For some people, assembling a paintball team is a hard thing to do.  When I first started playing, all of my friends were a lot better than me and none of them really wanted me to be on their team.  I have to admit, back then I probably wouldn’t have of wanted me on my team either; my skills were pretty poor.  For me, finding a team took a lot more than just asking around.  It took getting my name out there with consistent great performances on the field; it took some determination and a lot of practice. 

After playing for about a year I finally felt like I was good enough to be on a team and wanted to join one.  This posed another problem; many of my friends enjoyed just playing on the weekends and not competing or trying to win tournaments.  I knew there would be regular practice and that I had to be with a group of guys who took every part of it fairly seriously – including practicing all the time.   

One day, the local paintball store gave me a call and told me someone is looking for an extra player for their team to play in a tournament.  I immediately called and took the spot.  The tournament was the very next day and I was ready to play so I packed up my gear and went out to the field.  I played as hard as possible in the tournament; we did pretty well but didn’t make it into the finals.  I learned a lot about the basics of playing in a tournament and that communication on the field is everything.