As the 2024-25 school year slowly but surely starts coming to a close, one treasured senior tradition has commenced yet again. In the U.S., the practice of Water Wars dates back somewhere between fifteen and twenty years, possibly encouraged by similar water fight concepts in episodes of popular shows such as iCarly and Gossip Girl. West Bloomfield High School itself has held an annual Water Wars tournament for at least the last ten years, according to Mr. Pace.

Seniors went into this first week with high spirits and water guns at the ready while administrators prepared for a dreadfully stressful period. It’s already looking to be a very eventful Water Wars with high tensions between teams, disputes with judges, and enhanced restrictions from administration. All members involved will have their work cut out for them in the coming weeks.

Though most were excited to spend time with old and new friends, buying supplies and strategizing against opponent teams, some seniors started the week with a little more confidence than others. 

Carter Woolbright matter-of-factly commented, “we’re gonna win… no matter what anyone else does, they don’t even have a chance.” 

His “Squirt Till It Hurts” teammate, Finn McIsaac, backed him up explaining, “our tactics are superior; our commitment is superior.” 

Clearly of the opposite mind, Ava Aisner said she was feeling “not good long term, not good.” She predicted a not too bright fate stating, “maybe in the next round if not this round I’ll get out.” Her team, “Wet N’ Wasted,” might need a little more enthusiasm to find success as the competition only gets stronger.

Teams started sorting out strategy before the games begun, trying to get an upper hand on their opponents. While some teams like “Squirt Till It Hurts” dreamed up complex methods of eliminating each opponent which they declined to explain here, other players like Ashlee Frankford from team “Squirt Force One” stated that her winning strategy was as simple as “trying to stay under the radar.” It does seem that there may have been some over strategizing among participants as speculation arose that administration was closer than ever to shutting down the games due to this year’s antics. 

To make matters worse, a timely email was sent by Mr. Pace on Tuesday afternoon reminding students and parents that Water Wars is in fact not sponsored or endorsed by WBHS in any way. The email further requested that participants keep the games away from any school-related events (WB or other), private property, and other businesses. Students were a bit surprised and feared that the email did not bode well for the future of Water Wars given that its expectations were quite a bit more strict than the official rules. 

However, when asked to comment, Mr. Pace himself stated that he has sent out a similar reminder “every single year.” He explained that “as far as the school is concerned, there is no difference this year when compared to other years.” 

Though this may come as encouragement, he also warned, “it’s getting harder and harder to find students to run the game because other students can be very harsh to them.” Mr. Pace’s prediction for the demise of Water Wars was based on this increasing difficulty of finding volunteers.

Heading up the much-loved tradition this year is senior class president Carly Lyons. Though running and judging Water Wars is not explicitly in her job description as president, with no other volunteers, the duty to uphold tradition fell to Carly. She’s found some other students who were previously uninvolved in Water Wars to assist her with judging, though their identities remain largely undisclosed. Carly’s taking her role seriously as she explained her concern for “making sure that everyone feels they are treated fairly and their opinions are heard.” A difficult task considering she’d dealt with around sixteen students contesting shots in just the first day of Water Wars. 

Many students are sympathetic to Lyons and the other judges’ situation, but that doesn’t stop the mounting concerns they’re experiencing on interpretations of the rules. 

“Squirt Force One” members explained their situation, stating that the judges declined to accept any videos of their opponent team blocking “Squirt Force One” members with their cars, though they felt their videos were of higher quality than others accepted by the judges for credit. Similarly, Kate Shepard of “Puff Puff Splash” explained how judges retracted a point from her team’s score after an opponent team member complained that she had never been shot. 

A great deal of students find themselves in a position of respectfully questioning the judges rulings and the sportsmanship of opposing teams. Similar concerns often come up in all kinds of competitions but the fact that all participants are peers and fellow students makes the tension that much greater. Regardless of any speculation, the fact of the matter is that more than half of the disqualifications since rules against “camping” were enhanced on Wednesday have been on the basis of technicalities in the rules rather than genuine water-based eliminations. It’s starting to make some students wonder if Water Wars is more about following every rule to a T than actually shooting opponents with water.

However complicated the games are turning out to be, students still seem to be having fun. 

Joel Mathew, a teammate of Frankford’s, explained, “the best part of water wars is the adrenaline rush,” while Kristen Plain of the “Super Soak Hers” said her favorite part was “chasing people.”

Students hope that the drama will die down soon so that they can enjoy the good parts to the fullest extent.