Junior Sarah Duginske walks onto the field to warm up for her first ever Homecoming Powderpuff football game that she can play in. She is filled with hope and excitement for the chance to beat the senior class. The crowd roars with anticipation for the game to start. 

In the past, East and West have competed against each other in both junior and senior Powderpuff football games. Since the transition to Upper and Freshman Campuses, there are no longer East and West students.

“With the campus restructuring, our team decided it would be best to have the competition based on juniors versus seniors,” explained Jordan Deener, an Upper Campus dean and coordinator of Powderpuff. “We created a ‘for fun’ game and a competitive game. We actually made the most people sign up for Powderpuff this year since I started helping.”

Even though the teams have changed this year, the game has not. It still remains with the same rules. 

“It’s flag football—with 9 players on the field for each team at a time,” described Carla Flores, a coordinator of Powderpuff. This allows the game to follow most traditional rules of football, with the exception of no tackling, replacing it with pulling the flag of the player from the other team.” 

While the team structure has changed, the players are still excited to participate and prove who is the best. 

“I feel the change in the tradition this year is a little different,” stated Reese Kominoski, a junior player, “but it will be fun, there will be a lot of competition to prove who’s the best class.”. 

To most girls it doesn’t matter to them who they are playing against, they just want to play the game. 

“I’m mostly excited about being able to play out on the field, and to get to experience Powderpuff for for the first time ever,” described Marissa Mancock, a junior player. “I always wondered what it would be like to be able to play in Powderpuff, and now that I can. I’m beyond excited!”

The excitement and thrill going into the game has helped to encourage the girls to push themselves to prepare for the game ahead of them. 

“We really brought everything together in the two hours we spent together,” explained Dylan Hogan, a senior coach. “The girls have shown lots of improvement and I’m very confident in their abilities.”

Going into the game, the coaches have worked very hard to help the girls prepare. The student coaches have been teaching plays, techniques, and tips on how to play the game to win. 

“I feel good and I think our team is prepared going into the game. We are ready to compete and hopefully come out on top,” explained Dominick Caurso, a junior coach. 

Since the girls worked so hard to prepare for the game, they couldn’t wait to see how it would pay off in the game. 

“I’m most excited about going into the game is to see if our practice has paid off,” stated Mya Brown, a junior player. “This was my first time playing an actual game of football (during practices sofar) and, thanks to our excellent student coaches, I feel rather confident in my basic football skills now.” 

The coaches are also very excited to see the outcomes of the practices during the game. 

“I am especially excited to watch everything we worked on come into play during the game,”  described Gina Greenwald, a senior coach, “and I’m also very excited for this group of girls get the opportunity to use all of their competitive energy out on the field instead of in practice.”

This new format — juniors versus seniors — has also helped aid the competitiveness going into the game.

“The juniors are hungry to beat the seniors,” explained Rayaan Ahmed, a junior coach. 

“They are insanely competitive and it makes it all super energetic, their energy rubs off on the coaches and visa versa.” 

“The seniors, they don’t want to lose to the younger class, so I feel that there’s even more fuel to the flame going into it,” stated Andrew Hoffman, a senior coach. 

In the end, the seniors won the non-competitive game 17-13, and the juniors won the competitive game 6-0. The final winner of the classes was determined by a combination of the two scores. Because the added scores resulted in a tie the game was finished in over time. The Seniors won in over time, leaving the final score 20-19 seniors. 

After the game, Sarah Duginske walks off the field feeling accomplished about the game she has played. Even though the juniors lost, she was still happy to have had the opportunity to play in the Powderpuff game and take part in a new tradition.