[Clear]

Alright my team that I put together, Louisville Afterlife, has kinda fell apart. We've lost several players, to where now we are down to 2-3. Before next season I plan to completely retool the whole team, become a lot more involved with sponsors, the home field, etc. Along with establishing captains, starting and finishing the season.

Basically I wanna know what are some good tips I can get from PbN that will help me rebuild the team. What should I look for in players, just anything that might help me. I want to have this thing going and ready to start a practice schedule around Late January to Mid February.



Any input would greatly be appreciated .


Thanks,

Jonathan
Louisville Afterlife

[GanjaPalooza]

Skill is important, but not what I would be looking for mostly.

The things I would be looking for, based on your post, are: dedication, room for improvement and a team attitude.

I would much rather have a player that is willing to learn and work with the team that has mediocre skill over a better player that has a solo mentality. Finding dedicated players is tough in this sport because of the $$ to play.

So when looking for players, try to get some that seem to be didcated to the sport for a while so you aren't stuck in the same situation you were left in.

Nothing worse when a few players bail out mid-season and leave everyone else hanging that want to keep going.

PM me if you have any specific questions not covered, I actually am working on the same thing

[DriverJ]

I actually went through the same thing a couple years back. I started to look for younger unranked players to start building fresh, and kept the other talent to playing 3 Man events.

Working with people who show promise or a foundation to build on and are dedicated to the game and growing a team are much easier to work with than established players, but having experienced players does have its benefits.

Try to build up in chunks and don't try and jump into the ocean before you can swim in a pool.

Start with local events, minimal sponsorship and work your way into more sponsors.

Get your players to practice(s) as often as they can. Work on core skills and play better teams, but make sure you level set expectations with them from the beginning. We are going to play tougher teams, don't let it get you down if we get beat up.

[JohnSherman]

Originally Posted by Clear

Alright my team that I put together, Louisville Afterlife, has kinda fell apart. We've lost several players, to where now we are down to 2-3. Before next season I plan to completely retool the whole team, become a lot more involved with sponsors, the home field, etc. Along with establishing captains, starting and finishing the season.

Basically I wanna know what are some good tips I can get from PbN that will help me rebuild the team. What should I look for in players, just anything that might help me. I want to have this thing going and ready to start a practice schedule around Late January to Mid February.



Any input would greatly be appreciated .


Thanks,

Jonathan
Louisville Afterlife

If you are really down to 2-3 players, the best course of action might be to just join/merge with another team. Just going through your post history, it seems like you are relatively new to tournament paintball. You and your friends would definitely benefit from joining an established team with experienced members. Believe me, having a good coach and experienced teammates is incredibly important, and you'll definitely improve much faster. Not to mention you can let someone else worry about the organization and sponsorship side of things.

[Bad71]

^^^^ What he said...

We did the same thing at the beginning of this year. We were down to 4 guys, and we decided to merge those 4 into another team that we played with regularly... Best thing we could've done.
thats not to say that you shouldnt look for new talent. But consider your options. In our case, we merged with a team that had more exposure, a good core group of players, and some minimal sponsors already. Of course, the name didnt hurt when it comes to exposure. And when we showed up at games 10-15 strong, it makes people notice you.

Some points I can offer are these....
....Admit if your not the "leadership role" type, and accept it. I notice in this sport that everyone wants to start their own team, and be the boss... but few are qualified to do so.
... If you are the team Captain, sometimes its best to lead the team thru a collective effort, like we do. its not one person calling the shots, every team member gets a voice, and majority rules 95% of the time. we have certain guys who may be good at overseeing the finances of the team, marketing the team, handling day-to-day dealings, and others who are the go-to guys for gun teching.... If one is not available, another steps up to fill his spot, and make sure things get done... Sometimes its best to have many Indians and no Chief, versus 1 Chief and many Indians.
... dont rule with an iron fist. This is a sport/ hobby. Not a professional entity where the guys are obligated to be there. people have jobs, lives, bills, and families... expecting them to put paintball before all that is not wise. Set rules, but every rule has an exception. We, for instance, dont believe in team dues. You play when you can afford to play... its that simple. If we never make it to a D2 team, so be it... its a sport, and it should be fun. But its the laid back demeanor that attracts players to run with us at games, and even fill spots in tourneys when we need it.

[IrishNinja6]

I would also suggest planning a light schedule to start...maybe one local series. it gets set dates down, and the "workload" wont be too high that everyone drops.