A WEEKEND AT SIEGE PAINTBALL

By: Shawn Jean - Assistant Coach

Normally I’m not looking forward to a 6.5 hour drive, but strangely, I was sort of excited about this one.  I was heading out early Friday morning to grab Travis, then another couple hours  to grab LJ Parrish, our FNG.  It was going to be a good trip as it gave Travis and I a chance to talk about the layout and some of the business side of the team, then a couple of hours to get to know LJ.  It was going to be awesome.

Fast forward almost 9 hours later, traffic jams, questionable route choices (even though it was the choice I would have made) and a couple of stops, we finally made it to the Mickowski residence, which would be our home for the weekend. Kudo’s to Cody and his family for hosting us, I’m sure having all of us in the house wasn’t easy, but they sure made it look like it was.  The rest of the team made it in Friday night and we had a chance to unwind and catch up since the events of Dallas.

 Early Saturday morning we headed out for breakfast and the on to Siege paintball in Big Bend WI. If you haven’t been there, look it up, it’s totally awesome and they made us feel super welcome. Green Bay Boom calls this field home and I see why.  Everyone got geared up hit the field and we spent the next 9 or so hours breaking down the layout, shot by shot, playing a ton of points seeing how we could play the field different ways.  This type of field is a paradigm shift for what most NXL pros are used to, so it was an interesting day to say the least. We called it quits as the sun started to set and headed back to Cody’s for some dinner a couple of drinks and to break down the field some more.  This was the first time I got to see the FNG interact with the team as a whole off the field. I liked what I saw. He just fit, which is what you always hope for.

It was an early night as we wanted to go back at it hard on Sunday.

Oh Sunday….Saturday’s awesome sunny weather had disappeared, the temp had dropped and it was raining sideways….that isn’t an exaggeration, it was raining sideways. Still, the guys managed to make the best of it, spirits were high and we were able to play a demo match with Boom.  We liked what we saw and had some great notes, so about midday we packed it in so guys could catch flights and Travis, LJ and I could start the long drive home.

All in all, a great paintball weekend.  The guys are in Dallas to practise AC this weekend. I won’t be at that practice, but I’ll be sure to provide some updates from the event in Atlantic City.

- Shawn Jean