Students got dirty in front of the Pennington Center during the sixth annual Swamp Bowl.
The mud volleyball tournament was held Friday, April 19 at 12:30 p.m. as part of Spring Daze. The teams were split into female, male and co-ed divisions, leaving three Swamp Bowl champion teams at the end of the tournament.
Jonathan Ambrose, director of the War Memorial Student Union, got the idea for Swamp Bowl after playing a similar game called “Ooze Ball” during his graduate school years at the University of Louisiana Monroe. With the help of Physical Plant, Swamp Bowl has become embedded in Southeastern traditions.
“Everybody loved the idea,” said Ambrose. “We really didn’t know how to execute it. I talked to some of the Physical Plant guys and said ‘Alright, how can we dig these pits?’ So we get out there; one guy had a tractor, and he started digging, and the same way we did it the first year is the same way we do it now.”
Team Ninja Turtles were tournament champions in the female division after beating team AOPi 15-9 in the championship round. Team Unprotected Sets beat Kappa Alpha 15-13, and thus became the champions of the male division for the second year in a row. In the co-ed division, team Interracial Sets won the championship round 15-13 against team Sloppy Sets, leaving them the victors.
The motivation behind each team’s decision to participate in Swamp Bowl varied. Two of the champion teams, the Ninja Turtles and Unprotected Sets, had previously formed intramural volleyball teams.
“It was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in a long time,” said Hannah Jones, junior accounting major and member of team Ninja Turtles. “I think that we had good team chemistry since this is not the first time that we’ve all played together.”
Charlie Morgan, freshman nursing major and member of team Interracial Sets chose to play in order to represent the Student Union staff.
“I work in the Student Union, so we just wanted to bring the championship back to the Student Union,” said Morgan. “It was pretty fun. This was my first year doing it, and I enjoyed it a lot.”
Although many participants and onlookers enjoyed the event, there were complaints about the chilly weather that led participants shivering in the cold.
When asked about his opinion of Swamp Bowl this year, Jordan Wilkinson, junior kinesiology major and member of Unprotected Sets said “Very cold. Very cold. But hey, we got here, we fought our butts off and we won.”
Although the Swamp Bowl has been held on campus for six years now, efforts are still being made every year to maximize student participation in the tournament. Each year, Ambrose interviews students and participants for suggestions on making Swamp Bowl a bigger success for the next year. One of the changes that the tournament has seen involves food.
“I impromptu interview students. I talk to them during the event,” said Ambrose. “One of the things we kept hearing about was food. So last year we tried something different. We tried selling food at [Swamp Bowl] as a fundraiser for the division. It did not go over well. And I found out the  reason why after I started talking to students: they didn’t bring money with them. They’re not going to bring money to go play mud volleyball.”
This year, free jambalaya sponsored by the Campus Activities Board was served, free water was provided and a disc jockey played music for the crowd.
As Swamp Bowl evolves to meet the needs of the students participating, the goal is that the tournament will become more deeply embedded in Southeastern tradition, drawing more and more students each year to let loose and have fun.