This year everyone was excited about football and volleyball, powderpuff football and volleyball. Powderpuff is an event that happens every year during Homecoming week. This competition between juniors and seniors makes everyone in the school excited. Powderpuff football is where the junior and senior boys on the football team teach junior and senior girls how to play football.

Powderpuff volleyball is where the junior and senior girls on the volleyball team teach junior and senior boys how to play volleyball. While playing a sport they may not have much experience with may seem intimidating, once they get on the field or court, the powderpuff athletes show the same bulldog spirit and enthusiasm as their varsity peers.

The powderpuff football game happened this Tuesday, October 26. Both the seniors and juniors came very excited and competitive. In total there were 16 people on the flag football field, eight seniors vs eight juniors. Multiple fans came out to support their peers.

“Watching it from the fans’ perspective was very exciting. Especially when you see your friends on the field,” said Lily Hines (‘23).

The athletes weren’t the only people having fun. Fans and supporters showed their support of their classmates in creative ways.

“I actually made a sign for my two favorite players, Maggie Council and Samantha Booher. It took a lot of hard work,” said Austin Wilson (‘23).

While the game may seem fun to the spectators, the players took it very seriously, and both teams came to win. The action on the field was very competitive, and it ended up being very difficult to say who actually won the game.

“From a player’s perspective on the juniors team, I think that the juniors played very well and the seniors also played very well. In the end, the juniors should have won because they took our touchdown away for no reason,” said Lauren Hill (‘23).

Both seniors and juniors can agree that it was confusing who had won the game. Juniors felt they scored more touchdowns, and deserved the win. Seniors felt some of the juniors’ plays didn’t count due to a violation of the rules. In the end, both teams believed they won. 

“There was a little debate about who won and then I don’t really know because it seemed like the juniors might have another touchdown, but we don’t really know for sure. I heard the seniors won, so we’re celebrating,” Shelby Rutherford (‘22).

The players on the field weren’t the only people trying something new and exciting. The coaches, who are usually the ones on the field playing, now had to design plays and shout instructions to their players. 

“I was the head coach of the team and at times it did get stressful, but most of the time it was fun as you guys got better as we kept calling plays. And your guys really wanted to win the game, which was really good,” said Noah Habtemariam (‘23).

This year for powderpuff football there was only a short window of time between tryouts, practices, and the actual game. 

“We found out that we were going to have powderpuff two weeks before it happened, so then we made a GroupMe and you had three different options to show up to tryouts and basically everyone made it,” said Lacy Cook (‘23). “We only had time for one practice and it was on a Sunday afternoon on the practice field.”

The boys’ volleyball powderpuff game was Thursday, October 28.

“We had a lot of interruptions during practices, like finding out no football players could play on the team. One of our lead hitters having a broken hand and then coaches having to miss practice for something, you know? But overall […] we did a lot of scrimmaging,” said Gabe Guerrero (‘23).

Overall the powderpuff football and volleyball games were fun and challenging experiences for the players, coaches, and fans. While most found themselves in new and unfamiliar situations, everyone displayed their bulldog spirit and drive.