As seniors Cece Mason, Brooke Bravo and Milania Munoz complete a successful hook and ladder play at their first Powderpuff practice on Sept 9 at the Frank H. Hammond (FHH) park, the rest of the senior team cheers them on from the sidelines. As a continued addition to this year’s spirit week, student government is continuing the recent tradition of the Powderpuff game, a flag football game between the junior and senior girls.
“The seniors will win, our team is stacked,” senior Sam Bleza said.
Seniors said they joined Powderpuff for a multitude of reasons. Some did it because everyone was doing it, while others did it because it’s their senior year and they wanted to do as many activities as possible.
“I joined Powderpuff this year because a lot of my friends were doing it and I really regretted not doing it last year after I saw how fun playing the game was,” senior Niah Maduakolam said.
Each player and coach has strong opinions on which team will win, most sticking with their own team for the predicted outcome.
“Seniors [will win],” senior coach Max Lesinski said. “We’re going for the win two years in a row. We’ve got an extremely talented team and a phenomenal coaching staff.”
Senior football players got the opportunity to coach the teams. Henry Adams and Logan Efantis coached the junior team while DJ Certa and Lesinski coached the senior team. They met with their players at FHH park on separate days to practice plays and defending, along with basic skills like passing and catching.
“I definitely liked coaching for Powderpuff,” Lesinski said. “It’s a lot of fun trying to coach 30 high school girls how to play football.”
The senior team’s strength is offense, according to Lesinski they always get the ball to someone who is open. On the other hand, their weakness is defending the other team.
“I’m not nervous about the game or anything because I think the juniors are gonna do great and win,” junior Kenley Lyles said. “Either way it’s gonna be fun overall so I don’t think there’s anything to be nervous about.”
This year, as a new feature, the certain members of the football team partnered with the dance team to create a halftime show for the spectators to watch.
“I’m excited to see the student section, as well as the boys dancing,” junior Abby Meyers said.
Meyers, along with other junior team members, said that previous Powderpuff team members expressed their excitement about the game and explained how fun it was. It wasn’t only fun to hear about but also exciting to watch, which ultimately swayed Meyers to join the team this year.
“I went to the game last year when I was a sophomore and it just seemed like the girls playing were having a ton of fun, so I wanted to give it a try this year,” Lyles said.
