Madison Young

Seniors gather between the 2000 and 3000 buildings to prepare for Senior Assassins. The game is organized by students, for students.

A zealous game of risk and reward, the graduating class of 2019 gathered on Wednesday, September 12 to kick off this year’s game of Senior Assassins. An event exclusive to seniors, this game takes place throughout all three trimesters and is a student-run affair, in which a two-person team can win a pool of money.

“Joey Babcock set up all the coding and rules and everything key to the game. Then as he graduated, he was looking for one or two people to run it this year and he chose me and I wanted to work on it with Donovan Yates, so then we started talking about it, getting people ready for it. Then we just started signing people up and getting them in the system,” Tim Baxter shares, one of the students who helped put the game together this year.

Since the game is just for seniors, most don’t know much about it, but the rules are not too complicated.

This year, the competition has intensified with 108 teams of two. The rules of the game are to eliminate your target with a squirt gun or by pouring water on them outside of the school’s campus. The only way to stay safe is by wearing a floaty somewhere on your body (that is visible); you’re safe at Costco, at, your home, in your car, and at school-affiliated sports events if you are playing in them. Once you get your targets out you have to now get the people they were targeting out. The student facilitators of the event have even set up a website that tracks people’s progress and the countdown until the next purge day. Purge day is a where no one is safe, where floaties don’t save, but you are still safe at the original safe zones (this is an exception of Costco. Costco is now no longer acting as a safe zone during purge days).

“My Plans [for purge day] are to just stay home and lay low,” senior Maddie Devilbiss says. Due to the gung-ho manner of purge day, many want to stay safe. Some, on the other hand, plan to take the opportunity to eliminate their target with the lack of restriction that purge day provides. The date of future purge days are unknown and selected at random, but most believe that the next one will take place on Halloween.

This years game required each team member to put in 10 dollars, so the total amount of money for the winning team is about 2,000 dollars.

“If I were to win I would use that prize money for a road trip at the end of summer,” ASB President Danny Rubin disclosed.

Even if someone on a team gets out, they still have a chance to get back in if their partner successfully takes out both of their victims.

“Garrett and Gray (the guys targeting me) were apparently hiding in between cars in my driveway. Obviously, I didn’t know that until they were squirting me with a squirt gun,” Senior Taylor Riley says. Getting out is definitely a loss, but with determination, anyone can come back and win it all.

“Until then I’m just going to help [Beck, my partner] strategize, research and film when the time comes,” Riley explains.

If you are wanting any more information of the basics surrounding the game of Senior Assassins at Sage Creek High School, feel free to visit the Assassin’s Creek website created and run by SCHS graduate, Joey Babcock. Before reaching out to those who are running the tradition, remember to reference the website to ensure the most stress-free and efficiently run game. Now go fill your squirt gun and may the games begin!