Negative Effects of Having a Principal with Military Training

By Isaac Beaman 

Running through the forest away from your paintball gun-wielding principal isn’t a typical way to start the school year, but this was the situation the Leadership Development (LD) class found themselves in. 

On the afternoon of August 5th, several students found themselves in a paintball game against some Dalat faculty, getting flanked by Mr. Scott Uzzle, emotionally traumatized, and drawing blood.

On the first day of school, Pastor Bob Wright told the LD class that we would be playing a game of paintball on our leadership retreat. Shouts of cheers erupted immediately from the three boys in the class while the six girls expressed their fear. Kathryn Boyd (12) said, “I don’t want to be bruised.” 

Yet the news that caused the greatest reaction was the announcement that Mr. Uzzle was coming to play paintball with us on the retreat. The class was concerned about his military training and was worried he would dominate the paintball game. After being asked how she felt about Mr. Uzzle playing, Boyd (12) responded, “Terrified.”

After the first game started, Mr. Uzzle hid until the very end, when he snuck back to the other team's base and shot over half the team, securing the win for his team. In the second round of the game, Mr. Uzzle got pinned behind a rock by three people on the opposing team, distracting him long enough for Noah Brooks (12) to end the game by running into our team base. 

In the end, the real threat of the day was Brooks (12); he had a combined eight kills in both games. When asked about his favorite moment in the game, Brooks (12) said, “The best part about paintball for me was shooting Aileen Kim (12) two times and marking up her leg.” (pictured below)

In the end, the class just got closer together, and the only real loss was when  Mr. Uzzle fell on his phone and shattered the screen.