Paintball Media Magazine February 2021 February 2021 | Page 34

Steve “ Rab ” Rabackoff – Steve Rabackoff has had quite the career in paintball , playing for and eventually becoming the captain of the original Houston Heat and working at DYE Paintball more than 25 years ago . Rab ’ s resumé also includes working for some of the biggest brands in the game including , Diablo Direct , Procaps , GI Sportz and now Kore Outdoor . Rab ’ s distinguished playing career included collecting trophies with Avalanche , Image and Infamous .
John Rathbun – In his roughly two decades in the game of paintball John Rathbun has done much . Entering the game and industry as an entry-level employee at Pursuit Marketing Inc . ( PMI ), John worked his way through the company to one of the top spots in sales . John remained on the staff through the merger with National Paintball Supply , then GI Sportz and currently is the sales manager at Kore Outdoors . On the field John is the captain of Farside , one of the longest running teams in the world , founded by Forest Brown in the late-1980s .
Mike Ratko - Mike was an executive at Accucaps / Zap Paintballs in the 90s where he was the force behind the growth of the brand . He also was instrumental in bringing the Skyball events to fruition and later became the Commissioner of the National X-Ball League ( NXL ). Along with Richmond Italia , Mike helped create the Xball format played in tournaments all over the world today .
John Rice - John Rice graduated college with a degree in metallurgy and spent 12 years at TI Research Laboratories in Cambridge , England , but you know him as the creator and inventor of the Angel paintball gun . John worked at WDP , then Angel Paintball Sports for many years before leaving in 2008 .
John Ripkey – John is the President and founder of Ninja Paintball , one of the premiere highpressure systems manufacturers for decades . And before Ninja Paintball was a household name in paintball they were manufacturing paintball products for private label companies like PMI and many others .
Left to Right : Steve “ Rab ” Rabackoff , John Rathbun , Top Bob Long , George Statler , Bottom , Tim Schloss
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