MentalWard History of the Ward
| The Mental Ward was once upon a time a TB Ward. This was back in the Civil War days. Later in history it became a German POW camp during The Great War. On the Map it is called the NY Farming Colony. Back in the day, we had an indoor field called the SubBasement. This was in Tribeca. Unfortunately we were asked to leave after about 2 years of good solid indoor paintball The SB was quite hot, small but quite playable. If you were the last on your side, you'd get this awful feeling of dread (SBDread) cuz things were going to get kinda rough. When we lost the field, we were stuck for a place close by to play, and more importantly, a place to play cheaply! Though we all love North Jersey Paintball Club with it's most excellent staff and terrain, it get's a little expensive playing there all the time. I began poking around asking locally what the deal was and why we couldn't open a field in NYC. Carl at Flag Station gave me some good imfo, as did many other sources. We were considering training programs with the NYPD, and other such legal activity. But happily, Carl asked me one day if we had played at the Hospital in Staten Island. Boing!! He gave me the number to Richie who I called immediately. Richie and his Staten Island gang had just played that weekend, so they were not se tto play the following weekend, as we hoped to. After talking a little while, he told me to just come down then, and gave me directions! We came down, bringing the first chrono onto the field. When we left we took out an enormous amount of paintball trash. Being cool with the site paid off, as back then the Maintenance Dept of Seaview would often patrol the interior. Occasionally we were all asked to leave, either by the Police or by the Parks Dept. Our happiest day came, though when Dominic was promotedto the Head of Maintenance. We had developed a nice relationship with Dom by then, making sure he knew we were packing our trash and being responsible players etc. The Morgue has gone through many phases of playability. We have built up interior bunkers and they have often been demolished or dismantled by BlairWitch Kids. The Main field has a few bunkers, but all in all things swing from developed to eroded depending on how much we're playing and how much we feel like doing! Overall the field is due for an overhauling. The Ward got it's name from my wifey, and not from the inmates... I met many good friends at the Ward, Jessie, John Luke, Russ Mead, to name but a few, and many players played their first games there with us. To those who are old school, a moment of thought for Alan who was a real sweetheart player. I still have his number in my book. Kurt became a very good player from being shot at at theWard and now he can take on the best. I don't really like facing off with Kurt, and shootign me I think was his prime motivation for getting as good as he is now! Phil and Tribe first played ball with us out there, and grew up from being a gang of gangly punkasses to stalwart young men...Hahahah! Except for Ed...and Justin...New players are joining our ranks every season, and this fall we met Rocky, Ronnie, Corey, and Eric, local Staten Islanders who are a pleasure to play ball with. |