Team Browncoats_az is absed out of Prescott Valley is looking for new Team Members.If you like Scenario paintball Then we are the Team for you If you and your Family members Play Scenario Paintball Then Team Browncoats_az is for you
When I got word in mid-2008 my job would be moving from Wa to AZ I started searching for info related to my hobby, paintball. I discoverd a MeetUp.com listing for Team Browncoats and it was very intriguing. I spent weeks trying to track them down, the listed phone numbers and email were out of date, the listing seemed to be a year old but it was a starting point. Eventually I made contact with the Team, and we seemed to get along well - 2009 was a great year for me in paintball and I will cherish the memories. Now I'm being kicked out for no good cause. I'm making this post as fair warning to anyone else who might be inclined to commit themselves to Team Browncoats, beware. Even if somehow they and I should reconcile I won't be taking back these posts because it's all true.
Saturday was one hell of a day - the Team and others are gathering in Prescott out by Lynx Lake for the regular Alpha Wolf Pack Challenge.
In the Browncoats we've had some tension lately, ostensibly it's about team uniforms, and 'captain' Matt Supulver approaches me in a (semi-)private chat to ask how I feel about the recent claims by another member that Matt is "ordering" people instead of leading. I was brief and measured in my response at the time, I hadn't been expecting the question and my mind was more on the upcoming game. As we later started playing I was surprised to see a forest ranger appear, as I understand it he told the leaders of Alpha Wolf Pack and Team Browncoats for us that paintball wasn't allowed here in this section - what a kick in the head, I've played here for a year and people tell me that they've used this spot openly for more than five years. So a lot of commotion occurred, and apparently I missed the signs of more personal trouble brewing.
When I joined in early 2009 there was 'captain' Matt, his younger brother Mitch, dad Mike as our 'coach', plus mom, an aunt and uncle, and a couple of other guys. The team had really been on hiatus for about six months it seemed as the Supulver family had moved to Utah for a while. I connected with them as they moved back to Prescott Valley and I was very happy for it. Joining up I shared this bio of myself ...
" I'm a lifelong fan of Sci-fi, have been playing paintball since about 1985 and I've enjoyed Scenario games for about a dozen years. Born in CA, my career in Air Traffic Contol took me to WA in 2005, and now on to AZ and my destiny with Team Browncoats. I've got an Engler-made Thompson and a JCS launcher for special occasions. My current projects include fitting my trusty '98 with its new Q-Loader, setting it up as a sniper rifle for when I go ghillie, next step might be to get a Flatline. I've worked at several fields in CA and WA, most recently Patriot Paintball and Operation Paintball.
I love being a Character at Scenarios plus working as an engineer or a sapper. Early highlights included for 2002 Stargate (MXS at Herbies in NV), in 2003 Alien Attack (MPP at Jungle Island, played with my brother, and sister-in-law) Timebandits (Blackcat at Merced, won MVP), and Just Havoc (TAW at Santa Paula, Government Trained Assassins won MVT), in 2004 for my birthday Night of the Catman (Blackcat at Monterey, won the Catman's electric minibike). "
The team had several different on-line venues, one of those was a Yahoo Group, originally public but very underused - I offered to help and my offer was accepted in mid-March. I contributed the bulk of the home page there, before it was later butchered; I found and uploaded the majority of Links, most of the Files, and other content. I tried to bring up the standard of communication within the team and with the rest of the pb community.
I've always been mortified at the spelling, grammar, and punctuation seen in posts from Matt and Mike - anyone can check the record here and see how the Team was mocked relentlessly.
One of the strong suites for the Team is Coach's tireless pursuit of sponsors, that looked pretty good to me - but I wondered if the Team was 'giving back' to our generous sponsors, I was suggesting we look for ways to support or highlight the sponsors, here's an email of mine from 6/20/09
" I'm wondering if any of the team is planning on taking their Q-loaders out for the Saturday game, or for the Castle game ? At first I was thinking about making this a "public post" on the YG but then I considered the answer might be NO and that's not good publicity for a sponsor - but if the answer were going to be YES then it would be a good exchange to be "on the record".
And BTW in regards the Q, the set of pods I got it turns out included one that was actually all broke up inside. My biggest problem is actually how to carry the Q pods, I'm thinking I have a speed ball harness that has a couple of expansion loops but that's all I got for now.
I'm thinking that if at least three of us have Q-fitted guns to get into a pic or two from some games that will be good for the Sponsor. "
but nothing ever really came from this, and ultimately the Q-loader sponsorship fell by the wayside !
