We are a New York City based paintball team. Most of us have been friends for over a decade - some of us are well into our second decade. In general, we are friends first and a paintball team second. We are a recreational paintball team. We play in big games and scenario games, pick-up games at the local indoor and outdoor fields and the occasional tournament. Lately we have been playing a lot of stock class paintball, including taking third place at the Strategy Plus 3-man Stock Tournament on June 8th, 2003. Basically, if it involves a paintball and it’s fun, we play it. Our goal is not to turn pro or even be a dominant local team, it’s to enjoy ourselves. Of course, we like going to tournaments and not sucking.

In the late 80’s, a British team called Bart Stud Squad started wearing tutus on the field, reputedly because they didn’t have much in the way of skills to get them noticed. All that had changed by the time they won the 1990 World Speedball Championships. Back then it was a 15 man format, and the fields were a little bigger.

The name “Stud Squad” made it’s way across the pond around the same time. Here in New York City, a fan of the successful Bart squad christened his team the Stud Squad as well. We know almost nothing about the first Brooklyn Stud Squad other than it was led by Tom A. and it was short lived.

In 1991 a small group of newbies met at the first indoor paintball field in New York City, Urban Survival. A small place in the warehouse district under the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn, New York, the place was a complete dive, badly lit and generally dirty and decrepit. However, for Daniel “Danz” Rivera, Vlad “Impaler” Potievsky, Tom “Magic” L. and David “Ogre” Zaslavsky, this dump was the whole world of paintball. After playing their first games with badly maintained rental NSG Rapides (plastic double action semi-automatic pistols, made by the same company that made the Splatmaster) each went out and brought their first markers. Danz brought a Razorback II and Tom L bought an Apex Elite. Vlad and Ogre bought Wintech Thunderbolts.

After playing together a couple of times, the four of them decided to form a team. Since they lacked the requisite fifth man, they called themselves the Skeleton Crew. Within two weeks of being the Crew, Tom A. approached them, with an invitation to become the new Stud Squad. He had more experience than the four of them put together and multiplied by ten. They accepted Tom A’s offer, were taken under his tutelage and the present Stud Squad was born. The team grew to include Jimmy "Iceman" C. and his brother, Donna A. and many others. In the early 90’s the Brooklyn Stud Squad played other local teams like Bad Influence, Brooklyn Warzone and the Camo Sharks as the house team at Urban Survival. These names have faded into obscurity, although some of the players haven’t – we still run into Manny, who now plays for the New York Dogs.

Proving drama isn’t reserved for pro teams, the Brooklyn Stud Squad had a tumultuous year in 1995. For some of the members of the squad, winning had become more important than having fun. Several years in the making, ego issues finally boiled to the surface. Founder Tom A left the team, taking his cousin with him and merging with the Predators out of the Bronx to form the Nomads. Now led by Danz, only Ogre, Vlad and Iceman remained as the Stud Squad. In the following years, the Studs played less and less often, their love of the game soured by the events that led to the breakup of the team.

The Studs continued to play rec ball throughout the mid 1990s and added a few new players, like Mark “Omen” Trotto, but with wives, jobs and school, opportunities to play came less and less often. The Studs continued to play only a few of times a year as team members continued to drop out of the sport. From a roster that at one time included 20 people attending the weekly practices, by 1998 the Studs had dropped down to the core original Skeleton Crew of Danz, Ogre and Vlad. During one of these occasional games, to celebrate the birthday of a friend, the Studs convinced current captain Tom “Perfect Tommy” Riso to play a few rounds. After being lit up by Vlad’s Vector (yes, we’re still talking old-school) and shooting Ogre in the posterior, he was hooked. However, it would be several more years before the Studs began playing again on a regular basis.

The summer of 2000 proved to be a turnaround year. Danz, Ogre and Tommy began playing individually at local fields. A friend's bachelor party weekend included a day of paintball and several other friends were drawn into the sport, notably, Jeff “Imp” Moddle. The newly invigorated Studs played a few more times before the snow fell and vowed to play on a regular basis in 2001 – and the Stud Squad was reborn as the New York Stud Squad. We’ve seen tremendous changes and growth in the last few years. We now practice at least twice a month. We’ve upgraded our equipment – Thunderbolts gave way to Phantoms; F1 Illustrators and Pro-Lites gave way to Blazers and R/T Mags and now Chipleys, FreeFlows and X-Mags. Several new players have joined the ranks, including Carlos “Potshot” Jurgiles, Shraig “Demon” Zisman, Carlos “Vendetta” Yepes, and newcomer Melissa Pott. In the fall of 2003, Jimmy “Iceman” Castellano emerged from retirement. We play all over New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. However, throughout it all, we remain group of friends, committed to each other on and off the field and ready to play paintball ANYTIME, ANYWHERE