NATCHEZ — Other than sitting around or getting into trouble, Kevin Strahan does not think there are many activities available for local youth.

That’s why he and his buddies decided to open a paintball field.

“The only thing kids can do here is go to church or hang out in a parking lot,” Strahan said. “And they can’t hang out in parking lots anymore because they get chased off (by the police). So there’s not a whole lot for kids to do around this area without getting in some sort of trouble.”

Strahan, who has been playing paintball for 15 years, wanted something different and fun for children and adults alike.

So three months ago, when he and Strahan and Chad Houghton found paintball field equipment for sale in Alexandria, La., they jumped at the chance to purchase it.

“We thought (the field) was closed down because it looked so bad, but the guy hadn’t closed down. The hurricane just came through and knocked down a lot of trees.

“The guy (who owned the field) said, ‘Well, I was thinking about getting out of it anyway,’ so we bought it from him. We never even questioned how much he wanted for it.”

The friends moved the inflatable bunkers, a trailer and air compressors to a field on Liberty Road east of Natchez, and right now they are letting friends play for free to get word and excitement out to the community.

They want to open as a business eventually, and Strahan said they want to move closer to town or into Vidalia. The only problem is finding land to lease.

“A lot of people won’t lease us a field because they say paintball is dangerous and that you can get hurt playing,” Strahan said. “But I’ve been playing for 15 years, and I’ve only seen one person get hurt and it was his own fault. He was just an older man who did something an older man shouldn’t have been doing and hurt his leg.”

Strahan said, in fact, playing paintball in a supervised area through a business is much safer than playing in your own backyard or in the woods.

He said his business would go over safety rules and monitor every game.

“A lot of people play in their own back yard and they don’t have the correct set-up,” he said. “They don’t wear their masks all the time, they don’t check their guns to see how fast they’re shooting and to keep it under a safe limit. If we can get somewhere we can open up a business, we can get everybody to play safely.”

Houghton said they even plan to rent out all the equipment to customers, so any family just driving by can walk up and play.

It will also keep more business in the area, Strahan said, because lots of local groups drive out of town to play paintball

Michael Roboski, 16, who has been playing paintball for seven years, used to travel to play.

“Before they set up this field, which is real nice, I would go probably once every three or four weeks, and it would just be in the woods,” he said. “But I’ve been out here now just about every time they open it.”

But Strahan said it’s not just kids who enjoy the game.

He gets competitors of all ages and sizes.

“In Natchez and Vidalia, there’s probably 300 to 500 people that play paintball,” Strahan said. “We’ve got a dentist in Natchez that plays, a couple doctors…some coaches and a couple aerobics instructors that play.

“Anybody that has ever played paintball says women are the world’s worst to put on a paintball field because they go off on the men. They’ll demolish them.”

Houghton said he’s been enjoying paintball for 12 years, since he was a teenager.

He said the adrenaline rush is his favorite part.

“When you go hunting in the woods, you see your first deer and your heart just starts racing,” he said. “But think about it this way: Now you got somebody shooting back at you, too. You’re the deer and the hunter. There’s just nothing like it.”

Houghton said speed ball, very short team games with the inflatable bunkers, is altogether different from woods ball, where you can play anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and it’s every man for himself.

But he enjoys both options, and he insists the paintballs don’t hurt.

“When you get hit with the paintballs, you don’t really feel them,” Houghton said. “You look down and see paint on your shirt and say, ‘Oh, I got hit.’ Now, if you say, ‘OK, turn around and shoot me now,’ yeah, you’re gonna feel it. But when you’re playing, you’re too hyped up.”

The game can get expensive to play on your own — guns cost anywhere from $150 to $2,000 and a case of paintballs is $60 — which is another reason Strahan and Houghton thinks the business is a good idea.

If they’re supplying the equipment, it’s cheaper on children and families.

And he said he promises every parent their child will be safe.

“It’s not dangerous at all,” he said. “You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning, being run over by a car or killed by a shark than you do getting hurt playing paintball.”