As the Moderator at the Group I tried to pump up the energy, here's a sample email to 'captain' Matt
" "The Yahoo Group has two new members, one from Art of War and the other I have no idea. Everybody seems to be Lurkers - how hard is it going to be to get the Team members, each of the members, to contribute something relevant, individual, timely just once a month ?
A comment about what colors you prefer in paint, how Slip2000 has been working for you, what's your favorite flavor of Ammo, a idea of what day they want to play the next week, how they feel about going down to Cowtown for an evening game, does some sporting goods store have a deal on some gear like folding chairs or coolers, do they want a sling for their marker, have they tried a neckguard, a favorite movie inspiring a paintball scenario/prop, some theme music, a suggestion for a Shindig (we are also Browncoats right?), short barrel vs. long barrel, something about an article in a pb magazine, a testimonial for Limb Saver, etc.
Compare us to Az_Browncoats [movie fans], hundreds of messages on a dozen topics, yes they have more members but we have something even more dynamic - paintball dammit. We're a Scenario pb team, that's the world of paintball plus role-playing plus plus Mil-Sim plus travel and camping plus the Sci-Fi that's the namesake. We're smart, we love it, we can communicate it.
If our members are putting tons of stuff somewhere else OK that's great, but I have to say that right now if anyone goes to Yahoo and searches the combo of Arizona and Paintball, we are number 2, if it's Browncoats and Paintball we are #1, for Scenario and Paintball we are on the first page out of hundreds !!! Nobody has to sign up, give out personal info (or fake it), or take more than 3 seconds to find us, nobody has to have the latest Flash or any other software to see what we have for them, and hundreds of millions of people use Yahoo !!!
If our Team members could each add just one or two individual posts a month, and make a reply to at least one other topic during the month then we'd look really really active.
BTW YG search for Paintball + Team puts us on page 2, of 707 entries ... we are among the only 3 of those top 20 ( !!! ) groups with an Open message board - that's pretty special, but kinda being wasted. We can offer a lot more than Be My Friend that looks to me to be 90% of the Social Network sites traffic. "
I worked to make myself useful and grow the Browncoats, for example this was sent out on 4/16/09
" Team Browncoats hosted "Tax Revolt" yesterday morning [I had organized it], the dismal weather predictions proved false, a great time was had by all and the Team may have picked up a couple of recruits. The team's website is www.freewebs.com/browncoats_az and everyone is welcome, the revised forums are brand new. The Independent and honorable men and women of Team Browncoats actively support our serving Military and Veterans, providing opportunities for them to join the game. We'd love to meet up in Kingman or along the River before we go to SC Village for 'Operation Mekong Delta'. "
For a time I was Moderator of the Yahoo Group for the Browncoats, this was my first run-in with the volatility of the clubs founding family - one day they decided that only they could post messages with any appearance of seeming official so overnight and without warning I was removed from the Admin position. Somehow I overlooked this for a time.
Sometimes just reading emails from 'captain' Matt was a painful exercise
e.g. April 26
"ok team next meeting is on the 16th at noon at marissa's home it is a meeting and b-day party for the boss and wise old hippie dude you need to bring your own drink and a food for all , call me if you need more info map will sent out to how to find the meeting in a bit. game this tuesday at the linx like feild, 9 am to noon? call us for more info. from now on dues are due by no later than the 15th if you need more time you have to call me.
CAPT. MAL BURN
Team Browncoats
never stop flying any job anywere. "
How many typos do you find ? Sorry, that was petty of me. My bad.
On July 23 I wrote this to 'captain Matt', it seemed fairly reasonable to me
" Congrat's are some financial breathing room Mike. Glad that DON3 is a go!
Understand y'all have been very busy - Andrew from Wilhoit is writing me about playing this Saturday with/against AWP, I'm not going to make that (have planned adventures with the wifey) but I do have a couple of co-workers who want to play Friday a week from now (they're Dating and this week he picked rock-climbing so she said OK and after that it's paintball, so I hope we can share a really good time with them).
I've got a ton of stuff to talk to the Team about and honestly I'm feeling anxious about it. I've been holding off putting it in an email because I preferred F2F but now several weeks have gone by and more concerns are piling up. I realize that My Expectations are part of the equation but at the same time it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that Teams exist to facilitate paintball, playing it, learning about it, improving it, spicing it up, sharing the experience, communicating internally and externally.
One example is that I'm seeing a lot of playing opportunities we're missing, there's Pine-Balling, Kingman at least in theory, a pistol and pump-game up by Flagstaff, twilight games at Cow-town, the new field by the ATV Dogfighting guys, playing at Mayer - hey pick one !
