Juniors and senior girls go head to head in football. Guys cheer them on with their pom poms and skirts.

Wait, what? Guys with pom-poms? Girls as football players?

Absolutely.

It sounds backwards so here’s a clarification. Girls are typically the cheerleaders and guys are out on the field. 

But that’s what makes powder puff so fun. It’s a change of perspective for the day. 

By way of history, most people think of powder puff as just a competition schools do for end of year fun. It is much more than that. Powder puff originally started as a way to raise money for Alzheimer’s. 

Now, most schools do it as a way to just raise money for many different causes or to build school spirit.

Knowing the background of powder puff makes the concept even cooler. Students aren’t only playing the game for the thrill and excitement, yes, they are also doing it to win.

The sport of powder puff is made up of two football games, flag football and/or touch football. The rules closely follow football with offense and defense, running and passing plays, and touchdowns, too. The rule is teams have to have at least nine players on each team to play. The coaches for each team are boys who volunteer to teach them how to play football. 

Powder puff has four different quarters, each lasting for fifteen minutes. 

While the rules are the rules, every school does it a little differently. Some schools play against each other, whereas others play against another local school. Some schools do it at a stadium. CSD does it by class on the closest grassy field to the high school.

At CSD, the annual powder puff game happens at the end of Spartan Day. A few juniors and seniors hold practices towards the end of the year to go against each other when school ends. 

Why the annual Spartan Day? It’s always the last day students have, other than EOC’s, to come to school, attend classes, clean out lockers and start completely wrapping things up for the summer. CSD offers food, there have been bouncy houses in the past, students receive and sign yearbooks and then finally powder puff.

While the girls are out on the field, the guys are on the sideline, cheering them on as if their life depends on it. The school cheerleaders, yes, the regular ones, lead them in some cheers.

The girls look forward to it all year. If you must know, ever since the first week of school, people have been talking about how they’re already ready for powder puff to roll around and that they can’t wait to start practicing.

“You have to see it to believe it,” said Anthony Yodice, US History teacher and referee.

It’s a friendly competition, which is the best way to end the year. 

But, truth be told, how friendly can it be when one grade is facing off against another?

“I went to my first powder puff practice the other day, and it was so fun. Having my classmates coach us made it more chill and entertaining. Even though it’s still a competition, it doesn’t have the same pressure as most sports,” said Becky LaRuffa (‘24).

So here’s to powder puff.