Dillard Wheat of Highland Park loves to skydive and scuba dive, and he gets just as big a kick out of playing paintball.
Paint what?
Do you use brushes or rollers?
Wheat is part of a growing number of people who converge on the Paintball Blitz battlefield in Gurnee for a day filled with shooting your enemies and friends, depending on which team they’re on.
Of course, it’s all in fun for these Lake County commandos. Even if you get shot, a new game will start in a few minutes.
“Paintball is pure excitement,” said Wheat, who plays at least once a month. “It’s a real adrenaline flow, and it doesn’t stop until the whistle blows, signifying that the game’s over. I’ve brought a lot of friends out here, and everyone I bring says it’s a real kick. Myself? I’m an addict. I’m very mild-mannered at the office during the week. But out here it’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
The 190-acre site where paintballers have been doing their stuff for four years used to be the Green Valley Country Club. Now it’s an overgrown forest with a number of man-made cubbyholes and natural fortresses, perfect for use as a hiding spot until an unsuspecting “enemy” stumbles along, unaware of what’s about to happen. Weed-filled bunkers where golfers used to blast balls out of the sand are now used as low-lying hiding spots.
If an opposing player does shoot you, you’re dead. Game’s over for you, just like that. There are no injuries in paintball, only kills.
Players who meet an early death raise their guns in the air and walk off the field. The evidence of their untimely demise is a splotch of non-toxic, non-staining, non-caustic, environmentally safe paint. “Bullets” are similar to large vitamin capsules or bath-oil beads. When a player is shot, the thin gelatin skin splits open, and the liquid inside leaves a bright “paint” mark.
Paintballs come in a variety of colors. The ball of choice at Paintball Blitz is red, to add a touch of realism. When a player gets plunked, at first glance it looks like he or she is bleeding. Then you remember that the “blood” rinses out of clothing and skin with soap and water.
The balls are fired from CO2 guns that have a range of about 75 yards. Paintballers say the guns are dead-on accurate up to 40 yards. “You can trust your equipment,” said Dan Colby, Paintball Blitz’s corporate officer. “You don’t have to wait until someone’s 10 feet away to shoot them.”
Depending on the weather and the time of year, as many as 200 paintballers head to Gurnee for the day. Games are open to the public on weekends, and the facility is open weekdays by appointment for private groups.
Paintballers watch for the weather-beaten Paintball Blitz sign on the east side of U.S. Highway 41, two miles north of Illinois Highway 132.
Games run from 9 a.m. to around 4 p.m.
There are about 1 million regular paintballers in the United States who play at 1,000 facilities from coast to coast, according to the Los Angeles-based International Paintball Players Association. A $100-million industry has sprung up to provide guns, ammunition and accessories since the first paintball game was played in New Hampshire in 1981. Paintball also is played in 25 other countries.
Colby said paintballers and their sport are sometimes misunderstood. “Some people think we’re a bunch of Rambo types,” he said. “But that’s just not the case. There are a lot of professional types who play, high school and college guys, women, older men, whatever. It’s a very comfortable atmosphere for everyone. A minivan will pull up with a mother driving and six or seven kids from Glenview or Libertyville will jump out, and they’ll play paintball all day. We take good care of them.
“This isn’t like war. It’s a game of tag, really, but there’s also strategy involved, so it’s like a chess match. It doesn’t matter how old you are. It’s a bunch of people having fun and enjoying the fresh air. Some people play golf or softball or touch football or bowl. Other people play paintball.”
Colby said the so-called Rambo wannabe types actually fare poorly in paintball. “The type of player who goes out there too aggressively and says, `I’m going to take on the world and win’ usually doesn’t do too well. That stuff only works in the movies,” he said.
“A good paintball player is a team player who works well with others. Physical attributes aren’t that important. A 300-pound guy with a good shooting eye who’s sitting behind a bush can be just as effective as a track star. Size, age and weight don’t play big factors in paintball. Some players are aggressive, some are a little more passive, and some are real sneaky.”
Lenore Noval, an Evanston psychologist with 17 years of experience, said, “This kind of activity is basically harmless, and it’s a lot like children playing with waterguns, only there’s a little more anger involved. It’s a way of expressing aggression relatively harmlessly, but research has shown that it doesn’t necessarily relieve aggression. A person with an excessive amount of aggression won’t get it out of his or her system with an activity like this. But it can serve to burn off excess energy, if nothing else.”
Brian Szilagyi of Mundelein said paintball “is a blast, plain and simple. It’s great to get a group of friends together and run around in the woods. It’s like playing war games, but nobody gets hurt. Plus it’s great exercise. You never know what might happen when you’re playing. Sometimes you think you’re under good cover and in good shape. Then, boom! You get hit three times, and you’re out of the game.”
In addition to regular weekend paintballers, many local companies, including Motorola, Dean Witter, Kraft, Abbott Laboratories, Allstate, the Chicago Board of Trade, Household International, McDonald’s and Baxter, hold employee outings during the week.
