Captain's Corner

At the Trinity scenario game at All-American Paintball, Section 8 ruled the field. We performed to the best of our abilities and it paid off with the terrorists basically wiping out the rest of the competition. Communication was the key for this young team and we used it to our advantage. We learned many valuable lessons that day and we hope to learn more in the upcoming events.

11/25/00
The number one thing that we learned from this tourney is that fortune favors the bold. Playing a laid back hold back game will get you beat everytime. The first part of the day we played very conservative not advancing and losing perspective of what counted, making points. Even though we were playing with a new player with little experience, we should not have played this type of game. After the rain delay, we started playing the game on our rules, in your face advancing and rolling up the points. Even the new player caught on, and the other teams who had been running over us were getting wasted and maxed. This is an important lesson for us, always play with bravado and boldness. The tide of the game can be turned by one bold move. Even a two on one situation can be turned into victory if the player is willing to be bold and risk all.
These are lessons that we will take from here out, this was our first tourney, but I think we can all learn something from this. Be bold, play with gusto, and never give up! When the odds seem against you, take the initiative by taking the fight to you're opponent.
Will this always work? I'm not sure, maybe not, but you might get some points, and some points are better than none.

12/20/00
Okay, okay, I know it has been awile, but I am just finishing school and haven't had the time to do anything here. We got back from Wayne's World about three weeks ago, and I have to say that if you have never been to an event down there, you will never know what you are missing. It was incredible for the shear mass of people all slinging paint at once.
So, you may ask, what have we learned? Well I will tell you one thing, I know we need some night vision before going back into the woods at night. The Moist Donuts and thier cohorts tore us a new one at the base while we had no night vision. And the next time we go down there we will stay together as a team. Individually we turned some heads, but the next time we will definetily get more attention because we are going to concentrate more on the mission side of things. All in all we did very well being used as shock troops on the front lines, which is very fun by the way. But I think we will be closer together next time to take advantage of our collective strengths. I trully believe that we are greater as a whole than the sum of our parts.

And a special thanks goes out to Wayne Dollack. He put on one heck of a show down there and everyone had a great time. Another thanks goes out to Indian Creek Designs, without them neither Max nor myself would have new markers to play with. Also a big round of thanks goes to Benchmark, they donated a new grip which I won and am going to give to Daniel for Christmas (saves me from having to do any shopping, now if I could have won something domestic for the GF!)

And one more very special thanks to Budd Orr from WGP. If you have never met this man, you should try. He is a great supporter of our beloved sport and one hell of a great man. He was there every day and would talk to anyone that wanted to. It is through his efforts that our sport has come so far and his efforts will continue to improve the game. He made sure there were plenty of cockers handed out and many of these went to the youngest players out there. This makes my heart soar and helps to give these young guys a chance to keep playing this game. It is these players that are our future, so remember that the next time you go to shoot up a new kid on the field.

Til next time,
Fred

4/25/01

Okay so it has been a little while, but things have been a little hectic. I have been running a tourney series at the field that has been keeping me hopping around. A note to any teams, we have a series at All American that goes on the second weekend of each month and lasts for four months. Contact me if you are interested.

We finally got to a tourney this weekend and we did extremely well. We got to play some very good teams and learned many valuable lessons. Dave, the newest player on the team, is a welcome addition to the team. He will fit in well with the rest of the Psychos that play as Section 8. Also new are JJ and J, both are front players that complament the big back guys, so we should do well in Cypress Gardens.

Until next time,
Fred

6/29/01
Okay, so I don't keep the site up every week. But I am trying to get more stuff on here. We have had several tourneys and learned many lessons, here is my take on the important ones.

Never stop firing when you are in a game. If a ref wants to check you make him call you nuetral or get out of the way. It sounds bad, but a ref can cause you a game.

Never be afraid to run a tape or take a chance. Most people won't be able to shoot you, even a big fat butt like mine. It can sometimes suprise people when you make a move they don't expect.

