Today at the CatShack we are visited by a very special person, a rarity in the sport of paintball you may say. Ms Peterson is a player, photographer and avid pump girl who is a force to be reckoned with on the field. She has the drive to become one of the greats of our sport and that is what she chooses to do. Sit back and grab a snack as we chat it up with Danielle “Becc” Peterson from Steel Reserve.
Name: Danielle “Becc” Peterson
Age: 16
Team(s): Steel Reserve Scenario Paintball Team
Years playing: 2.5
Sponsors: Valken, P&L Paintball
How did you get started in paintball?
A guy on my robotics team mentioned paintball one day, and I was intrigued. After a night of looking up paintball on YouTube, I decided I had to try this sport for myself. I was a tomboy who enjoyed target shooting and anything that involved dirt, and this seemed like a sport custom-made for me.
Luckily, my 14th birthday was in a few weeks, and I asked for gear and a trip to a paintball field for my birthday. I joined Special Ops forum, and some members helped me decided what the best gear for me was (somehow the usual Tippmann 98 just didn’t seem to be the right fit). They also told me how to convince my mom that running around getting shot up and bruised would actually be beneficial to my health.
March 15th, armed with my shiny new pink Ion, I stepped foot onto a field for the first time. Ten minutes later, with a welt already darkening on my arm, I walked back to the staging area grinning widely. My dad just shook his head and remarked, “Guess we know where you’ll be spending your weekends from now on.”
Soon after that first game, I found a field closer to me, and AG Paintball in Weare, NH became my weekend getaway. It was the owner, Paul of the Wild Geese, who watched my progress and helped me evolve into the player I am today.
My parents quickly realized how good the sport was for me, and are very supportive. Even now that I have my license, my dad still comes with me to every game. He fixes my markers when they break so I don’t have to miss any playing time, and pays for me when I can’t afford it. He even plays sometimes, and I have to admit he is very good for a beginner. My mom gets up at 4:30am, and wakes me with breakfast and coffee on game days. Without them, I quickly would have burned out between playing every weekend, school, and work.
At the beginning of my second season, Paul offered me a job as a ref. I loved it, and stayed for two years, despite the hour commute. I enjoyed helping others discover and grow to love the sport like I had, and found that I had a knowledge base not many did- how to succeed in the sport if you’re a girl.
Unfortunately, halfway through this season, I started college and had to quit my refereeing job. I still try to help new players (especially girls) get into the sport, and have written a few articles which I post on paintball forums. I am a strong proponent of ‘lead by example’, and always try to act with good sportsmanship on the field. It is important to me to remember that paintball is supposed to be fun, and if it isn’t you’re doing something wrong.
Because of this, I may not be on a highly competitive Speedball team, or even on a huge Scenario team like Blue’s Crew, but I have a group of people I love to play with. My team is great, with just the right amount of crazy mixed in, and I enjoy every second I spend with them.
I also discovered MCarterBrown a few years, and with some help from ‘Legato’ aka Joe, as well as Carter himself, I have worked my way up to semi-competitive pump speedball. The pump community is awesome, and values fun and fair play over winning just as much as I do. They’re also usually much more skilled than me, so I try to play with them and sharpen my skills as much as possible.
What does the sport of paintball mean to you?
Paintball means to me what it means to any other paintball addict, girl or boy. Hard work, long car rides, and disappearing money. Fortunately, it also means thrills, fun, and awesome friends. I’m sure many paintballers will agree; no one gets them like their paintball friends do. After all, it takes a unique type of person to enjoy running around and getting shot with paint.
The sport has also made other aspects of my life much better. I went from chubby to skinny and strong in one season, and I’ve stayed that way. I first traveled on my own for paintball at age 15, flying to the Michigan Monster Game. Because of these paintball-created opportunities, I have seen and experienced more in my life than most average sixteen-year-old girls.
Paintball has opened up endless opportunities for the future. Because of paintball I realized my love for photography, product development, and mechanical engineering. I almost feel like the number of doors it has opened is overwhelming- there’s so much to choose from and I want to do it all!
What are some of your best memories of playing this game?
I have so many awesome memories of playing the game, it is impossible to pick just one. All of my memories run together to create a sport I love, and the reasons why I love it. The times I remember fondly aren’t always victories, or even in-game experiences, but they’re good memories anyway.
There’s that time I was all alone behind enemy lines, about to wreck havoc on the unsuspecting yellow team… and then got stung by a bee and made the mistake of yelling. There’s the time me and my team went rogue at a big game, and I was the one with the size and agility that allowed me to be the last one left alive. There are many memories of sitting around a campfire, listening to my teammate play the guitar, the night before a scenario. There’s even good memories of refereeing, like the time I convinced a scared boy and his dad to play, and they went on to become regulars at the field. The first times are always good memories- the first time I played, the first time I met my team, and the first time I played pump (and then forgot I was playing pump and charged the back door of a castle, oops).One of my proudest paintball moments was when the 7 vs. 7 pump speedball game turned to 1 vs 1, and I chased a much more experienced player around the X for a couple minutes before finally being shot out. I may have lost, but I proved to myself that I could hold my own, even when the voice in the back of my mind was nagging me, “this is going to hurt, you’re only three feet from him, and he’s better than you, just surrender!” Hearing everyone who had watched praise my courage and skill felt good, especially when it came from those who I could tell had passed me off as ‘just a girl’. It was the confidence boost I needed to start standing up for myself and telling off the occasional boy who laughed at the idea of a girl succeeding in their sport. After I started respecting myself as a contributor to the sport, many others started to respect me as well, and I quickly developed a ‘she may be a girl, but she can hold her own’ reputation, at least at my local fields.
What are your future plans in the sport?
There are many ways I could choose to go in the future, and I haven’t decided which option is the best yet. I know that I want to continue to evolve and become a better player- maybe even venture into speedball a bit more. I’d like the help of a few more sponsors, but who wouldn’t? Whichever path I decide to go, I plan on being a ‘big name’ in paintball one of these days. I’m too opinionated to never get the chance to influence paintball’s politics.
For now, I have decided to concentrate on an education that will allow me to make enough money to play paintball regularly, while still being able to work in the paintball field. I have also decided that I want to achieve that goal as quickly as possible. To do this, I dropped out of high school and got a GED. I got accepted to a community college, and am currently working on an Associate’s degree in Mechanical Design Technology. I want to have a hand in designing the next generation of paintball equipment.
I want to start my own paintball line with a focus on women’s and children’s gear. There isn’t nearly enough out there, and I’m sick of the excuses the big companies come up with for why they don’t cater to women. I believe that if I make females realize that it is entirely possible to be just as good at the sport as guys, more will decide to play. I also think that it is an awesome sport for all ages, and want to encourage the little ones to get into the sport (even if they aren’t quite ready to play on a big field yet).
I love photography, and plan to continue photographing paintball as much as possible. It’s a fun hobby, but I don’t think I’ll ever do it for money. I feel like I have other attributes which will be better for the sport as a whole, and it is in my best interest to focus on those so that I guarantee paintball never dies off.
As you can see this is a girl who has had her heart stolen by this sport we all love and spend all of our money on. She dreams the dream, fights the fight and lives every second on the field as if it were her last. Much acclaim goes out to the few women who take the field with us and realize the joy that we all do as a community of paintballers.
http://steeelreservepaintball.com/ or you just catch her on SpecOps forums
Photo Credits:
Pic #1: Tim Kerigan
Pic#2: Luke Peterson(proud Father of Becc)
Pic#3: Dave Cameron
By Paul Forcier
