HRC Trounces Dems in “Paintball Brawl”

Embracing what one event co-founder called an “alternative way of settling our differences,” the Harvard College Democrats and Harvard Republican Club participated in their fourth annual “Paintball Brawl” last Friday, with the Republicans emerging victorious for the fourth time in a row.

“It was a bit of a massacre once again,” said Daniel A. F. Demetri ’09, a Democrat who, along with his Republican roommate Zachary V. Smith ’09, organized the first-ever brawl during his freshman year. “Dems are just worse with guns,” he said.

The Democrats and Republicans, clad in blue and red gear respectively, chartered a school bus to take them to Boston Paintball in Everett. The Republicans won six out of the seven rounds, a particularly impressive victory due to their low turnout: 14 Republicans against 24 Democrats.

Nonetheless, the Democrats were proud of their performance on the field.

“I’d like to say we held our own,” said Lindsay M. Garber ’11, who organized the event for the Democrats. “We kept it close a couple times, but they were very clearly the winners and we gave them props for that.”

The game proved to be cathartic for the Republicans after the party’s defeat in the November presidential election.

“We were saying, ‘Hey we may have lost the election, but we can still win paintball,’” said HRC President Colin J. Motley ’10.

Motley said that aggressive political talk was mostly absent from the event.

“It was very collegial and fun,” he said.

The game marked a bittersweet moment for Demetri as it was the last time he could participate in the tradition that he co-founded. As freshmen, he and Smith raised more than $3,000 from corporate sponsors in order to begin the annual paintball challenge.

“The ultimate irony is that I’m going to be working for a hedge fund next year that owns most of the paintball manufacturing factories in the country,” he said.

Even after its founders have graduated, the spirit of friendly Democrat-Republican rivalry will remain. Motley said he plans to publicize the paintball brawl to incoming freshman during a debate between the Democrats and Republicans on prefrosh weekend, while Garber said that the Democrats and Republicans are considering organizing a laser tag event for next year as well.

“I think a little healthy competition is good for us,” she said.

—Staff writer Evan T. R. Rosenman can be reached at erosenm@fas.harvard.edu.