MHS Students Wage War in Annual Tradition

For two months keen observers may have noticed Millburn High School juniors and seniors chasing each other all over town with water guns in tow. No, Millburn's 17 and 18-year-olds have not all simultaneously forgotten their age. They are participating in a Millburn tradition, a game that many have come to know and love, Water Wars.

As April rolls around each year, students flock to sign up for the annual competition that started over 10 years ago. Dozens of teams participate every year, but only a few make it to the final round.

The game, which is not a school event, begins as each team is assigned another team to eliminate by the end of the week. But while Team A knows they must eliminate Team B, an unknown Team C is coming after Team A. With so many teams in play and everyone's target initially a secret, Water Wars tends to get complicated. As players reveal their targets through failed attempts to register a "kill" or through gossip, everything starts to become more clear and people are able to form alliances and help their friends set up their targets.

By virtue of chance, most people are not in the same social circles as their targets because there are over 200 players in the game. Without being able to run into a target in social situations and with a guidebook full of restrictions, most teams must resort to setups to ensnare their marks.

"Sometimes, the only chance you have is an ally's help, otherwise some people just end up spending way too much time staking out their targets' houses or following them around. That's why it's so important to know who to trust and to be skeptical of situations that could be setups," said third round-qualifier Bryan Gonnella.

For safety purposes, there are multiple zones where a player cannot be "assassinated." School grounds are off limits, and so is any school-sanctioned event, even if it is not at the school. A player also is safe at his or her house, unless the person trying to get them is invited inside. Driveway blockades are illegal, and no one can shoot out of an unparked car.

If someone does go after a target in a legitimate area, the target can spray their "attacker" with their own gun. It's called a stun and takes the stunned individual out of the game for the next 24 hours. Stuns and kills must be reported immediately.

Of course, a game this complicated does need people to run it. This year, that honor fell to seniors Joey Kizel and Andrew Spelman. While it may sound exciting to be in charge of Water Wars, there is plenty of work to be done when you are running a 200-person operation. Kizel and Spelman had to be available at all hours for all five weeks of the competition, ready to answer hundreds of calls and texts about "kills," "stuns," and requests for rulings on disputes. Since two people cannot drive around Millburn ready to witness every time someone uses a water pistol, Water Wars relies heavily on the honor system. Even though most people tell the truth, Kizel and Spelman were forced to deal with disputes constantly.

"It's an event that is extremely difficult to organize," said Kizel. "It's very time consuming. But by the second week, I started to get the hang of it. In the end, I was happy I did it."

In this year's competition, Kizel and Spelman enrolled over 100 teams for the five-week competition that crowned just two teams co-champions at its conclusion. By the last week of May, A.J. O'Leary and Will Spelman and David Spelman and Emma Strickler emerged as the victors.

A.J. and Will were no strangers to success in a game traditionally dominated by seniors after their wildly successful junior campaign. The two long-time friends advanced to the fourth round last year, falling just one round short of the championship.

Even though they defied the odds with their top 10 finish, they were not satisfied with anything less than gold. "We were really upset after being eliminated last year, especially after being knocked out on such a questionable call," said O'Leary after explaining that he had been called out even though the team that was after him never shot him or his partner. Even at the time, many of the game's participants knew O'Leary and Spelman had been hosed. But Water Wars is a senior's game, a fact they learned the hard way.

Now back as seniors, the experienced duo had more than enough confidence coming in. "We were really motivated by what happened last year," explained O'Leary. "We had a lot of fun leading up to the start of things, posting on the Water Wars message board and making a lot of jokingly cocky comments. It turns out that kidding around made things a lot more difficult, though, since a lot of people saw us being cocky and wanted to do anything to beat us."

Despite early troubles in the first round, perhaps as a result of having a little too much fun on the message board, O'Leary and Spelman were able to take advantage of an intricate web of alliances to outlast the competition until the final round.

Will's brother David Spelman and his partner Emma Strickler took a starkly different approach on their way to a share of the title. While A.J. and Will boasted about their lofty expectations and used Facebook to broadcast their partnership to everyone in the school, few people had any idea that David and Emma were teammates.

The element of surprise was key for team Strickler-Spelman. Many of Strickler and Spelman's targets never even knew who was coming after them until they had been shot. The unexpected partnership along with their dedication to the tournament paid huge dividends. In round three, armed with the knowledge that his target frequented a variety of Italian delis on Fridays, Spelman spent an entire lunch period driving from one Springfiled delicatessan to the next until he got his man.

"There are a lot of different styles in this game," said Strickler. "For us it was just to be dedicated to the game, and to be careful, of course."

"Water Wars is a test of a lot of different things," explained Will Spelman. "It involves loyalty, character, dedication, common sense, and a whole lot more. You really have to understand how people think and just be aware of what's going on. It's a simple premise, but it's a game that can get a lot more complicated once you get involved with alliances and setting people up."

While many enjoy Water Wars' competitive nature and the thrill of the chase, many look to it as an entertaining way to cap off the year. "It's a great opportunity to have some fun and be outside with your friends," said Kizel. "The school year is winding down, the weather is getting warmer, everyone is excited about graduation; it's the perfect way at the perfect time to just hang out and have fun with your friends before summer."

Even with the finale of Water Wars 2010 not long ago, some Millburn students are already ready for next year's competition. "Who's excited for Water Wars 2011?!?!?," exclaimed one poster on the official Water Wars Facebook page. Rumors are already flying around about the successors to Kizel and Spelman's prestigious positions.

It seems that this longstanding tradition will continue for years to come at Millburn High School. The question is, without any standout junior performers this year, who will fulfill the legacy of the Spelmans, O'Leary and Strickler to be crowned next year's Water Wars Champion?