by Zack Smith '09
 On October 22nd, Professors Marc Hight
(at right in battle gear) and Jonathan Keohane took some of their advisees,
Bobby Lee Beck, Joshua Bohannon, Taylor Breckon, Ian Bridgman, Ivo Gyurovski, Lee Johnson, John Louis, Steele Parris, and Zach Smith,
to play paintball at Paintball Authority in Powhatan,VA. Dr. Hight, Elliott
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, and Dr. Keohane,
Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, team teach an Honors Course for freshmen. Also along on the trip were
Clark Chapman '07, a philosophy and religion major, and Joe Dunn '07, physics major. For many it was their first time playing, but they caught on fast.
Dr. Hight has taken his advisees
on a similar trip for the past three years, and it is a popular activity. In the past, he has
teamed up
with another advisor and his/her advisees, but this year he was joined by Dr. Keohane.
Arriving at a little past 10 AM, the students and advisors collected their equipment, squeezed off a few practice shots,
and then began. Paintball Authority had several speedball courses and a woods course. The first place we played was a speedball course set up in a western town. Western Town soon became one of the favorite courses because of
the cover it provided and the houses in the middle. Students spent several hours playing over the speedball courses.
Some of the most memorable moments were during games on the woods
course. One such moment came up when two students cornered what they thought was an enemy, but what turned out to be
one of their own, as they found out when they were shot by him. Another came in a later game when several students
and Professor Hight tried to flank the other team. This ended with the attackers pinning down the other team in their
base. After awhile, Professor Hight’s team was finally able to get
in several good shots to end the game. As the day
progressed those who had never played before began to get the feel of it and became better shots. This resulted in some
of the later games being very intense.
Later on in the day, the H-SC students moved to a small course that was completely open except for a couple of barrels
at each end. Players were limited to only five shots during the game.
The overwhelming strategy became to lie on your
stomach and to inch forward slowly while teammates covered you from the barrels. This game ended with the remaining
members of Professor Keohane’s team rushing Professor’s Hight team in a courageous but unsuccessful charge.
The afternoon continued with several capture-the-flag games which had some exciting, although quick, finishes. One of these
games, on the Western Town course, lasted only a few seconds as Professor Hight’s team rushed the flag at the beginning,
surprising the other team. Another was Professor Keohane’s brave effort grabbing the flag and throwing it to his team before
he was shot. The last couple of games were limited shot games using what ammunition each player had left.
One of the things that everyone took from his paintball experience was a
stronger sense of teamwork and camaraderie with other students and the advisors. For everything to go well, out on the course, you must be able to work together and
to count on your teammates. You get a sense of satisfaction when you and your team pull off a maneuver that catches the
opponent completely unawares and ends with him covered in paint. The advisees also were able to get to know their
advisor a little more personally and found out he was pretty good at paintball.
Over the course of almost six hours, the group expended 14,500 paintballs. About 4 PM, with all the paintballs gone,
the paint covered students and advisors headed back to H-SC.
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