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BYU undergraduate Marcelo Gomez of Mikasa eyes up the goal before taking a shot against The Blue Team during a coed innertube water polo in the Richards Building on the campus of BYU, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. PATRICK SMITH/Daily Herald

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BYU undergraduate Gary Robinaugh looks to the scoreboard of The Blue Team Vs. Mikasa game during a coed innertube water polo in the Richards Building on the campus of BYU, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. PATRICK SMITH/Daily Herald

PATRICK SMITH

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BYU student and team member of The Flounders, Sara Anderson battles with a player from the Wet Bandits for the ball before it bounces out of bounds in a coed innertube water polo in the Richards Building on the campus of BYU, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. PATRICK SMITH/Daily Herald

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BYU students and members of The Flounders, (left to right), Sara Anderson, Leon Johnson, Tara Anderson, and Jocelyn Bower cheer for The Wet Bandits after defeating them in a coed innertube water polo in the Richards Building on the campus of BYU, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. PATRICK SMITH/Daily Herald

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BYU student and member of The Flounders, Joseph Baxter jumps into his innertube before the game against the Wet Bandits in a coed innertube water polo in the Richards Building on the campus of BYU, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. PATRICK SMITH/Daily Herald

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Players of the Wet Bandits gasp as their teammates try and stop another goal being score on them by The Flounders during a coed innertube water polo in the Richards Building on the campus of BYU, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. PATRICK SMITH/Daily Herald

PATRICK SMITH

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On any given day, the lap pool in the Richards Building at Brigham Young University might be full of students on colorful inner tubes, splashing, cheering and lounging.

But their leisure activity is not all leisurely, per se — they throw a yellow rubber ball around, hoping to outscore their opponents in a game of inner tube water polo.

Even though the sport offers team names such as The Rubber Duckies, The Wet Bandits and The Flounders, inner tube water polo flies just below the radar.

“It’s exciting and the most fun sport of all the intramurals,” senior Jack Taggart said. “You have basketball, football, volleyball — all these sports — and they’re pretty standard, but inner tube water polo is so unique and not a lot of people know about it.”

Unique, yes, but enough people know about it that it was the second of BYU’s 30 intramural activity offerings to sell out this year. About a third of enrolled students participate in intramural activities.

This variation of polo has been offered at BYU for more than 25 years, according to Phil Kelly, director of intramurals.

“I think that’s because the sport has the ability to have anyone play, with an opportunity to just sit in a tube, paddle and toss a ball around,” Kelly said. “It’s also a great social activity, and I think a lot of people like it because it’s coed.”

And many students find the social aspect most important, like first-time player Leon Johnson.

“You get some exercise in, and you’ll meet fun, new people along the way,” Johnson said.

But getting out to the pool and sitting atop a circular pink raft might be embarrassing to some.

“People usually go and watch, and make fun of it, but once you get down there and play, you realize it’s not as easy as it looks,” said Taylor Greene, one of Taggart’s teammates.

“We were one of those teams that went in just for fun,” Taggart said of his team, The Rubber Duckies. “We learned a lot, we’re pretty good, so we decided to keep going.”

The Rubber Duckies are among 84 teams that splash each week during the winter semester at BYU.

The rules are fairly basic. Teams consist of seven players, at least two of which must be women. All players must stay in their tube to hold the ball, and can only handle it for five seconds. The object is much like normal water polo: To outscore the challenging squad.

However, there is one rule that may be seen as an advantage or disadvantage depending on the scoreboard at any given point of the game. Men who score get one point, women who score get two points.

“Our power-house offense is comprised mostly of females, so I’m not going to complain about girl goals counting as more,” said junior Sarah Anderson, who plays for The Flounders. “I don’t think counting a girly goal as more points is a bad thing.”

In regular water polo, players must tread water to stay afloat. But having the inner tube doesn’t always make things easier. “At times, I think treading water would be easier than sitting in that slick tube,” Anderson said. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that the greatest feat in the game is staying on the tube and being productive simultaneously.”

Taggart added, “And you get hot and tired at the end of the game just like any other sport.”

Although the game is free for BYU students, features low physical contact and a very small amount of minor injuries, the game is still very competitive and all the teams are bloodthirsty for the ultimate prize — the T-shirt awarded to intramural championship winners.

Taggart’s Rubber Duckies have been a favorite to win the championship every season for the past couple of years, but have yet to sport the shirt around campus in pride.

“We have a good chance this year at the shirt,” Taggart said.

“Last year when we had our star team,” Greene said. “We almost had 100 points one game, and the other team only had 16 or so. We also got to the semifinals, but we kind of choked at the end.”

Taggart and Greene agree that their team is the “Brett Favre team” of the league. Much like Favre in the NFL playoffs, their team can only get to the semifinals of the playoffs and then cannot do what it takes to advance to the championship.

“But this year we’re the Payton Manning,” Greene said.

While the general public cannot get a team together to play at BYU, anyone can cheer poolside on campus Tuesday through Saturday or simply start their own league at a local pool.