Imagine being in a field with your friends. The sky is clear, but the mood is tense. Someone says the enemy is nearby. Suddenly, you hear gunfire and your friends are attacked from behind.

The game is paintball, a sport that seems to be growing in popularity every year.

Paintball is essentially a sport as simple as tag and hide-and-seek, but involving deep strategy.

Paintball is usually played with two teams, both of which try to steal each other?s flags, while protecting their own. They protect their flags and attack other players with special air guns that shoot paint.

Sacramento State students can indulge themselves with the sport with the paintball club.

Brad Wilson, president of Sac State?s paintball club, started the club with the intention of finding more people who were into the tactical, yet frenzied game of paintball. Last year, Wilson wanted to form a team and get sponsored by the school. He said he wanted to promote the sport here on the West Coast because the sport is dominant back east.

“Its not just adrenaline-filled kids out there,” Wilson said. “There are all kinds of people out there.”

As with any sport, playing paintball doesn?t come cheap. Newcomers will have to pay for goggles, the paint gun (although the gun is available for rent), the air cartridge and the ammunition, and they might have to pay for the time spent playing on the field.

“Personally, I?m going to the military. And all the running, ducking, shooting lends itself to that,” paintball club member Chuck Schumacher said.

Schumacher said the initial cost can be overwhelming, but it will pay off if the person likes to play the game. And Schumacher is optimistic that after their first encounter, people will be addicted paintball.

Wilson agreed.”After the first time you go (play paintball) you get hooked and it?s hard to get out of it,” Wilson said.

If you are interested in joining the paintball club call Brad Wilson at (916)718-2102.