SouthCoast Senior Assassin is the New Rage for Soon-to-Be Grads

There's nothing quite like your senior year. Senior nights for sports, the senior prom, senior superlative nights and, of course, graduation are all rites of passage for students moving on from high school.

In recent years, a popular new tradition has made its way to the SouthCoast. No, it's not about senior parades. It's about SouthCoast's newest game for big groups:

Senior Assassin.

It's important to note, while Senior Assassin is popular with high school seniors, local high schools make it clear that they have no affiliation with the competition.

In the most basic of terms, it's a huge, tournament-style water gun fight.

Old Rochester, Apponequet, Old Colony and other local high school senior groups have each organized Assassin games, and with such large groups, the payoffs can be big.  At ORR, for example, each participant paid a $6 entry fee and is assigned their first target, with the first round lasting seven days.  You have to squirt your target with a water gun while being careful not to get squirted by the player hunting you.

There are some ground rules. Because the school does not sanction the contest, there is absolutely no water gun play at school or on school grounds, including athletic events. You can't enter a target's home without being invited inside by a family member and, in the interest of safety, absolutely no spraying while anyone is in a moving car.

For the first six days of the first week, there are ways for targets to defend themselves. Wearing a pair of goggles or swimmies offers protection from the water gun. If you happen to catch a high school-aged kid out in public wearing goggles or floaties over the past week or so, this explains a lot.

Other challenges include all participants activating their location services on Snapchat and, of course, "the purge." The purge is a designated day at the end of the week where no goggles or floaties can save you.

The incentive to take the competition seriously? The last student standing will take home the jackpot, which is roughly $500 cash for the ORR group.

Apponequet senior Colin Dingee says he would spend the jackpot on college expenses next year.

"I'm going to Mass Maritime in the fall, so I'd use the money to help buy books," he said.

Dingee has already taken out two of his classmates from the competition and is hoping for more.

"I go to the gym every day, so I need to make sure I change up my routine each day and go to different places."

One thing is for sure. All the students participating are loving the game. They all agree it is super-fun.