Mercer rec sports closes out the school year with fun in the pool

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Mercer Rec Sports holds a Battleship tournament in the fall and spring each school year.

Caitlyn Patton

For those unfamiliar with the pool game Battleship, it’s similar to the board game counterpart with one main objective: sink the enemy’s ships. Mercer intramurals has hosted the game at Plunkett pool for several years now and it continues to grow popular.

The game consists of four canoes with a maximum of four people in each canoe who are trying to sink the other three canoes using pails to haul water into the enemy boat. The last boat floating is the winner.

Michael Castaneda, the assistant director of recreational sports and wellness, said students are known to use all sorts of props like buckets or even plastic trash cans from their rooms — anything that can collect water.

Castaneda said Mercer Rec Sports uses this game to welcome students back in the Fall semester and to send students off at the end of Spring semester.

The game, like other intramural sports at Mercer, is played tournament-style with teams competing to take the number one spot.

“We usually get a great turnout,” Castaneda said. “There’s usually about 16 to 20 teams. Most teams sign up on IMLeagues, which is our scheduling system, but we do have people that may just be hanging out at the pool and see us setting up that will sign up to participate. ”

Pool Battleship is a young game that’s popular on college campuses around the country. Castaneda said the concept of the game was only created six or seven years ago. In the three years that he has been at Mercer, intramurals has hosted the game every year.

“I think it’s a fun sport for students to get involved with their friends or if it’s in the beginning of the school year to meet new friends,” Castaneda said. “It’s a fun way to enjoy a unique water sport you don’t see as often.”

With the way the weather is during this time of year, Castaneda said it makes sense to put on a sport that gets students into the pool.

Issa Ford, the student director of officials in Mercer Rec Sports, said he’s played Battleship on a couple of occasions and has enjoyed it every time.

“It’s a fun, entertaining game that has no skill level,” Ford said.

Ford said the most fun part about the game is watching the enemy’s boat sink after an incredibly competitive match.

Battleship marks the last intramural event of the school year. There will be a tournament on April 28. Students who are interested can sign up until Friday at 3:30 p.m.