Indoor Airsoft complex celebrates opening; hosts national tournament
HTK Airsoft’s 50,000 square foot indoor facility in Jasper will celebrate a ribbon-cutting on Saturday.
Located at 1355 Vine Street, the converted factory features two levels of highspeed indoor action, a SpeedQB regulation arena, viewing room with televisions and seating, a proshop and firing range.
The facility has been in operation since earlier this year after going through a process to meet building and safety codes for turning a factory into a sporting arena for amateur and professional players.
On Saturday, the public is invited to an open house at the indoor arena. Doors open at 11 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting scheduled for noon. This will be followed by a sanctioned SpeedQB tournament pitting five player teams from California, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee in highspeed three-minute matches in the regulation arena on the third floor of the facility.
HTK Airsoft began as a father-son project between Harrison McCoy and his father, Jason, in 2019, but these days Harrison and his sister, Kate, largely work with several other members of the family and general manager, Brian Mounts, to operate the business. While the indoor facility has been difficult to bring up to code to allow the indoor play, Harrison and Kate have been progressing in the organized sport of airsoft in 5v5 tournaments since becoming interested in the sport.
Playing under the regulations advocated by the SpeedQB, a worldwide airsoft retailer, Harrison and Kate are core members of Team Revelation, which is sponsored by HTK in addition to other suppliers carried in the proshop.
“These national tournaments are something that Kate and I have put a lot of thought into organizing, and it’s where we get to put our personal skills to work, and mix it with the business end of things,” Harrison said. “We get to organize these events. We get to host our personal team sponsors and have them come out which further hypes the event.”
Along with the competitive aspect of the business, Kate and Harrison love introducing new players to the sport. Thursday evenings are set aside for those intro programs. “I personally love converting paintballers to airsoft,” Harrison said.
But even if you’ve never picked up a paintball gun or an airsoft gun, people find the sport very fun due to it being team-based, strategic and exciting and for the most part everyone competes on a level playing field in regards to physical abilities. Anyone can pick up an airsoft gun and learn how to play capture the flag in the bunkers and shoots on the second floor.
“A lot of people, especially athletes, like in high school and college, have really taken to this competitive format just because they can wrap their minds around, you know, it’s regulated and you’re working with a team,” Harrison said.
The pair would like to grow the sport in the region utilizing the top-rate facilities they operate. In addition to the Vine Street location, they also have a 15-acre outdoor course on the family’s Loogootee property.
“Airsoft is somewhat of a new thing, but it’s developed a heck of a lot in the past few years. For a long time, it was just kind of springloaded pistols in the backyard with your buddies,” Kate said. “But now it’s developing into something that is much more like a sport.”
With the cameras and streaming, the fast-paced tournament rounds can be watched by fans and family, and the sport is growing.
“Every single week, we have a ton of new players that are very, very interested in league play,” Kate said. “And getting a lot of school kids in the fall interested in league play; getting school teams together is a thing that we’ve been very, very interested in.”
The pair feel that it will be an easy transition to build a competitive league locally with the level of enthusiasm about organized sports in the area.
And the more players, the better.
You can find out more about HTK Airsoft at their website here or at Facebook here.
Well, being from a much older generation, far be it for me to cast any dispersions on something I know absolutely nothing about, but I must say that the appearances from the photos and a couple of the write-ups are somewhat concerning, especially given all the issues/focus of today with realism/reality, mental health and so-on in our vastly different world than in my day. Let’s hope it’s all innocent enough, and that it doesn’t lead certain folks astray from play to more realistic “ambitions” and tools.
Mac, you should take some time and visit an airsoft event during game play. You’ll some really physically and mentally healthy kids and adults. You’ll also find a lot of military and law enforcement folks enjoying the sport.
I like the fact that my kids can engage in a sport on that includes current and former law enforcement officers (LEO’s). It gives my kids a chance to play with and against LEO’s and it gives the LEO’s a chance to get to know our kids.
During most game play, airsoft relies heavily on the honor system. Honorable players of lesser talent are still held in very high regard by other players. My kids have played at HTK in the past, and as a parent I can tell you that it is a wonderful way to help them build character in highly competitive situations. In airsoft, if you get hit you are supposed to announce yourself as “hit”, raise your hand, and exit the game. It’s a wonderful experience to see kids honoring the rules and doing the right thing when they take a “hit”. My impression from my kids is that HTK takes pride in and has built its reputation around honorable game play.
Airsoft is in its infancy and the fact that HTK is hosting a national tournament is amazing for our town. Jasper needs to be proud of this accomplishment. A lot of work and investment from HTK went into making this happen and we should all celebrate it.