Keep a tight rein on your people. Everyone on the team is a reflection of the captain. The cooler you can keep your people the better off you are. There are many mouth pieces out there in the paintball world, the more you ignore them the madder they get. It is even better if you can get points from them even though they win the game, there isn't a whole lot they can complain about. Keeping a bad team out of the playoffs is worth going home early for, they make the sport look bad with thier attitudes.

Play fair or go home! We as a team will always strive to play stand-up paintball. I cna only ask with the rest of the paintball world to follow suit. We are the future of our beloved sport and it is up to us to make it succeed. If we play fair and don't whine we will be on TV soon enough, if we continue down the road that is being travelled by some indivduals paintball will never be a legitimate sport.

That is all for now. Talk to you later.

Fred
Captain Section 8

Okay, I am updating right now and what have we learned? We have learned that working for NASA would be great but my degree doesn't quite fit what they want and that finding other means of employment can really stink. But the new job puts food on the table and I guess that I should be grateful for whatever that is worth.

I do have to apologize to my readers about the long lapse since my last update, as you can see I have exited the Navy and am now a civilian so I had to find a real job. There have been several smaller tourneys with varying success. We have lost a few players and gained some new talent that will have to be shaped and molded to be right for a tourney team. But there is some great talent out there and we are always looking for the diamond in the rough.

On the subject of team building, this may be one of the hardest things to deal with when you are starting or trying to keep a team together. Members will come and go much to yours and my dismay. Sometimes you will lose them to a girlfriend or wife, or to another team(which really hasn't been our problem yet), or they may just finally show thier true colors and stab you in the back. I wish there were some words of advice that would make the desicion of who to add to the roster and who not easier, but I haven't found the trick yet. But I will post it here if I ever find the magic bullet to this question.

So what have we learned from everything that has happened in the past few months? Choosing teammates can be a very difficult process. Fitting in to a new job after the military can tax your nerves. Always go over the rules with a new teammate especially when it is thier first tourney, such things as remembering to hang the flag can really help the team out in the end when they are the last ones on the field. As long as there is one second left on the clock you can pull out a victory. Never be afraid to stand up for yourself to the ref, but let your team captain on the field do all the talking, he should stand up for you when you tell him something that should be brought up to the attention of the ref. Unless the ref has his hands on a player hr is live and should be treated as a threat. And finally never be afraid to have a one on one shoot out with an opponent, chances are you can smoke him.

And on one final note, I recently recieved an e-mail from a gentleman in New Jersey saying that he had been on a team called Section 8 for 15 years. Well I say congratulations to him and good luck as well, the only thing is we are not related to them nor did we copy our name from his team. As some may know I was in the US Navy for 8 years and came up with the name while on active duty. Section 8 is the article that a person gets when they are discharged from the military for being psycho. I thought this was fitting for my team name and did some research and did not find any other teams with this name so it became official. Proof of this is in the address that you used to get to my site section8paintball is a registered address, so if there was another team with this name I am sure they would have gotten on the web before me in the fifteen years they have been around. I make no apologies for the use of my team name nor will I ever. So Mr. Pierannunzi please do not threaten me by trying to insinuate that my team "disrespects" the name Section 8, it is ours and we have made it stand for plenty in our short time of playing. We are all well respected and generally liked as a team by many in the state of Florida and beyond. If you had a problem your team should have made a web site and gotten the word out to the reat of the world that it was your name and held all rights to it, but since you didn't in the 14 years prior to our formation I say sorry charlie but idle threats do nothing to impress me. What impresses me is play on the field not guest book or e-mail psuedo-threats. And this website has been going for more than a year now and I just hear from you or someone else from your team, I would have figures to hear about it a long time ago. I am truly sorry that I had an original name and decided to use it. But thank you for the guest book signing, but no thanks for the idle threat, it didn't become you.

Until next time keep your paint cool and your barrel clean and you will always have a chance to gog someone else.

Fred Robertson

Captain Section 8