|
Firefighter/Paramedic Jeremy Roark
City of Coral Springs Fire Department, Florida United States Marine Corps (2007-2015) Current Team Templar Knights
Jersey # 33 Current Gear Setup
CS2 Pro or Shocker AMP Virtue Spire IV Hopper Ninja 68 Tank CMD Goggles |
"Putting other people first and them trusting you in their time of need...it's a career that I can be proud of."
Frontline Nomination
Our latest issue of Frontline stems from our very first nomination. Miami Police Officer Jonathan Sabel wrote to us to nominate his friend and fellow Templar Knights Captain, Jeremy Roark. Here is some of what he had to say when nominating Jeremy:
"His dedication to duty is paramount. Not only is he on the frontlines serving his community he is a dedicated family man and one of a kind Captain of his paintball team. He is a motivator and organizer for our events down here in South Florida. Not only does he manage to juggle paintball and work he is a family man and does everything to balance family life and his passion for paintball! He consistently brings teams and mentors the younger players to play the game everyone loves. I'm proud to nominate him to your Frontline spotlight as he is a true hero to our community and the sport we love, Paintball!"
On the Job | In this issue we are spotlighting Firefighter/Paramedic Jeremy Roark. Jeremy has been with the City of Coral Springs Fire Department in Florida for just under two years. Prio to becoming a FF/PM with Coral Springs, he joined the United States Marine Corps in 2007 where he served eight years active duty. Jeremy spent most of his enlistment stationed in Okinawa, Japan, serving as a combat engineer. During that time he also had two combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan before receiving an honorable discharge with a rank of Sergeant
After leaving the Marine Corps, Jeremy never felt like the jobs he was doing were making a difference and wanted to get back to helping people and being a part of something bigger than just himself. This led him to joining the fire service where he says that "putting other people first and them trusting you in their time of need...it's a career that I can be proud of." For Jeremy it's a different shift every day and that's what he loves about the job. "Meeting new people and never knowing what call will be around the corner. People tryst us when they are having their worst day." Jeremy looks forward to one day having the opportunity to achieve the rank of Captain within the department and continuing to serve the community to the best of his abilities. Jeremy feels that staying active and in shape paintballing has kept him active and in shape at the fire department. It also keeps his cardio up for when they have a lot of work to do.
On the Field | FF/PM Roark began playing paintball at a young age but was initially deterred away from the sport after being shot in the neck at around eight years old. In 2008, while stationed in Okinawa, Jeremy saw a flyer for a 3v3 speedball tournament. He didn't sign up to play but rather went to watch and was immediately hooked. Shortly thereafter he participated in his first tournament while still in Okinawa, just for fun. His team ended up taking 2nd place out of 14 teams and continued to play in several other speedball and woodsball tournaments. While he came to love the sport, after the guys he was playing with got out of it, Jeremy also stepped away for a while.
In 2017 Jeremy was paintballing for his birthday with a friend and started talking with a group that was out on the field practicing. One of the guys was also stationed in Okinawa and was still in the Marines. Jeremy was invited to be the team's fifth player and then went to play in their first D6 3-man tournament a few months later. Jeremy currently wears #33 for Templar Knights and is one of the team's Captains. The Templar Knights family is now up to 22 players. Growing the paintball family within the team is one of Jeremy's favorite parts of the sport besides the competition. Some of his most memorable accomplishments so far with the team has been finishing 1st in D4/5 3-man in the SPL Series and having a couple of 4th place finishes in the MVPS Series. He is also proud of the fact that his team has earned sponsorships from Virtue and BunkerKings. With his background in the military and his position in the fire service, Jeremy feels that he can slow himself down more than others and not get tunnel vision while out on the field. His career and military experience has helped him see the paintball field and the strategies a little differently and he is able to think about movements for the team better.
Strictly Personal | When Jeremy isn't playing paintball he is spending time with his girlfriend and their beautiful two and a half year old daughter (who he is hoping will be into paintball as much as he is). Jeremy enjoys playing golf, scuba diving and martial arts. He also enjoys watching ice hockey in his spare time being a former player himself.
