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 Ryan Moorhead, Philly Americans Ryan Moorhead is one of the nicest people in professional paintball. However, that doesn’t mean that once he’s inside the net, he isn’t fully prepared to smash opponents into the ground on his way to victories in the NXL with the Philadelphia Americans. Loyal to his team, his sponsors and his friends, many in paintball would do well to take a page from Ryan’s book when deciding how to live their paintball lives. At the 2008 PSP World Cup, the Americans found themselves in a battle of attrition with their arch-rivals, the Ironmen, for the gold trophy with Moorhead doing battle in the trenches point after point. Just minutes before the second game of their best-two-of-three series, Ryan took a few minutes to speak with Josh Silverman to give some insight into his world. Name: Ryan Moorhead
Age: 23
Hometown: Latrobe, PA
Current Residence: Latrobe, PA
Employment: Tech Department Manager, Smart Parts
Interesting Fact: Shares a birthday with teammate Konstantin Federov Josh: How did you wind up on the Philadelphia Americans?
Ryan: In 2001 I started playing with the All Americans 2, then moved into the NXL with Miami Effect. I played with them until I was traded to the Americans after the Chicago event in 2005. Josh: Do you play any other sports?
Ryan: I played football and soccer for a while before I got into paintball. Josh: What’s your favorite format of competitive paintball?
Ryan: I love X-Ball. But I liked it more when it had longer halves and there was no mercy rule! Josh: What kind of music do you listen to?
Ryan: I’m a little weird, honestly I don’t listen to much music, maybe I’m ‘musically retarded’ or something but I’ve never really listened to a lot of music. Josh: Really? Do you watch any TV?
Ryan: I watch a lot of sports, and SportsCenter on ESPN. Josh: How much paintball do you play?
Ryan: I play in all three leagues [NXL, NPPL and European Millennium] and we practice three weekends a month. Our practices are really long. Josh: Do you still run drills or just scrimmage, or a combination of both?
Ryan: We mostly scrimmage, either against other pro teams or amongst ourselves, but sometimes we do still run break shooting drills on NXL layouts so I can learn where my paint needs to go. Sometimes we also run one-on-one drills too. Josh: Do you win a lot?
Ryan: I’m probably not the best at one-on-one in practice, but during tournaments I seem to do ok. Josh: Who’s the best player on the Americans?
Ryan: I’d put our best five against any five players in the world. I think we have lots of the best players in the world in their spots on the field. We have a strong ‘Dorito’ side.  Josh: What’s Latrobe like?
Ryan: Small! Half the team lives there though, so sometimes we go into Pittsburgh to have fun.
Josh: I see you and the team recently switched to a new gun.
Ryan: Yes, I love my Luxe! I liked playing with my Shocker, but I love the Luxe. It’s perfectly balanced, so I can run and shoot and even snap shoot better. It’s also allowed the team to shoot more brittle paint. We have more problems now with our paint breaking in our pods and loaders than we do in our guns! Josh: What other gear do you use?
Ryan: I’m sponsored by Hard Corps to use the Torque loader. Josh: So you’re in the finals at the World Cup playing the Ironmen. Would you call that a grudge match?
Ryan: We had tough games with the Russians to get here but we came out strong. We have a rivalry with the Ironmen. Josh: You just dropped game one. What does someone do to get pumped going into game two?
Ryan: Players on our level shouldn’t need any help getting up for a game. Josh: As you play the final round at the World Cup, what advice do you have for younger players?
Ryan: The new kids inherently seem to have better fundamentals and a higher level of talent today than we had growing up, but it’s still about how much time you put in and playing people better than you. Josh: What about your future?
Ryan: I plan to go back and finish school. There’s only a future in paintball for so many people, but the kids should still go after their dreams. I know a lot of people with college educations and good jobs that wish they could be doing things like we do every day.
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