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Ryan Berg

Junior team warming up about 15 minutes before the game. They were putting on eye black, bonding and stretching out. Coach Mark Roettger says, "Some girls were really nervous and some were excited but this is when everyone just started getting ready."

One homecoming activity that people really have fun with is the Powder Puff football game. Senior girls take on the junior girls in a friendly but competitive game of flag football.  It is a homecoming tradition that brings the community together.  This year’s game was played on Oct. 5.

Last year, the class of 2017 beat the class of 2016; that rarely happens in powder puff.  Because of that, they had very high expectations for this years game.  Many people favored them by three or four touchdowns.  They did win, but only by a score of 13-6. The seniors played dominantly, but the juniors put up a strong fight.

Seniors were extremely confident going into the game.  Their experience has given them a huge advantage. They already know the formations and plays what will work and what will not.  They can also start working on more complex plays that will elevate their level of play.

Senior coach Grayson Hosch said, “We all felt pretty confident that we were going to win, we already knew where to put each of our players, and we carried over the same plays as last year so it was easy for them to remember. And yes, winning the game did help, it gave us confidence.”

For the junior players and coaches, it was the first time doing this.  The coaches had to learn the best way to coach, and the girls had to learn about football, all in a very short period of time, as each team only had three practices leading up to the game.  Being rushed into anything that quick, with almost no practice and with no experience would be very hard on anyone.  The junior players and coaches handled it well and played a good game all around.

“It was a well played game by both sides, and we really exceeded expectations,” junior defensive coordinator Charlie Richman said. “We really just tried to teach them all the basics of football as fast as we could, which was sort of difficult for us as coaches because we’ve been around the game for so long and weren’t used to explaining it.  Next year most of the returning girls will start the year with more knowledge, but us guys will have to work on explaining things a lot better.”

Despite losing this year, the juniors have a lot to look forward to next year.  They played good defense, only giving up 13 points and even added an interception to go along with it.  It took the offense a little longer to get going, but they did have flashes of excellence throughout the first half, before finally scoring in the fourth quarter.  With a year under their belt, they hope they will be able to polish things up for next year.

“The fact that most of us girls have never played football before, I believe we played a hard fought game. Overall we had a stronger second half of the game, both defense and offense played very well,” junior quarterback Tatiana Tabucol said. “Powder Puff was so much fun, I had a great time becoming friends with a lot of new people. The team was great group.  I am so excited for next year. The sophomores better look out because we’re gonna crush it.”

Even though the juniors played hard, the seniors still pulled out a victory.  Most importantly though, the players and coaches had a lot of fun, and it provided a lot of entertainment for everyone watching, Richman said, “Its largest contribution to the fun of homecoming, however, is that it shares a love for football with everybody.”