainly all our own money."

"I really look forward to how far we can actually take this club. It's really exciting to be a part of and to start something such as this. We just try to accomplish something every week; we are now focusing on having more meetings, and requiring a study hall for club members," Pebbly said.