Shoot your friends at paintball park

A paintballer peeks around an inflatable obstacle during a match at Precision Sports Paintball’s indoor arena. Alan Rogers photo.

GRANITE FALLS - Brandon Brooks puts in 60-hour weeks at his hardwood flooring business, but manages to squeeze in at least 20 hours of paintball each week. 

"I love it,” says the 29-year-old Gamewell man, who has been playing paintball for 12 years.

“The camaraderie of team play is great,” Brooks says.

“Just about all of my good friends I’ve met through paintball.”

Brooks, who has played at paintball facilities in North and South Carolina, is thrilled that western North Carolina’s only indoor paintball arena has opened in Caldwell County.

“This place is the best I’ve been to so far,” Brooks says.

In mid-January, Charlie Philyaw, Willard Jacobs and son Mike Jacobs opened the Precision Sports paintball arena on U.S. 321 North in Granite Falls. The business features a 150-by-50-foot indoor speedball arena as well as several acres of woods with forts and bunkers for woodsball players.

The facility also offers sales, service and rental of markers (paintball guns), protective clothing and other equipment.

In the works are a hyperball field, a target course and an arcade room.

Smoking, drinking, drugs and fighting are prohibited at the family-friendly facility, where players must be at least 10 years old and wear protective masks. Multiple referees monitor the action.

Precision Sports was founded about four years ago as a paintball retail shop. The owners have long dreamed of opening an arena, and when the U.S. 321 property became available for the project, they took the plunge. The risk has paid off.

Paintballers of all ages and skill levels have found the facility. Many are already booking parties there.

“We’ve even had an inquiry about a bachelorette party,” Willard Jacobs says.

The owners are grateful - but not really surprised - that Precision Sports has met with early success.

Paintball is a sport in which participants eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with non-toxic paintballs shot from a marker powered by compressed air or gas.

The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association estimates that more than 5 million people play paintball in the United States. Games can be played indoors or outdoors and take various forms, of which some of the most popular are speedball and woodsball.

Players are divided into two teams. They use markers to tag opponents by zapping them with bright-colored paintballs that burst on impact, leaving a bright mark on an opponent and indicating that she/he is tagged out of that game.

Many games are played during a day or evening of paintball. When you get tagged you go out, clean up, and prepare for the next game.

At Precision Sports, a $10 field fee entitles an individual to play all day.

Equipment can be rented at the facility.

“We rent everything you need,” Willard Jacobs says.

“You can come up here and play for $25. You’ll probably need to buy more paint and more (compressed) air, but for a day of pure excitement that’s reasonable.”

Precision Sports includes a spectators gallery where people can watch the action for free.

Philyaw notes that insurance statistics show that paintball - when played at commercial fields and arenas - is one of the safest sports, with fewer injuries per exposure than tennis, golf and bowling.

In addition to the required masks, he says footwear that provides good ankle support is important for safety.

Is getting tagged painful?

It can be, the arena owners say, but not enough to keep people from playing.

Philyaw says the welts and bruises that sometimes come with paintball are often worn like badges of honor.

“It’s just part of the adrenaline rush,” he says.

John Dayberry

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