The Paintball Blitz facilities also are used by several area police departments and the Illinois State Police for training exercises.
“It’s an opportunity for officers to face return fire,” Colby said. “Of course, they don’t have to worry about getting hurt, since these are balls of paint and not bullets. They work on various hostage situations, things like that. The officers tell us it’s very helpful for them.”
And paintball fan and future NFL Hall of Famer Mike Singletary has brought Bear teammates, including Jim Harbaugh, Shaun Gayle, Ron Rivera, Keith Jennings and Kevin Butler, on several occasions. “The Bears have a gas when they come out here,” Colby said. “But some of those guys make big targets. It’s hard for them to hide.”
Paintball players are required to wear eye goggles and face masks to ensure safety, and some players wear groin protection, just in case.
A question prospective paintballers inevitably ask is: Doesn’t it hurt to get shot? The answer is, only a little. It stings a bit if it hits bare skin, like getting snapped by a towel.
Many serious paintballers wear camouflage clothing from head to toe, while others wear jeans or sweatsuits. “Depending on the time of year, most players wear enough layers of clothes to take away the sting when they get hit,” Colby said. “Even in summer, when players might only be wearing a T-shirt, some guys have so much adrenaline going that they don’t even know they’ve been hit. But the opposing team usually doesn’t hesitate to let them know.”
According to the IPPA, insurance statistics show that in 1988 paintball was safer than sports such as tennis, golf, swimming, fishing and racquetball.
On one recent Saturday morning, first-time paintballer Jeff Schutte of Bartlett was buzzing shortly after getting shot in the ribs. “This is fantastic,” he said. “Running around in the woods, getting shot at. I love it.”
Terry Ennes of Arlington Heights, another first-timer, is a hunter who said paintball “is a natural sport for anyone who likes to hunt. My 5-year-old son wanted to come out today, but he’s a little young.”
There is an age limit of 18 unless the player has a notarized permission slip from a parent or the parent is accompanying the child. Generally, they don’t want players below age 12.
Mike Cogan of Buffalo Grove, who took Schutte and Ennes to Paintball Blitz, said playing makes him feel like a kid again. “The adrenaline starts flowing, and it’s like playing war games back when we were kids,” he said. “But there’s more strategy involved in paintball. When we were kids, we’d just run around and pretend to shoot each other.”
Groups are split into different teams, so you can go to Paintball Blitz by yourself, with a couple buddies or with a larger group, and you’ll be placed on a team. Teams, which are identified by armbands, may have four members or 40, depending on the turnout.
Referees control the action and settle any disputes that may arise between combatants. The refs make sure that paintballers keep their goggles and masks on at all times, and they’re not shy about letting anyone know that they’ve made a big mistake if they remove them for any reason.
Tom Gray, a paintballer from Arlington Heights, said that the safety precautions are important, because you’re never sure where a paintball will end up. Gray said the strangest thing he’s ever seen was when he got shot and the paintball went down the barrel of his gun.
Intentional head shots are prohibited, but any paintballer who plays long enough will inevitably take a ball or two on the noggin. To discourage head shots, players who get shot in the head are not considered dead and can continue playing. They will have some paint to wash out of their hair, though.
There are five fields at Paintball Blitz, which is bordered on the east by the Des Plaines River. On a busy day in the summer, all fields are often used at once. Games typically last 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of players. Another game starts after a short break.
One popular paintball game is Capture the Flag, where two teams try to get to a flag that’s hanging from a tree. Some players hang back and protect their flag, while their teammates fan out and try to nab the other team’s hanky. Whichever team grabs the flag and brings it back to its base-without being shot, of course-is the winner.
A more basic game is Elimination, which is played exactly how it sounds. The two teams go after each other with paintball guns blazing until one team is completely wiped out. Ouch.
Another game is Air Force One, where one person wears an orange vest and acts as the president. One team protects the prez, while the other team tries to shoot him in a prescribed amount of time.
Some paintballers bring food and eat lunch in between games. There are also barbecue grills fired up for players who want to cook their lunch.
The cost is $25 per person, which covers a full day of games, a paintball gun (single shot or semiautomatic), goggles, mask and 30 “bullets.” You’ll need to purchase more ammunition before the day’s over. Additional ammo is $7 for 100 paintballs. Paintball Blitz also operates retail stores in Mundelein and Glenview, which offer all the equipment needed to get started in the sport.
The Glenview store also has a machine shop that customizes and repairs paint guns. Colby, who used to sell police equipment, got into this business by opening the Glenview store seven years ago. He also is a partner in an investment group that owns the Gurnee property.
Highland Park’s Wheat said he can’t thank his girlfriend enough for taking him to Paintball Blitz the first time a few years ago. “She told me it’s the most fun I’ll ever have, and she was right,” he said. “It’s just a great game. You get real pumped up when you play. Then you hit a guy and you get really jacked up. But it’s all in fun, of course. It’s just better to kill than be killed.”
Phone 708-998-8287 for more information on Paintball Blitz.
