Off Constantly will field two teams for the 2010 schedule. We will field one D4 team in the CFOA for the complete 2010 schedule. We also plan to field a D5 team (out of Georgia) in the GFOA for the complete 2010 schedule.
Off Constantly looks forward to the 2010 schedule. We would like to thank Mike Holshouser (owner: Predator Paintball - Salisbury and Holshouser Cycle Shop) for all of his support. Without him we would not be able to enjoy this game. His support is irreplaceable and very much appreciated.
RECAP OF 2009 Season
The 2009 CFOA season was a first for Off Constantly. This was the first season in the history of our team that we did not play a full schedule. In short, we were a victim of the economy during the 2009 season. Due to players not having a job they did not have the money to play. As the team Captain it would have been easy to just move on and look for players that could afford to play. That isn't what this team was founded on. I decided that was not the path I was going to take. We have been together to long and worked to hard together to just replace people because they have run into hard times. As a team we held a vote and it was decided to not travel to any events that were considered over night venues. We played the China Grove event and the three Rock Hill events. I hated that we had to do this but it is what was best for the team. We may not be as good as most teams out there but we are a family.
The economy also put a wet blanket on practice. We had to do a lot of Re-ball and drill only practices. We don't learn as much that way but it was all we could afford. The lack of practice showed. The only event that even showed a glimmer of what we had in 2008 was the last event of the season (August 2009 Home Coming @ PBC Sports Park in Rock Hill, SC). Due to our standings in the league the four teams we drew in our schedule was the top four teams in the league. We gave them everything we had. We had three of the four teams down in five games (3 on 1, 4 on 2 and so on) but could not finish them off. During the off season we will work on finishing games.
We would like to thank our 2009 sponsor, Predator Paintball and Holshouser Cycle Shop. Mike Holshouser has been very generous to Off Constantly. Without him we would, in all likelihood, not be able to play. Thanks for all you do Mike.
Over all, 2009 was not a great season for us but it was a learning experience none the less. 2010 will be a better season for us. We plan on playing the full D-4 schedule for the CFOA in 2010. Off Constantly will also have a team playing the full D-5 schedule for the GFOA. Larry McDaniel will be building a D5 team out of Georgia to play the GFOA in our name. Some of those folks will guest with the D4 team in the CFOA during the 2010 season. We really expect to have a great season in 2010.
RECAP OF 2008 SEASON
On paper it does not look good. We won two and lost four. On the surface that may sound like a bad day. If you look at our schedule that we were given for this tourney, you will see we had an ungodly schedule. Four of the six teams we had to play were at the top of the podium. All of those teams were pushing hard because they were still in the race for the top five spots for the season. No team ran over us. We played hard all day. We played with heart and looked good. We won the first game and our fourth.
The first game was against Chaos, not a super team but they are tuff and their roster is full of what we call 'bunker midgets'. Small, fast and great gun skills. The game came down to a one on two (our player, Big Chris, was the one guy left on our team). He charged up the field and shot the last two guys to win the game.
The second game was against Blue Ridge Raptors. Great bunch of guys and a good team. We have beat them this season a few times as they have beat us also. They were playing very hard today because they were trying to make the top five in the season standings. We played them hard but just got beat. In the end they were able to move down our flank in the snake and that was all there was to it.
The third game was against a team that has not played in the CFOA this season (Bo Jackson). Just because they have not played in the CFOA or any event that uses the APPA system of tracking players does not mean they are not a good team. They were very tuff. They got one of us on the break and we very quickly shot two of them out. We made a mistake at this point and all four of our guns, still on the field, had turned to one side. While we were doing this one of their players came down, again on our flank but on the other side of the field, and shot two or three of us out right then.
After the third match I decided to talk to the guys. We were trying way to hard. We were trying to force bad moves to work. Every one was tense and on edge. I sat them all down and we had a talk. After the talk the guys seemed to loosen up and things got back to normal.
The fourth game of the day was against Cash Money Killers (fourth place in the season standings). After our team talk I felt very confident in this game and the boys did not let me down. We beat their ass. Nothing else I can say there. We shut them down right off the break and shot them in the face.
The fifth game was against the 2008 division four season winners. They have crushed teams all year. We knew this was going to be a hard match. We fought them hard and held our ground but it was very obvious why they are the season champs. Their ability to shoot straight up your nose if you leave it out too long is unbelievable. Great team and they have earned their title of 2008 Division Four Champs. We were patted on the back by the refs after this game. They said it was one of the best games of the day. The best part was the team mom and dad came to me after this game and shook my hand and said we were their toughest game so far that day. We gave it our all in this game but just could not pull it out.
