Water wars begins, students soak their opponent
Seniors compete in the anural competition having their last bit of fun before graduation.
Seniors Mike Ferrara (l) and Elyse Gallagher (r) shortly after one of them was eliminated after school.
June 30, 2022
Senior, Nic Alicandri, woke up at 3:30 in the morning to go out and hunt his opponents. They were not successful on the morning hunt but they went out again later. Two other teammates of his joined him to ambush the opposing team. With one hiding behind the shed, one behind the side of the house even under a camera, and one behind a car. Three verses one and came up with the successful kill at 7 pm following the opponent’s lacrosse game.
Seniors at Hunterdon Central, have been participating in Water Wars for years. Water Wars was started by Luke Nealon in 2014. Water Wars is a student-run event that takes place as seniors complete the task of getting other seniors out with water guns and water balloons.
Seniors are in their final weeks before graduation and are having a little fun and excitement before their final tests and AP exams. Hunterdon Central Principal, Mr. Edward Brandt expresses his opinions on water wars. “It is like spirit week, it adds to the positive vibe in the school for seniors after coming back after spring break right before graduating,” he said.
Mike Redmond and Aiman Sabaawy, senior organizers of Hunterdon Central water wars 2022. Redmond started the whole idea in gym class with some friends. After receiving lots of encouragement from other friends Aiman and he took a leap of faith and started the Instagram page where it took off from there. 52 teams later and over $3,000 in prize money for the winning team, it was very successful in making sure the seniors had some fun before graduation.
Senior, Rourke Peralta, a participant in water wars 2022 had a crazy water wars experience. She had multiple experiences during water wars including sitting on her roof. “It was actually fun sitting on my roof! I ate dinner up there once because I was hungry and waiting for people. I ended up getting 3 people from my roof and overcame my fear of heights. I have sat up there for over 2 hours at one time,” she said.
To make the game more interesting, the organizers would drop secret water bottles throughout the whole town and even further. The bottles could help teams or hurt teams. They would post hints and updates on Instagram where the teams would go scavenger for them. Someone even had to dig a water bottle out of the sand so they could receive a bottle. It was actually fun sitting on my roof! I ate dinner up there once because I was hungry and waiting for people. I ended up getting 3 people from my roof and overcame my fear of heights. I have sat up there for over 2 hours at one time, — Rourke Perlata
“The hardest part of running is definitely managing the social media account. Mainly at the start, there were so many people with so many questions so it was very hard to get back to absolutely everyone in especially a timely fashion,” Redmond said.
Final four shootout! Both teams met at Lenape Park in Flemington at 7:30 PM. All girls teams versus an all guys team. They line up on the field and set a timer for 30 minutes. The 30 minutes came to an end and the girls won after getting two of the opposing team members out. They advanced to the finals but fell short of winning the whole thing losing 5-3.
]It was actually fun sitting on my roof! I ate dinner up there once because I was hungry and waiting for people. I ended up getting 3 people from my roof and overcame my fear of heights. I have sat up there for over 2 hours at one time.[/pullquote]They played in a bracket format with single elimination. The winning team will split $1560 amongst their 6 team members with the other half going to their charity of choice, Patrick’s Pals. Patrick’s Pals is a non-profit foundation to support younger adults and children under the age of 26 with disabilities equipment and therapy. The winning team members were Evan Vasquez, Dylan Munitz, Devin Oberman, Jack Herrling, Ryan Keay, and Ale Pintado.
