Meet Colby Schoniwitz, a Senior Sports Associate managing the second-ever Intramural Water Battleship tournament at Oregon State University.

Schoniwitz, a senior studying construction engineering and business administration, has worked in Sport Programs, a department of Recreational Sports, for the entirety of his collegiate experience. Four years ago, before he had even completed his first year of college, Schoniwitz, an Intramural Basketball official at the time, was promoted to the Senior Sport Program Associate position.

Senior Sport Program Associates, or SSPAs, are responsible for planning, marketing, and executing smaller intramural leagues, such as IM Badminton, Billiards, and Ultimate Frisbee. SSPAs also support graduate assistants with larger intramural leagues, in addition to advising six to seven sport clubs.

Last year, Colby managed the first ever Intramural Water Battleship tournament at Oregon State. “I had seen other universities doing it, and wondered why we didn’t,” Schoniwitz says. “I prepared an event plan, teamed up with the Aquatics department and the Adventure Leadership Institute, and presented my idea to my managers.” Once I was given the green light, event planning began in earnest. “Before working at Recreational Sports, I had never really done anything like setting up a league,” he explained. Colby knew he needed cross-departmental support for his plan, and set up meetings with the ALI for canoes, and Aquatics for their facilities and staff. “Even though I was working with two departments, the biggest thing I made sure to do was to keep communication constant; to make sure the people I worked with knew what was happening.”

As momentum increased and the workload shifted from planning to marketing, Colby reached out to on-campus media organization such as KBVR.fm and Orange Media Network. In conjunction with Rec Sports own New Media Team and the ALI, Colby managed to produce a promotional video for the event, before it even took place. “I think setting up the event was fun,” Schoniwitz explains, “but I like the marketing side more. Every time I told people about water battleship they got so excited.”

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Curiously, for Colby, the craziest stage of the process was not the actual competition, but rather the days leading up to it. “For two months I had planned around a 12 team tournament. Experience from other intramural events I had run helped me with the dynamics of both pool and bracket play, and I felt confident with what I had prepared for.” However, a week and a half out from the tournament, Colby’s 12 team limit was capped full. More people wanted to play in his league than he had planned. “I remember my supervisor Mitch Wiltbank telling me three times over the next few days: ‘figure out a way to have more people play.’" Each time, I found a way to get more canoes from the ALI, and time, space, and staff from Aquatics. Eventually, after capping the tournament off at 16 and 24 teams, Colby settled on a 30 team tournament.

Three days later, the inaugural IM Water Battleship Tournament was in history’s wake. “I always want to make sure participants experience a flawless event - no drama behind the scenes,” says Colby. “It wouldn’t have worked if people weren’t so willing to help.”

This year, Colby is again in charge of IM Water Battleship but faces a different challenge: adapting to the IM Pass, Rec Sports’ new online payment method for intramurals. “Last year IM Water Battleship was free,” Colby laments, “which means this year my audience has shifted from everyone to people who have the IM Pass.” As such, Colby knows he will be largely marketing towards participants of Rec Sports’ winter term IM Leagues. However, Colby plans on personally calling back each participant from last year, in the hopes that he will see some familiar faces. “I was really happy when I saw the team that won last year, called ‘Presentation Support’ signed up to defend their title this year. I think they understand water battleship strategy really well.” Colby is excited to see if there is an underdog story - perhaps a couple of freshmen - who play can compete against last year's champs. “I encourage everyone to get an IM Pass”

Since Colby began working at Rec Sports four years ago, he’s built up an impressive resume of skills. For instance, he routinely works with people from different backgrounds and departments at Rec Sports. As a basketball official, it was Colby’s responsibility to make tough calls which could incite either anger or jubilation, and when conflict did erupt, it was his job to temper the situation. As an SSPA, Colby learned project management through setting up leagues. Most importantly, working at Rec Sports has taught Colby time management. “Whether I’m consulting a sport club or working in the Intramural realm, schoolwork never goes away, and that can be very taxing,” he says. “Hopefully I’ll be really good at time management one day,” he jokes, “but for right now I’m still learning.” For Colby, the opportunities Rec Sports has provided him have proved instrumental in his professional development.

If you want to sign up for Water Battleship this year, head over to our Intramural Sports page and follow the directions to sign up for IM Leagues!