The sixth game was against Kryptonite Black. We knew before this game started, that we were done. There was no way we could make it into the semi-finals at this point. So, Alex asked if he could do something silly. He wanted to take the snake. I told him what the heck, do it. Big Chris wanted to move up the center of the field so I said what the heck. We got beat but it was the most fun game of the day. We finished the game laughing and shaking hands.
Overall it was a great day. I saw a lot of heart out there today. Not once did the guys get down on themselves or each other. They were a little tense and trying way to hard but it was in their heart to make the semis and finals this time. We have come a long way this season. I am so proud of these guys.
Next season will be our season in the sun; of that I'm sure. We have a strong bond between each of us. We have our family style problems but we all recognize that each of us bring something special to the table.
This was the last tournament for Alex to play with us. He has moved to Atlanta and joined a new team. He played with us in D4 (when he could afford it) and played with his new friends in D5. They did VERY well and placed first for the season as the 2008 CFOA D5 champs. So, next year they will have to bump up to D4. This will preclude him from playing with Off Constantly. We wish him well and will see him next season but from the other side of the field. Alex we will miss you next season and remember; you always have a home with us.
August 30 & 31 - Dixie Cup @ Classic Paintball in Lithia Springs, GA.
What to say about this tournament? After our last tournament, I wrote that my guys have improved so much and how proud I am of them. So, I modestly re-set our season's goal to make the semi's just one more time in one of the next two tournaments. Well, the boys didn't wait. They jumped on this tournament and there was never any doubt about whether we would make it or not.
We started the day off with winning our first two matches. The third game we got a spanking. Every position our guys tried to break out to, there was paint in that lane. We have to give great respect to Shock Force on this match. They played us straight up and just flat beat us. The fourth match, however, was against a throw together team that won by questionable means. So, after four matches we were two of four.
I have heard it said that, "you can tell the heart of a team, not by their wins, but by their losses". I never really realized what that truly meant. After our fourth match, I was wondering what was about to happen to these guys. Sitting around the tent and getting their gear together there was small talk of what went wrong, what could be done to fix it, and then the mood changed. The guys not once thought they were not going to make the semi's. Never did that enter into the conversation. Our last two matches were against the second and third toughest teams in our prelim schedule. Every one knew what we needed to do but no one was down on any one or pissy. We were family. We kept the mood lite and focused.
The boys hit the field in the fifth game and hung in there through a long, drawn out match. It was a game that saw two of the last three OC players run out of air. One of which, rolled down field and with the last bit of air in his tank and bunkered the last opponent. Fight hard and never say quit attitude was what this team carried into these last two games. Our sixth game was a walk through. Not because we were playing an easy team but quite the opposite. We were playing a very tuff team (4th in the season standings). Point was, we would not be denied. We maxed this last team (100pts).
We went into the semi's ranked fifth. We won our first match in the semi's but dropped the next two in hard fought battles that went right down to the wire. We just could not pull it out.
Off Constantly has arrived. We quited the folks that said the first was a fluke. This was our tournament and we showed it. After all these years we are actually getting the respect we so rightly deserve.
For this last tournament of the season I need to make a goal. Goals have to be achievable but not to easy. Goals must be tuff but achievable. So, saying our goal is to get to the semi's one more time is just to easy. Our goal for the last event is to make finals.
I'm proud of these guys and proud to say, "I play for OFF CONSTANTLY".
July 26 & 27 - Carolina Classic @ PBC Sports Park Charlotte in Rock Hill, SC
After every event, I've written a break down about each event. I've probably seemed like a broken record. In my words, I've said things like; 'we played well', 'we are getting better', 'we are missing one small thing', and other things along the same lines. As the team coach, I have been pulling my hair out trying to find what it was that we were missing. I knew we were on the verge of having a great event, I could feel it, I just could not figure out what it was that we were missing.
We were a little short on man power this event. It seems that money concerns bit every one at once. While I was dealing with the possibility of us not being able to play this event, I was contacted by a D3 player that we have practiced with at Carolina Paintball Park for the last two seasons. He wanted to know if he could play with us this next event. Being we were going to be short handed, I told him he was welcome to throw in with us.
Having this level of player throw in with us helped us to find what it was we were missing. Having a player of this level helped us find the confidence we have been missing. We started the day with an attitude I have never seen from this team. We had an air about us that this was our day and no one could take that away from us. Even though at the start of the day we were talking about the teams we had drawn on our schedule. Four of the six teams were in the top ten. The two that were not in the top ten had finished in the top four in the few events that they had played in (neither team had played in all the events so they did not rank as high as they would have if they had played all the events).
