Many have heard the name, and many of you likely have Josh on your Facebook friends lists. With the exception perhaps of the OG part of the paintball community and those that are part of Josh’s inner circle, how many of you really know who Josh Silverman is? Welcome Josh Silverman, a man whose history is firmly embedded in paintball and the history of the sport. In Part I of a three part look at Josh Silverman, Josh discusses his history in the game as follows:
It feels like a long time ago. And now that I think about it, it sorta-kinda was a long time ago. Back in 1993 I was in high school and we had a smartass gym teacher. Every day we’d hit the locker room and ask coach what we were doing that day. Instead of just saying “sit-ups, push-ups, weights, running, basketball, get the hell out” he always had to come up with some wise-ass answer. One day he told us we were harpooning whales, one day he tricked us into believing we were going to learn karate and then, one day, he said “paintball.” I had no idea what paintball was and I was intrigued. I asked around the class until someone told me that it was this game where people ran around in the woods with guns and shot paintballs at each other. That sounded like fun to me so I did some research. I went to the local army surplus store, a place called Corky’s in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and they had paintball gear. I picked up a paintball magazine and took it home. Mom and dad said absolutely positively no way. I wasn’t old enough to drive yet so defiance wasn’t easy. It took me six months to convince them that it was something safe enough to try and finally, during the summer of 1993, on a ridiculously hot and humid father’s day weekend, my dad drove me to Virginia Adventure Games in Leesburg, Virginia, where I played my first game. I had saved up money and bought a Splatmaster and a pair of Leader goggles so I figured I was ready to roll. Unfortunately, I got there and the field was renting Phantom pumps and F2 Illustrator semi autos, so I was outgunned by everyone there INCLUDING the rental players.
Did I mention the field was the home of the 1988 World Championship team, the
LRRP’s? Guys like “Chopper” Spangler, Bill Chruchwell, Mike Lyons, etc. They mixed in with the rec-ball crowd every weekend. So basically I spent my first day of paintball getting clubbed like a baby seal by some of the best woodsball players around. In fact, the first place I ever got shot with a paintball was right squarely in my testicles. Can I say “testicles” on here? Well it’s too late I already did. Testicles. I just did it again. So yeah, my first game on my first day, wham and I was on the ground for 15 minutes. Never even saw the guy that shot me. That might have turned some people off, but the adrenalin rush from that day had me bouncing off the walls like a kid on a sugar high for about 10 days after wards. It was by far the coolest thing I’d ever done. I wasn’t big enough for football, wasn’t tall enough for basketball and the only other sport I’d ever been decent at was soccer. Finally I’d found a game where a small but fit and somewhat intelligent guy with big ears could be successful and I was hooked. Two weeks later dad took me back up there and I rented an F2 and a pair of Scott goggles and finally commenced to shooting some people. I remember a case of Proball there was like 110 dollars, and the rental gun alone was 45 bucks. That was a great place and I miss it and the people I got to know there.
I’ve been a part of some cool organizations over the years when it came to playing paintball. My first team was a group of guys I met at Virginia Adventure Games, after I’d been playing a couple of years. I had a Tippmann 68 Special and I thought I was the man. I met some guys with a team called Opposing Force and they let me on the team as basically the young scrub. But I learned from them and from the constant butt-kickings they put on me and got better as a player.
Not long after I started playing I heard rumors of a new paintball store opening, a little place in Woodbridge, Virginia called Pev’s. It was in the basement of a strip shopping center and it took me two weeks to find it, but once I did, it became a second home to me. The owners were these two really good tournament players named Mike “Pev” Peverill and John Amodea. They took me under their wing and gave me so much advice and taught me so much about paintball, both on and off the field. They were and are really my mentors, along with a guy who worked there named Dennis Patac. They were publishing this paintball newspaper out of the back room of the shop called PCRI, or Paintball Consumer Reports International, and that was how I got interested in journalism. Those guys were playing on a team called Phantom Force, a very strong five-man team, and playing ten-man with one of the better ten-man teams of the early NPPL days, Bad Company.
Week-in and week-out for years while I was playing for some five and ten-man teams like the Virginia Gentlemen and Wolfpack, I constantly got my head beat in by Bad Company and Bad Company 2, and those lessons taught me how to be a decent paintball player. Guys like Tom Cole, Chris Remuzzi, Lee Draper, Mike Leffler, Dennis and Noy Patac and JC Whittington helped turn me into a very good paintball player back when serious paintball was something you did in the woods and I owe them all for some great experiences and friendships.
Later, as paintball came out of the woods and onto speedball and then hyperball and air ball fields, I played for some other teams too. I moved to North Carolina to attend college at Campbell University and played five-man in the Traumahead Sports Circuit with a team called Force of Nature. That team later became 82nd Airborne Xtreme. Those guys were a great bunch to play paintball with. I managed a store and field on Fort Bragg, North Carolina called Force of Nature with the owner of the business, and we started a website called Force of Nature, which later became PBUprising.com. Meanwhile, I was playing some five and ten-man with a great group of guys called the Hypersonix out of Pennsylvania. They ran with a cool crowd consisting of the Misfit Toys and Splinter. Those were even more good times.
Stay tuned as tomorrow we once again catch up with Josh on more of his life and involvement in paintball.
