Trafalgar Campus awaiting approval for paintball club

STORY BY LINDA HERMIZ

Sheridan’s Trafalgar campus may soon have an official paintball club.

Alexandra Goulding, a first-year Art Fundamentals student and the president of the soon-to-be club, is awaiting approval from the Student Union before the club is made official.

Goulding came up with the idea for a paintball club after playing with her friends one weekend.

On Jan. 22, she posted on the Sheridan College first year students Facebook page looking for people interested in starting one.

“There are a lot of clubs at Trafalgar that get a lot of interest, but I never see many clubs that are mainly about fun and play,” said Goulding.

“I thought a fun sport like paintball would work. I wanted to see if I could continue to play but on a wider scale than the odd friend or two.”

Goulding’s Facebook post drew about 20 eager students who wanted to play paintball together as a group.

“I was surprised that many people wanted to join,” she said.

Taylor Keens-Douglas, a first-year Visual and Creative Arts student, was one of those who joined.

“This club gives people the opportunity to participate in a sport that they normally may not be able to do. It gives them the ability to meet new people and participate in a friendly, yet a little more violent sport,” he said.

Goulding then created a separate, “official” Facebook group that about 13 students have joined so far.

One of the major issues was finding somebody to step up as vice-president of the club, said Goulding.

Eventually, she found Joseph Clayton, an 18-year-old Art Fundamentals student who recently arrived from Indonesia, who wanted to sign up for the job.

“My responsibility is to help the group enjoy the games safely and responsibly. I’ll be there to help if the president is not around,” said Clayton.

In Indonesia, he played a lot of airsoft, a similar game where participants are hit by pellets instead of paint, so knew he wanted to be a part of the club right away.

“It’s the next closest thing,” he said. “Shooting makes me feel relaxed. When I’m on the scope, I can hear my heartbeat and I feel like I’m in control.”

Goulding and Clayton are unsure how the Student Union will feel about the idea since it involves a type of gun, but they’re not too worried.

“Paintball has safety precautions just like any other sport. The gun has a mechanism where it launches a projectile from a barrel, but it cannot be categorized as a weapon that can kill,” said Clayton.

The gun’s muzzle should always be covered with a cap and the safety button should always be on when not in use, he said.

Members should also have a mask and proper paintball attire. Goulding said the game schedule and locations would be figured out during the club’s first meeting.

“It depends on if the club members prefer the woods, which is outdoors, or speed, which is indoors. It’ll mainly be a democratic vote on where we will play, but the two main places I chose to start off with are Paintball Nation and Oakville Paintball Camp.”

Goulding hopes to arrange a club discount at whichever site they play.

“If we’re approved (by the SU), it’ll most likely be set up so that we’d have one meeting at the beginning of each month to plan out where the games will be held and who can play,” Goulding added.

Meetings will take place at Trafalgar Campus, but the club would be open to students from all campuses