PERRY — It’s a sport that is easy for boys to love. Paintball involves guns, paint, getting dirty and sometimes scenarios that mimic favorite video games.

The co-owner of Thunder Valley Paintball started playing the game when he was about 10. Now, Gerrit Dempsey, a second-generation small business owner, can play whenever he wants on his 80-acre paintball field.

Thunder Valley, which celebrates its third anniversary Feb. 10, has a way of adapting to new ideas and concepts.

Dempsey and his partner, James Irwin, ordered a paintball dome from China. The dome is 150-by-50-feet wide and is 30 feet tall. Inside the dome is 2,000 square feet of AstroTurf.

“It’s massive,” Dempsey said.

They brought the dome to the Georgia National Fair in October to show off the new purchase. It allows them to bring paintball to other places.

“We rent it out to churches, colleges, on base, for any huge event,” said Jennifer Sheffer, who helps with marketing and advertising.

The dome weighs in at 7,100 pounds. Thunder Valley supplies all of the equipment including the reeball. The reeball is a foam ball that looks like, and has the same dimensions as, a regular paintball. It allows people to play a form of paintball without getting dirty.

The reeball also requires no special gun. Players can use whatever paintball gun they have to play in the dome.

Dempsey also hosts collegiate events as well as the Carolina Field Owners Association event. Schools such as Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, University of Southern Mississippi and Florida State University all sponsor paintball teams. Last year, they all competed at Thunder Valley, which has the acreage and fields to host more than 500 people.

Scenarios such as “Call of Duty” and “Halo,” which come from video games, focus on battles in a large field consisting of trees, trenches, castles and a scud missile made from PVC pipe.

Dempsey hopes to have an urban area up and running next year, and Irwin said they change the props in the field, so people who come often won’t get bored.

Billy Smith, who owns Low Country Paintball in Savannah, said he and his friends came to Perry a few weeks ago.

“It wasn’t hard to spot good talent,” Smith said.

The paintball community has a passion for the sport. Most start young, but Dempsey says it’s for all ages.

“It’s one of the few sports that you can be 10 or 50,” he said. “It’s not limited to age.”

To contact writer Angela Woolen, call 923-5650.