Saturday, June 28, 2008
Profile Profile: Jay Yeomans, paintball referee
Posted by Michelle Ye Hee Lee on Sat, Jun 28, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Jay Yeomans, 51, is head referee at Paintball Atlanta. An aficionado of paintball for 15 years, he also maintains the company’s equipment and the facilities.
"You get bruises, maybe a couple little stitches, a turned ankle, something like that – something you can do playing in the backyard. But no one has had a serious injury [at Paintball Atlanta], especially eye-related."
"Everybody [at Paintball Atlanta] has got to deal with me sooner or later. I'm not known for my wonderful attitude."
"When a paintball hits you in the mask and it's in your mouth, usually you gag, hack and spit. And cussing usually is in there somewhere. It's got that 4-week-old, uncooked meat smell. It's nasty."
On his daughter: "She just turned 18, she's been playing for four years. She's very brutal. She put Father's Day scars on both sides of my neck. It’s alright. I got her later."
Is paintball a sport? "What is your definition of a sport? Okay, like football where you’re playing against another team in front of an audience – spectators – at the big tournaments? You get just as many people as you would on a decent football game. There is money at stake, trophies at stake, sponsorships from manufacturers."
On real guns: "Most of my guns, I have sold. One of them was grandfather’s shotgun – sentimental. I kept that. One’s a pistol – protection. I kept that."
"Paintball is nothing like the military. It’s a very sore spot. There are a lot of people out there, churches and other organizations that consider paintball as teaching our children paramilitary training, how to kill somebody else. I’ve called it a paintball gun – we call it a paintball marker. . We don’t kill in paintball, we eliminate. Usually until the next game starts up, which is usually in about 10, 15 minutes."
"Because the word “gun” is just not a good thing to be thrown around. You can’t talk about paintball in schools because it involves a gun, if you will. Because my daughter tried to set up a team, to start playing a team at school. And the word “gun” came out, and they said, 'That’s it. Forget it.'"
“The pay’s good and it’s a job I love doing. You can’t beat that."
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
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