This is a follow up to the Water Wars feature (p. 17-17) from the May print edition. 

Squirt guns, secret alliances, and sabotage. Water Wars, which was supposed to be one final hurrah for the class of 2018, ended up being anything but.

Water wars has been a Portage Central tradition for many years now, but this year’s seniors decided to bring the fun home here to Portage Northern. The first year of this newfound tradition was not  full of as much friendly fun as many of the seniors thought.

“Honestly, everyone was sabotaging everyone,” Class of 2018 graduate Lizzy Verduzco said. When graduate and student senate secretary Jessie Beadle was arranging the idea, many seniors were excited to participate not knowing what was to come. “I saw my Central friends doing it, so when we got it approved, it looked too fun not to try!” said Class of 2018 graduate Omar Thaj.

The excitement continued in the first few weeks, with videos of take-outs being posted on the Twitter account, @PNwaterwars. As competition increased, however, the contest took a turn to the darker side as alliances and plans of sabotage developed.

As the fun wore off, many seniors were not willing to talk about this part of the experience. In the end, it took 5 people to finally disclose what happened at the tournament’s end.

Graduate Quinlan Lewis was making his way up the ranks as he eliminated four people before Taylor Lyke got him out. It looked like he was headed to victory, and many of his senior classmates thought he did indeed win and reported him as the victor when interviewed. This was surprisingly not the case.

“I was cheated out,” he said bluntly.  Lewis was not the only one who felt this way: like some of his peers, Lewis lost the good spirit of Water Wars due to all of the cheating. “You couldn’t really trust anyone,” said graduate Lizzy Verduzco.

Despite the techniques used, and the seniors did try many, including catching their classmates at lunch and after practice with everything from squirt guns to water bottles, the rest of the senior class was no match for Michael Bond, who had a surprise come-from-behind victory with five eliminations overall.

It is too early to tell whether Water Wars was a fun end to a memorable senior year for the Class of 2018 or something that perhaps should have stayed at Portage Central, and only time will tell if this will become a new, fun addition to Portage Northern traditions for the classes to come. As Jessie Beadle put it, “At least it helped the seniors finish off the year strong!”