This interviewee has been playing
paintball since he was 12 years old. He began his paintball journey playing for
fun at a local field called T2 Paintball. Sonny Guenette was at the field so
often that he was hired to work on weekends throughout his high school years. Guenette
met many nice people at the field and together with his friends decided to put
together a team for the last tournament of the Golden Triangle. With that not
working out very well, Sonny and Brian Tavares (former CXBL spokesperson)
decided to train hard during the winter and gather a better team for the
future. They did exactly that, calling
their new team Fury and winning first place overall in the same league the
following year.
In the
meantime, Guenette got a job working at BuyPBL
and slowly started to get to know the world of paintball. As the Golden
Triangle tournaments came to an end, CXBL was just beginning. Sonny was taken
under the wing of the former Skorpion family, where he became a member of their
pit crew for the first year of CXBL and practiced with them, developing new
skills. Guenette then joined Skorpions for their second season in the CXBL.
After that, Sonny made a roster change and joined Cowboys, whom he played with
for 3 years. With the Cowboys team, he and his teammates had a lot of success.
When the creator of Cowboys and many players decided to quit, Guenette made
another move to play for Kamikaze. While Sonny was planning on taking this
season off to focus on school, Tom from Daytona sought him out and asked him to
join the Drummondville squad.
While Sonny used to play
solely the back bunkers, he now likes to make big bumps moving from the back to
the front of the field. He is even hoping to get some Gs from the snake side of
the field even though he hates that position. Guenette likes to get a good
reading of the field before making key bumps. This means that he prefers
starting at the back to running out off the break. Throughout his many years being
involved in Xball, Sonny has been to NAX many times and also played in the
states for World Cup and USPA. He says, “For some reason, I always played for
the top team but never got the chance to have the grand prize in my hands!”
This year, Guenette has yet another shot at NAX and he says, “I think it could
be possible even though we have got a young team and are the underdogs!”
Photo Credit: Charity Matheson
While English is not his first language, Sonny did a fantastic job answering my questions! Thanks for working through the language difference with me, Sonny!
- What is your general impression of the 2012 Elite standings? Were there any major surprises or did the season finish as expected?
“The
top 4 are exactly what I predicted. There is just one little difference. I thought
we would have been fourth. I wasn’t sure about Cowboys - how the 2 teams would
gel together and it seems they did good. I’m glad for them because they are my
former teammates. I’m kinda surprised that Medonte made it to the final... I
would have thought Recon would have had their spot but I guess without Thomas Taylor
it was a different team.”
- What do you feel was your team’s greatest strength this season?
“Our
biggest strength was the fact that so many players on this team have never had
the chance to go to NAX and they wanted it so bad that they worked their asses
off on and off the field to have a chance to compete against the best. As an
older CXBL player, I was thrilled to see the effort that was deployed from
everybody and I can only admire them :)! Our gelling time since we are from a
lot of different backgrounds was short and that also gave us an edge on some
older team who might have underestimated us.”
- What are you able to take away from the 2012 season that will allow you to develop as a player and as a team throughout the off-season?
“Much
responsibility was given to me and now I know my limits of what I can
accomplish. Now I can focus more on some things and some I can let go. This
team needed leadership and this is what I will be looking to give as the team
gets better and better.”
“As a team we had a quick and aggressive style....
since the division is now national we had to get ourselves slower and patient
witch wasn’t easy to do. A lot of practice and going back to basic paintball
was needed. Also the communication grew so quickly that it would only lead us
to the final.”
- What was your highlight of the season?
“The 2
important wins of the last event against Thunder and Cambridge were our major
highlight and it proved to ourselves that being dedicated to something that you
love makes you so much better.”
- Which individual on your own team do you most respect as a player and why?
“I would say Tom the owner /captain/player of the team... why? Because he can act as any one of the 3 mentioned,
before or even during the game. I trust him A lot with his decisions and his
connection to the team is so appreciated. I also respect him for taking me out of
“retirement" and giving me the
chance to grow as a better player in his organization. A man who can trust
without asking for anything in return is a worthy man!”
- If you had to choose a team other than your own as most likely to win NAX, who would you choose and why?
“Probably
Cowboys because the guys from Montreal really want to win it bad since they had
their cup stolen last year by Lockdown... and also because the heat guys are
pumped up after a big win at MAO.”
- Daytona surprised a lot of CXBL players and fans at Elite event 3 with wins over Vancouver Thunder and Cambridge Raiders. How did you prepare for these matches prior to the event? What kind of game plan did you have?
“We had a lot of time to speak to each other and
we came back to basic paintball. A lot of our players have never played other
styles of paintball other than Xball. We had a couple of practices on semi auto
with the minding of playing 7 man, slow paintball, and knowing when to make
important bumps. The more experienced players took the lead in those practices
and calmed down our more excited players. To be honest we practiced our game
plan to counter Cambridge but it looks like it worked out great against Thunder
also. A clean game was needed to conquer against both teams. That’s why we had
to stay out of the box. Cambridge played as a slow team as well against us.
They tried to be like us and I guess it worked out pretty well.”
- The Elite teams coming from the Eastern Conference tend to move down the field quicker and more aggressively than the many Central teams. How do you feel that this affected the outcome of your matches this season?
“Like I said, we had many practices to slow us
down to be able to compete against slower teams but if needed we will bring
those crazy fast moves and see how it plays out at NAX. We aren’t afraid to try
all sorts of crazy stuff. We also have a coach now that will be able to calm us
down in the pit. We sometimes get too much adrenaline that the pit also becomes
a mosh pit of energy.”
- It looks as though your team will face Medonte Ntwo Factor first at NAX. You managed a win over Medonte at Border Battle but their team has come out strong, winning every match since then. What do you feel that you and your teammates need to do to secure a win against this team?
“If they became better, well I think they need to look at us
and learn from us. We grew so much this season without having a free win over
Rockstar. They will be crushed down on their first match. That might give them
a chance to come back stronger for the rest of NAX. They are on a momentum and
we are looking forward to blowing up that moment. This young team is going to
play with their emotion and we will play with our head and heart giving all that
we’ve got. This will be an exciting match to see. A lot of blood and tears will be left on the
battle ground. They could come back from their last game against us on the
second half but now we aren’t only a first half team. We have got our stuff together
and if they think they will be able to make a comeback, well sorry, this isn’t
going to happen, I can promise you that.”
- Is there anything else that you would like to add?
“Thank for taking time to promote the sport!”
Sonny, Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I wish you and your Daytona teammates a good run at NAX!
Signing off,
The Paintball Wife
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