Popular Drinking Game Modified

9/21


Guillermo 'Pato' Kegalj aims the ping-pong


Water Pong was the social game of choice for over 30 Trinity International University (TIU) athletes at an off-campus student residence Friday. Represented at the home, dubbed Soccer Sorority House or Beta Gamma for Buffalo Grove, were women’s and men’s soccer, men’s basketball, men’s baseball and football.

Water Pong and Beer Pong are one and the same, with the obvious exception: alcohol. Closet doors and kitchen tables have been substituted for the playing surface, and plastic party cups, filled with a couple ounces of a selected beverage, are set up as bowling pins at each end. Two opposing teams of partners stand at a designated distance from the table and exchange attempts at tossing Ping Pong balls into the opponents’ cups. Each team is responsible for consuming the contents of any cup on their side that holds a ball. A winner is determined when a shot has been made in all cups and the loser is then responsible for drinking from the remaining cups on the winners’ end.

“I’m not sure that adapted drinking games are a great thing to promote,” said Athletic Director and Women’s Soccer Coach Patrick Gilliam.

Drinking games of this sort are frequently played at colleges nationwide because they double as a social activity and one that aids a faster consumption of alcohol. But simply mimicking the drinking game while meeting Trinity Expectations was not the goal for the event.

“We’re getting hydrated for tomorrow’s game,” said women’s soccer senior captain Loryssa Simas. Simas is also a student Athletic Trainer and part of a department that takes serious the practice of hydration.

Before the start of the semester, all the athletic teams congregated in the Meyer Sports Complex to watch the Gatorade documentary on hydration, compliments of Athletic Training. During the Boil Order, Certified Athletic Trainer Angie Ryan traveled with a group to Lake Forest College to fill 80 gallons worth of water jugs for the athletes practicing that day in 90-degree weather.
Soccer athlete Serena Bjurlin shares the passion for necessary hydration and carries a Nalgene water bottle with her nearly wherever she goes. Bjurlin was present Friday night and dominated at Water Pong with partner and soccer athlete Steve O’Brien. Together they managed a seven-game winning streak during “winners- stay” play.

Rules of the game were a little shaky, because few actually knew how to play.
“I have the rules posted in my basement,” said soccer athlete Jesse Edson, “and I forgot to bring them.” Edson put up a handful of impressive wins with partner and soccer athlete Bobby McColl.
“We had matching uniforms,” said McColl, attributing the attention to attire as a competitive edge. It cannot be determined which team, Bjurlin-O’Brien or Edson-McColl, was the Water Pong champion, because the teams never went head to head.

Losing in Water Pong, though, is really winning. As losers in Beer Pong get the most wasted, losers in Water Pong become the most hydrated.

A hydration party is as rare as a party that has a curfew. But everybody was kicked out of the house at 11 p.m., because the women’s soccer team has an enforced 11:30 p.m. bedtime the eve of every game.