What are we doing with and for the Team Sponsors ? At the Castle game I showed off the banners I could get but what happened to the rest, it wasn't like that game snuck up on us? How are things with NAZ - is that a factor in recent discombobulations - is there something I haven't been informed of ? What happened to the 2009 Shirts ?
One of the strong points of AWP seems to be their socializing beyond the Field, we're Browncoats - let's meet with other non-paintballing Browncoats, or attend the Regulators Shoot-out in Prescott this weekend, I was for example tossing horseshoes on Tuesday morning at the American Legion park (and boy do I need help), let's have Chinese food (Panda Express at least) together, etc. [these are all things seen in the Firefly TV show]
Communications have seemed very weak lately - my perception and experience is that almost all our phone contacts over the last month have been unsatisfactory, nothing overt or rude really but off-putting, with a hint of reserve. I haven't pressed the point - I acknowledge that Matt, Mitch, and Mike have each been complimentary to me in person, and I hope you know that I value you as friends, neighbors, and Team mates so I'm in a real quandary. Why have I been seemingly treated like a security-risk ?
The other concern I carry about communications is a long standing one, as I said before - why aren't we all Posting in the several venues PBAZ, Yahoo, the TBC forums (as awkward as they are), other team or corporate sites and especially RedDot Paintball ?
I have several threads left hanging on RedDot, some help with contribution from Team mates and Friends would be appreciated - again I repeat that we would have a higher profile as a Team, promoting our cental AZ region and repaying our Sponsors, if we worked together to 'swarm' a site, any forum, with a cogent discussion of a topic, any topic, and if we could just get together even for some photo ops - such as at the cannon on Gurley, outside NAZ or at XS, at In-and-Out, at an archery store that carries Limbsaver products, etc. - hey how about TBC protests Monster Ball at Wal-mart ?
feeling less a wait on my chest but apprehensive still ... Wolfsbane "
Not surprisingly, this did not go over so well. The reply from Mike is no longer in my files but my reply to his reply went like this ...
" ... and that misunderstanding is exactly why I didn't want to raise my points in an email ... I'm not looking to jump ship. If you think you see me going over the side it's because I'm trying to patch a few leaks. Sorry, I sometimes take the initiative like that.
First following up on your specific replies (in order)
"we wont fly His banner" OK I guess, that could be the Team Captain's call - but that wasn't explained to me, having called the day ahead of time specifically about banners, what I heard the morning I was rolling to the Castle was 'uh, we can't find the other banners , there somewhere, just take these' ... again let me emphasis, I totally understand about clutter, and disorganization, and having things stuffed away, and all that (it bedevils me too) but this wasn't some surprise sprung on the Team.
As to the larger picture about NAZ-TBC relations, well that's quite a furball. Yes, Paul has used some pretty strong words, he's seemed very hot on a couple of points and maybe you've been subjected to more of it than me, and I'm uncomfortable to hear allegations of "illegal" too - that's certainly making things difficult but the action that affects me seems incongruent
"We have Pulled control of all the web [activity] was to easy for some to use our web sites to send message that the team did not send. From this point forward if does not have the Team Logo on it we did not send it." - pretty much puts me outside "the Team". Maybe you don't exactly mean it that way, I hope.
Wouldn't an ideal universe see 20 Team Browncoat members acting as ambassadors for paintball every dang day, being seen driving around town with The Logo and attending paintball games from Mesa to Flagstaff to Kingman, posting messages on a hundred websites, and having the twin six-guns Logo prominently capping off every entry ?
As I've said, maybe I have unrealistic expectations for a Team.
"until now we have not have the Funds to Pay for the shirt up front. " - OK, so I understand that the majority of the Team members couldn't commit the $30 or whatever for a Team Shirt, well that ties to the next point, I'm disappointed about going to the Castle with the old shirt but if that's all we've got then that's all we've got - however it is more than halfway through the year so in a certain sense you know it doesn't bode well.
next point "we have not had much money to spend" ...
let me quote you from a contact I have in Northern California
"Our paintBall has preaty much ground to a stop. Unfortunatly the paint and air is a bit on the spendy side for most of our players as of right now. That and life getting in the way. I am hopeing to start up a few local games in Sept. but will have to wait and see. Me and a few friends want to start up a good Woodsball team but are haveing troubles finding the bodies. Haven't been to an actual PBall park yet but am wanting too. lol. I am still buying gear to finish up my list.lol. but have to wait till i get the money, same old story.."
and from the Colorado River area I get
[this portion of message was redacted only because the total post is going over 10K characters]
So you and I are in the same boat with him and several million other players. Let me reiterate, I read you, I'm not asking anybody to spend
money they don't have ... but what about my suggestions for other activities related to and boosting paintball in general and TBC in particular ?
