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Paintball offers teambuilding, strategizing

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By Garrison Wells
The Sun News

Mike Jenkins has been pumping out adrenaline for more than 20 years on faux fields of battle.

That's why he got into paintball - in which players put on protective gear and fire semi-automatic weapons filled with balls of paint at each other.

"It was just the adrenaline rush," Jenkins said of the game's draw. "And there's the competition. After you play, you feel so stress-free."

Jenkins, 34, is the owner of Paintball USA, a Myrtle Beach paintball field.
The four-year-old field was born of his passion for the game.

"I saw the need," he said. "I played paintball, and it was time to do something different with my life. I thought: 'Why not do something that you enjoy?'"

Jenkins competed professionally about six years ago on a national team before the game garnered national attention, which means ESPN. The network airs World Cup of Paintball.

"We did OK," Jenkins said. "Nowadays, they get more financial backing. Then it was really costly, and we didn't have enough sponsors. The entry fee was like $3,000."

Well, he's back.

Jenkins said he is forming another national team to compete and would like to get to ESPN's World Cup.
And later this year or early next year, he said, he expects to hold a regional competition at Broadway at the Beach.

A local team, he said, "would represent Myrtle Beach," he said. "We will try to get a team that is capable of winning on the national level and give Myrtle Beach some exposure."

Question | It seems like paintball is gaining in popularity nationwide. Are you seeing an impact on the game here?

Answer | It's still growing but it's not growing as fast as I would like to see it. Since it's been on TV, I'd say it's grown here about 5 percent.

Q | When did you play?

A | Probably about six years ago.

Q | What's the difference between paintball now and paintball as it was played then?

A | It's so much more advanced. There wasn't a ranking system like there is now. That part of paintball then was just in the beginning stages. Recreational paintball goes back into the '80s.

Q | Do you still play a lot?

A | I'm getting back into it. We're going to form another team and we're looking for some corporate sponsors.

Q | How would a sponsor benefit?

A | I think it benefits them big time as far as tourism. We would go to Florida, Texas, all over the United States. They would have their logo on our uniforms.

Q | How did you start the field here?

A | It wasn't easy. No banks or anything would believe in me so I did it myself. I used credit cards. I used any means necessary, my savings, everything.

Q | Are you breaking even yet?

A | We're about to break even, but I haven't paid off the initial investment of about $100,000 to $200,000. People who think that paintball fields can be put up cheap got a lot to learn. You have to buy the guns, the stuff to stock the store, netting for the fields, poles for the fields. Insurance is a major expense.

Q | Have you had many companies use the field?

A | We've had everybody from Waffle House to McAlister's Deli. A few other big corporations have come down from Charlotte.

Q | Why would a company do that? What's in it for them?

A | When you do this, you are promoting a body of one. When you get out and play together, it makes a bond. For any business, if you can develop a bond between the employees, supervisors and the owners, it's going to make working together better.

Q | And so what are the keys to success on the field?

A | You need to walk and study the field, learn about angles, how to lock down the field to keep people from moving.

Q | So there's strategy here?

A | Oh yeah.

Q | How close would you say this is to an actual battlefield situation?

A | It's very similar. People in the military need a strategy to make moves against the enemy. It's the same thing, except we walk out alive, not wounded or dead.

Name | Mike Jenkins

Company | Paintball USA
Title | Owner
Age | 34
Quote | 'When you do [paintball as a team], you are creating a body of one. That's what I call it.'
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