The History of Team Hazmat

In July of 2000, 3 guys went to a paintball shop to pay their $30 entry fee for a buddy's bachelor party. A couple of hours and over a thousand dollars later, they emerged with paint markers, masks and piles of other gear.

It had begun....

Starting out in the woods at a local paintball field, the addiction grew for Matt Anderson, Garrett Caldwell & Matt May. A month later, they heard about a "tournament" in Wisconsin and went to see what it was all about. On that rainy day in Wisconsin, the guys discovered speedball and Team Hazmat was born.

The team began participating in league play in October of 2000. Lots of mistakes were made and lessons were learned along the way, By Spring of 2001, the team had upgraded their equipment to electronic markers and were ready for tournament play.

The season began with the Polar Bear Tournament Series, a local circuit that was comprised of 5 events spread throughout the year.  Matt May was injured in the final game of the preliminaries as the result of a spectacular crash that removed his mask. Team Hazmat scored enough point to enter the semi-finals, however intense rain and lightning brought the event to a halt and thus the team was forced to accept an 8th place finish based on their score from the preliminary rounds.

The season progressed and the team participated in a number of training camps conducted by Team Cypress. Hazmat entered the next Polar Bear events with a renewed sense of aggression, taking 2 second place medals and a 4th place finish at the Anoka County Fairgrounds event. The cumulative seed points earned to this point gave Team Hazmat a precarious hold on 1st place overall - a solid performance at the final event in October was a must to secure the season title.

As the final event approached, Team Hazmat picked up their 4th member. Originally picked up as a last minute replacement for Matt Anderson who would be unable to attend the event, the excellent performance of Chad Goetsch helped the team achieve perfect maxes through both the preliminary and semi final rounds, with only one loss in the finals.  A much deserved 1st place finish was awarded for the final event - and for the 2001 season overall.

Moving forward into 2002, the team continued to plan and train for upcoming events, including the Ultimate Madness Tournament in Huntington, WV.  where we secured a 17th out of 60 finish. New player additions continued with the acquisition of Andy Bofferding, Luke Dulgar and Chris Raehl. More trophies were added to our collection from the Polar Bear events as well as the Spirit Mountain Extreme Tournament and Sup-Air Bowl III.

Now 8 members strong, Team Hazmat is looking to 2003 as our strongest year yet.

Our goal -- World Cup.

Team Hazmat takes the sport of paintball seriously and is dedicated to the promotion and expansion of the game as a whole. We hold ourselves to a high standard of safety and sportsmanship in order to project a solid role model to those new to the sport.