Since it appears you mistakenly took my previous message as a "I might quit" maybe you stopped reading before the last paragraph so I'll repeat some of it
we could just get together even for some photo ops - such as at the cannon on Gurley, outside NAZ or at XS, at In-and-Out, at an archery store that carries Limbsaver products, etc
BTW does this sound to you like somebody who wants to quit the Team ?
and I'm suggesting let's meet with other non-paintballing Browncoats, or attend the Regulators Shoot-out in Prescott this weekend
Let me say that your Entertainment Book idea is a good one, hopefully we'll see that blossom.
and having written that, I want to continue on to the points you didn't address in your reply
communicating internally and externally
the Forum on the Browncoats own Freewebs site is awkward, it has the date display done in that dorky european style, guests aren't made welcome (can't view posts), oh and the Team Captain and his Lt. don't even use it - why should anybody else ?
I don't want to make any assumptions but has anybody in TBC besides me looked at the Art of War website forums for example - they have like 75 registered users, more every month BTW, few members are 'lurkers' with Zero Posts to their name, there are 150+ topics, many being added to every week if not every day, most topics have a half-dozen or more contributors.
Yeah, I'm jealous. I want that for my team.
Participation, dedication, community, team work.
Millions of people query Yahoo every hour, it's a great resource. if you don't favor the Y Group format, OK, let's do something else ... hummm, maybe, uh, RedDot Paintball Forums. Let's use RedDot. Or something.
To date I've put a lot of effort into the Yahoo Group you started, and yeah I've realized I don't appreciate being demoted from Moderator but that's not as important to me as the Team moving forward.
I'm 100% for better communications and growing the Team, I know we share a love for keeping paintball alive, keeping it safe, fun and honorable so let's pull together ! "
I was greatly misunderstood, then and now - I would later find out that the Supulver's frequently complained of me behind my back to other Browncoats, that "I was trying to take over".
Decay of Nations III followed soon thereafter for Team Browncoats, and all seemed well enough. I'd laid out my suggestions for the Team, and I honestly thought that was all there was to it - I didn't have any high expectations, I thought I was doing what team members do. That big game, the 25th Anniversary of SC Village, was a homecoming for me. I'd spent years in Los Angeles and had paintballed at SCV often, my last visit had been for Blackcat's Southern Sword alongside Psycho Clown Posse four years earlier (and just before I'd moved to WA). And considering Matt or Mike's brief blind-fire a moment ago it may confuse some as I praise them, and Mitch, and our other 'shooter' young Josh.
The Supulver family overcame several challenges just getting to SCV and had hauled out a ton of gear to build a nice camp. On the field Matt lead our squad and eagerly took on the assignment of organizing base security. Now ultimately my disappointments with DON3 were more with the naturally lousy climate there in August, the really poor paint offered, and a certain thinness on the Prop side. The family did a good job of helping Josh when he showed a little heat exhaustion, and Josh showed a lot of grit that weekend (and a lot of sunburn later). The game was tough, the field is huge and intense, and many players top-tier. Rather than go off and focus on Character play and special missions like I had at C-Town Incident, I stayed on the security detail except when my bazooka was needed on the front lines (as seen on PaintballPhotography.com ... yes, a shameless plug for Doc, who hardly needs it, but it's true - he's the best.) Ultimately we won our sides Most Valuable Team award, and I took a cool shoot of Matt beaming as he passed the certificate to his Dad.
So where and how do we become estranged ? I've no idea. I do know that I wasn't shy about noting the weak points of SCV as scenario producers. Nobody can fix the weather, and the water tower-shower at the top of the road helps a great deal, but the bad paint sold in 'short' cases, and grade-school props, and the simple refusal to deploy arm band tape made the game weaker than need be. I started to post about this and the Supulvers asked me to stand down - they were working some sort of deal with Giant Paintball and were looking to get the Browncoats something, I'm still not sure what - that's the sort of detail us extras on the 'Team' don't need to know.
The only real long term issue between me and the 'captain' and his family from this game is that they would never allow me a copy of the MVT Award I helped win. Josh and I deserve a copy, I've offered to pay as recently as last month. I expect I'll never again see that MVT they have hanging on the wall of their store.
Last edited by Wolfsbane; 02-01-2010 at 04:29 PM.
Reason: slightly expanding
Mark Twain? I would say more like the Three Stooges! Or perhaps Groucho Marx - "This is so simple a child of five could understand it, someone go and fetch me a child of five!"
By the way, I believe his middle name was Langhorn (not sure of the spelling).
Thor
Last edited by ThorsHammer; 02-01-2010 at 04:51 PM.
Team Browncoats_az is looking for new members
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