In our first game we won against a very tuff team. The only black mark in this game was that we pulled a penalty for a gun shooting too fast. It was one of my markers that I had forgot to set the max global rate of fire on. We took a forty point penalty for my forgetfulness. So, instead of ninety points we got fifty. Much to my amazement, the guys did not let this get them down at all. We came back and won our next two games like champs. We lost our fourth game against a very tuff team in one of those seesaw battles that we just lost in the end. That loss had me thinking that we were done for the day. In the past we have not handled a loss very well. As we were waiting for the refs to call us onto the field for our fifth game I noticed something that took my breath. CONFIDENCE! My guys were not down, heck, they didn't seem to even notice that we had lost a game. Again, there was that attitude that we were unstoppable. I was freaking amazed. We won our last two like I've never seen before.
With the forty point penalty I figured it was going to be close for us to get into the semis. We finished the prelims in seventh (they only took eight teams out of the twenty-four to the semis). Without that penalty in the first game, we would have been in third place after the prelims.
In the prelims we lost two of the three games but so did two of the other teams. We sat on pins and needles waiting to see if we made it to the finals. After the scores were totaled, we finished five points out of the finals. We finished in fifth place out of twenty-four teams. We played great and we knew it.
I am very proud of my guys. We have finally arrived. We are now a team to reckon with.
I would like to thank all of our friends at Predator Paintball in Salisbury, NC. We really appreciate all the support those folks have given us through out this season.
Of course, our whole team would like to thank Mike Holshouser for his support this season. Without it we would not be able to play. Thanks Mr. Holshouser, this tournament was for you buddy.
June 28 & 29 Peach State Challenge @ Dynamic Games Supplies in Winder, GA.
We won two and lost four. Of our four loses we really played the other teams hard. But each game had something in common; we had a one for one (ref pulled one guy plus a teammate) penalty on us in each game. The refs were really hard on the playing on penalties today. In the first game big Chris got pulled because the ref felt he should have known he was hit and they pulled me. Second game; Lil Chris got one for turning on the guy bunkering him and they pulled me. Third game; we won. Fourth game; Dustin got a playing on penalty and they pulled big Chris. Fifth game; saw me get the playing on penalty, they pulled Big Chris. Sixth game; we won.
The penalties killed us today, of that there is no doubt. There are a few that would say we were cheating and just wasn't good enough not to get caught. That could not be the furthest thing from the truth. The refs were really tuff on those calls today. Three of the penalties were a little over the top. Sort of like an umpire calling balls and strikes. If the ump sees it as a strike, it is a strike and no amount of arguing is going to change that. The penalties killed us this weekend but it was because of the level of play we are at. It wasn't like we were trying to cheat. We were really keyed up and going after these teams (which were some of the best) with all that we had. Of the four penalties, only one was an actual playing on (in my opinion). The other three were very questionable. For instance; Big Chris had paint on his back near his right shoulder blade but absolutely no shell. Not sure where the shot could have even come from but without shell it could have been from over the net from the field next to us or happened before we walked onto the field. Dustin's playing on penalty was a little harsh (the head ref of the event agreed to this). Dustin was down on his knees playing a dorito and where his leg was bent he took a glancing shot (right were his pants were sort of puffed out) and there is no way he could have felt it. Mine was just plan stupid. I had my dip can in my front pocket and took a shot going into my bunker. Normally I would have felt it but it hit the can and I did not feel it. The reff did not care that I had something in my pocket (that was my problem). He was right but it doesn't make it go down any easier.
Now, I don't want this to seem like one of those "if the refs hadn't cheated..." or "the refs beat us" commentaries. Would we have won the four matches without those calls? That is hard to say. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows, but our chances would have certainly been better if we hadn't lost two guys in each match.
Coming into this event we were in 23rd place overall. After this event we should have moved up into the top 20. Won't know this till they put the final scores out later this week.
Bottom line to all this is; Off Constantly is playing better than we ever have. This is coming from refs, other event staff and other teams. We are actually playing as a team and it is starting to show. Heck; we are so close, as a team, that we all got sun burned this Sunday after the event together. If that isn't team work, I don't know what is.
I know I'm sounding like a broken record (for you young folks, that is a thing they used to put music on. It's like a CD) but we are really getting much better and I am very proud of my guys. We have been putting in the extra time at practice to run drills before the other teams get there and it is showing in our level of play. Teams that use to put their scrub players on the field when they had to play us are now taking us more seriously.
May 24 & 25 - River Jam @ Insane Paintball in Chattanooga, TN
Due to money and work concerns we only took one team to this event. Because of the penalty from the China Grove event we had to play our first two games one man down. We worked on this during practice and applied what we learned, in practice, at the event.
For this event we had Nathan play 'D' side, lil Chris played snake, Big Chris played snake support, Jeshua played center and, of course, I played center home. We made our bunkers off the break all day, played smart and shot faces all day. We were zero and four after the first four games. We put our heads together and went after the two hardest teams on our schedule in the last two games and won both. Great finish to a great day.
