Never Back Down

Albert Jeong

It was March 1st, the day after the Senior Transition retreat. Seniors gathered at school to head to the paintball arena. Everyone was hyped to enjoy a class activity after the dreadful class meeting about transitioning to college. For some people, it was the first time holding a paintball gun, but for others were experienced weaponizers.

After less than 1 hour, we finally arrived at the War Museum, which had the paintball arena beside it. The team division was set, and players were traded left and right. In the end, the trade between Min Guk Kong (12) and Jeremy Worten (12) declared the completeness of the team, and Mr. Steinkamp casually joined Jeremy and many other athletes.

The game was Capture the Flag. A team wins when two of its players touch the enemy’s base. I was with Mr. Steinkamp’s team, and he called out the offensive strategies: “We’ll have a group of three. One group will play the middle, and the other two will play left and right lane. The middle player will gradually push with the left lane players while covering and open firing when pushing. Left lane player will find an aggressive angle to eliminate opposing players. For right lane player, play really defensive and hit long-range shots.”

The order was given, and the game was played. The plan worked, as Jeremy and Trevor Ronning (12) touched down the base camp. In round two, the sides were switched, and we played the lower side of the map. Because the arena was on the mountain, one camp was in a higher position than the other one. So, when our team was playing on the lower side of the map, Mr. Steinkamp called out a new game plan: “We’ll play like round one, except right lane play aggressive and left lane play defensive.”

Trevor added onto the plan, “We’ll get early control on the middle lane because the enemy won’t be expecting it.” 

The strategy worked as planned, and our team won both Capture the Flag rounds. Both winners and losers were so ready to eat their lunch because the tough cardio workout had enlarged our hunger. With sweat and hunger, both seniors and sponsors left for lunch at New World Park and headed home.