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Blue’s Crew at WestPoint
By Amy The Girl
Blue’s Crew Press Wench
It was a long winter of many preparations. Thoughts of the 2003 paintball season had begun long before the first flake even fell. Mike “Blue” Hanse had an idea. He had started EMR Paintball Park because he loved the game and wanted to play. But, as anyone who runs a business knows, you never get time to play! Why not put together a traveling team of paintball players to play in big games around the Northeast? Get back to playing the game he loved with the friends he has made in his many years in paintball.
Soon the emails began to field owners and friends with this idea. Dave and Kelly Massey from Hell Survivors in Michigan were one of the first to invite Blue and his new team, Blue’s Crew, to play. Soon after came the invitation to Coram’s Big Game and the spring and fall event at WestPoint. A schedule was born!
Redz Comfort Gear and Severe Paintball were the first sponsors on board. “Lets face it. They really made this whole thing happen. The jerseys, pants, packs, gloves, hats. To be able to outfit a team of 30 is just amazing!” says Blue of the sponsorship. Then came the news that V-Force was offering goggles to the team.
“By February, it was like dominoes, every day was a new email from another company offering the Crew something.” Says Blue. Ronn Stern was contacted to design the logo for the Crew to be put on banners and shirts. More emails were flying.
The team players were starting to take shape as well. Some of the players on the team owned or operated businesses and donated products. Eric Fetterman, EMR’s Operations Manager and owner of Splatzenough donated custom hopper covers to all the players. Ethan “Big E” Wheeler of BustnBalls stepped up to donate food and drinks for all to enjoy at the games. Matt “Beerman” Itterly of Team PA Brew Crew and owner of Matt’s Sports Shack offered to make T-shirts to wear after the games. Chris “Ott” Otter offered to make a DVD of the Crew’s games with his new company that he formed Eyce/Audio Visual. Talk about a keepsake!
Tony “Not Bob” Jackson of the Mayberry Marauders and web designer for EMR’s site volunteered to start the section called “Blue’s Crew”. Since joining the team as the “Press Wench” with my husband JR and fellow Demaskus team mate, Scott, I checked the site often to see if any new faces were added! It was shaping up to be quite a list!
I asked Blue how he made his choices for teammates. “Well, I was looking for a certain type of player. I wanted this to be a team of aggressive players, not afraid to charge, real paintball warriors! I know many excellent players out there and I couldn’t choose all! I wanted to reward the players that have maintained their loyalty to EMR all these years and helped my business grow. We really have a family here and when you get an opportunity to do something like this, you want your family with you.”
It was time for the first meeting of Blue’s Crew. We met on a cold February weekend and all gathered in Blue’s office. We all knew each other basically, from years of playing at EMR, but now we were looking at each other as a team. It was an interesting mix of refs, tournament players and rec ball players. Blue addressed everyone in the room by paintball nickname and I learned some of my new teammates were “Maniac” “Shanks” “Ugly” and “Munky”! Lets not forget about “Sparky” “Joker” “Goose” and “Wyrm”. Just as I was thinking, “what have I gotten myself into?!” it was time to pass out the gear! Being the only girl on the team at the time had its advantages, when I was able to try on my new gear in a room by myself!
We learned that we had another new sponsor. Magnum Boots, a company that makes boots mostly for law enforcement and paramedics was interested in getting into the paintball market. They contacted Blue to have the Crew be their guinea pig team for the year. Being a mother of two, I can now truly say the phrase “your momma wears combat boots!”
We also learn that our first game will be WestPoint’s Spring Big Game in April. The day of the Big Game finally comes. We arrive at the field in full force and commandeered a section to start setting up our massive tent from Severe Paintballs. We must have looked like a MASH Unit mobilizing for operations to the other players at the field that day! Spirits were high and people were psyched to play despite the cold weather that was lingering into April. The Cadets had managed to get a good crowd of 200 there, freezing rain or not, for they have a good reputation of putting on a good game. The WestPoint Paintball Club has been around since 1986 and they hold big games to fund their club and attend other events. Blue’s Crew will be back at WestPoint in the fall to play another big game there.
But, back to this game. The true test of the team, game on. As we walked out to our headquarters on the field, we passed a group of players. “I hope you guys are as good as you look.” Snickered one player. I think this comment further solidified our role as a team there. We WERE as good as we looked. And it was all about the teamwork. We were organized, we were ready and we dominated. At one point, our commander said he witnessed a huge blue line pushing toward the middle of the field and the players on the other side running away! The grenades supplied by Atomic Ordinance didn’t hurt either! I heard stories of tournament player/ref “Kernel” gleefully tossing grenades and this after saying in the tent he didn’t think he use any!
This game was a reenactment of the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, a real life battle that took place during the Vietnam war. An elite combat division of American troops were completely outnumbered in a savage battle against North Vietnamese soldiers that needless to say, ended badly. We were playing on the side of the Americans and am happy to report that we helped changed that outcome! At the end of the game, the Americans were victorious! It was great to be victorious but it was more important that we had fun together as a team. Blue’s Crew presented the Cadets with a plaque made by Morgan Awards to thank them for hosting the Crew at our first official event. We are looking forward to the fall event! A huge thank you to Magnum Boots for keeping our feet dry all day and for the representatives that showed up on that cold day! I think a great team has been formed here; it’s going to be a great year. Check out the calendar section of this Website to see where else Blue’s Crew will be playing this year. And, if you see Blue’s Crew at an event, be sure to say hi! Hope to see you on the field!
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