I've said before how proud of my guys I have been but this event really showed me what our team is made of. Our record for the day was two wins and four losses. We beat the third and sixteenth ranked team in our division. Three of the teams that beat us moved on to the semi-finals and two of those finished first and second in the event.
We did get mowed one time (didn't shoot any of the players out on the other team) but we played four minutes and thirty seconds (five minute games) and shot most of our paint. Not sure how we didn't get any one but that is the breaks of the game. Other than that game, we played tuff all day and got real close in the other three games that we lost. We shot at least three people out in each game and made the other team work hard for their win.
Over all we had a great day. We played hard, had a good time, and earned a lot of respect from other teams that never thought much of us. I was stopped all day by other teams and told we really looked good and were making it tuff on the teams that were playing us.
Again, I'm very proud of my guys. They didn't let the fact we were playing one man down or bad calls or even bad games get us down. We took each game as they came and gave each one our best. We laughed and joked with each other all day and had a great time. This was the event were the team came together and proved to other teams that we will be a team to reckon with this season.
April 26 & 27 - Tarheel Open @ Carolina Paintball Park in China Grove, NC
This event was our first with two teams. We played as Off Constantly and Off Constantly Too.
Off Constantly started the day off right with a win in our first game. In our second game; we played very strong and it was looking good for us until two of our players made attempts to bump forward. The bumps were ill timed and right into the other teams guns. As I walked off to the dead box I noticed one of our players standing on the side line with a bunch of ref's and they were holding his marker. I knew that was not going to be good. Sure enough, one of our players guns went into "stupid" mode. It was shooting 19 bps (six balls a second over the max limit we are allowed). The penalty, for this mistake, was a six game suspension for the player and the team has to play the next six games, one man down. The team took this in stride, changed our game plan and went back after it. We played tuff the rest of the day and even got close to a win against two of the best teams in our division, despite our being short handed.
I was (and still am) very proud of the guys that played for Off Constantly this event. We did not let the penalty get us down and continued our day with more determination than I've ever seen from Off Constantly. I've said it before but it needs to be repeated; Off Constantly is truly coming together as a team and our future is truly going to be great.
Off Constantly Too had a ruff day. From my prospective (because I played with Off Constantly today and was not able to watch many of their games) it appeared the main problem was not being used to each other. After a few more practices and events; I have no doubt they will find their footing as a team or squad and their true playing abilities will come out.
Over all, I think both teams made a strong showing of themselves this event.
March 29, 2008 - Queen City Masters @ PBC Sports Park in Rock Hill, SC
Again, due to school and work obligations we could only field one team in this event and played as Off Constantly Too. This event was, by far, the best event that Off Constantly has had to date. We had learned from our first event and really played as a team.
Of our six games we won two and lost four. Of the six teams we played four went on to place in the top five of the tournament. One of those team (fifth place team) we beat in our fifth game. We placed 21st out of 33 teams. The team that won this event we played to a one on one but could not pull out the win.
Team Off Constantly made a great showing this event and we showed that we are jelling as a team.
March 16, 2008 - Evil Doers 3-man @ Wolverine Paintball in Hendersonville, NC
Four of our players (Joe, Drexel, Whit, and Adam) got together March 16, 2008 and played the Evil Doers three man event at Wolverine Paintball in Hendersonville, NC. After some pretty stiff competition they finished second. Off Constantly won 4 of 6 preliminary games and advanced to a round-robin finals bracket held for 4 out of 7 teams. In the finals round, Off Constantly played 3 games...lost the first match, tied the second (all players were eliminated on both teams...last two players shot each other simultaneously), and won the third match with a team run-through off the break.
As co-captain I would like to say that I'm very proud of these guys. They got together with very little practice between them and pulled a second place. Great job. More importantly they represented our team and sponsors with the attitude that we expect out of our players.
Great job guys!
February 23, 2008 - Dirty South Open @ Windy Hill Paintball in McDonough, GA
For our first event of the 2008 season we only took one team due to school and work commitments of some of our players and played as Off Constantly. Our first event of the year was not what any of us thought it would be. All that can be said is we did not do well. We learned a lot though. It appears that our main problem that day was first of the season jitters. We all resolved that we would correct this for the next event. We went one of six for the day and finished the day 32nd of 33 teams.
Our 2009 roster was: Chris Burkhart, Chris Crowell, Dustin Foley, Andrew Furr, Alex Hicks, Kevin Holshouser, Larry McDaniel, Jeshua Patrick, Nathan Walters and myself (Mike Burkhart). We also had a few guest players through out the season: Chris Johnson, Matt Munger, and Jesse Pittman.
September 27 & 28 - Homecoming @ PBC Sports Park Charlotte in Rock Hill, SC.