Omaha's Central High may have just set a new world record — for tossing water balloons

A crowd of students formed long rows in Central High School’s football stadium on Thursday for what they hoped would be a record-breaking event.

Colorful orbs soared through the air as students watched, with grimaces on their faces, to see if their balloon either made a safe landing or exploded on the turf field.

By lunchtime, Central High School seemingly broke the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest water balloon toss.

Nearly 1,500 students participated, well over the 902 people who tossed water balloons in 2014 at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, according to the Guinness website. The record won’t be officially confirmed by Guinness for a while, but school officials said they had more than enough students to break the previous record.

“This is crazy. Everybody was just throwing water balloons everywhere, having fun,” said senior Jamison Kemp. “It was amazing to be a part of history, especially with so many people, because it really shows how we can all come together as a community and focus on one goal.”

Students worked in pairs to toss water balloons back and forth. If their partner caught the balloon, the pair each took a step back and tossed it again. If the balloon dropped but it didn’t break, they got a second try. But if it broke — game over.

The event ended after more than a dozen rounds. The last two students remaining were eliminated after their final toss soared more than 15 yards and splashed on the turf.

Senior Betal Aga, who was partners with Jamison, said she was excited she could do something special as her high school career wraps up. When Central administrators announced earlier this year that the toss would happen, she said, she was skeptical that an event with so many students would go smoothly.

“I feel like it turned out really well. It was very organized,” Aga said. “It was a really good decision to do it — we don’t have a lot of things going on at Central, something this big, where all of us are involved. I’m glad that I got to participate.”

Jodi Dierks, Central’s assistant principal, said only students who had a good attendance and behavior record were able to participate in the event, which has been in the works for months. The Central parent-teacher organization came up with the idea for the toss last summer.

“This was the brainchild of our parents,” Dierks said. “They came to us this summer saying they wanted to break a Guinness Book of World Records. And we were kind of like, ‘That sounds interesting.’ And they just kept bringing it up, so my principal said, ‘We’re gonna do this.’”

Dierks said she’s not sure the event will be repeated any time soon, but it was rewarding to watch it on Thursday.

“It was a little emotional, because it has been a lot of work, but well worth it,” Dierks said.

Along with teachers, Central parents filled up more than 700 water balloons, coordinated the recording of the event for Guinness documentation, helped students organize on the field and more.

“Our parents are great. They’re responsible for all of this,” Dierks said. “They’re the ones that have lots of meetings. They’re the ones that organized it. They’re the ones that contacted Guinness World Records. They do so many things for us — we have the best parent group in the metro.”