After months of preparation–including training, rehearsing, cheering and more–the school’s juniors and seniors faced off in the annual Powderpuff game, April 4, with the seniors taking home the win.
“[Powderpuff] is like a mix between flag football and normal football,” junior player Grace Ramadan said. “For example, there’s a change in the rules where players can’t make intentional physical contact, and it’s really fun. Everyone is able to show their school spirit, and it’s great to be a part of it.”
Powderpuff is a game where the junior and senior classes compete against each other in a football game, where the girls are the players, and the boys are the cheerleaders. Both classes show all of their school spirit and are able to come together in a fun and competitive tradition that shows their class pride.
“The planning process for Powderpuff was tedious and started all the way back in November, before Thanksgiving break even started,” senior cabinet member Nimran Singh said. “We were able to start so [far] in advance that everything worked out perfectly with the timing.”
The Powderpuff planners, Singh and Abby Liebrecht, spent months preparing, which consisted of sending emails to administration, conducting interviews, purchasing jerseys, filling out forms and much more. These efforts all contributed to the success of the event. In addition to the planners, many players spent lots of time preparing for the event.
“[As players] we do drills and conditioning,” Ramadan said. “But, most of the time we go straight into scrimmages for offense and defense.”
These drills made up the practices, which were held on Mondays and Wednesdays for juniors, and Tuesdays and Thursdays for seniors. The teams, themselves, consisted of players from different levels of experience.
“I do flag football, so I decided to do Powderpuff in order to keep the same skills from it,” Ramadan said. “I also thought it’d be really fun to go against my senior teammates from [the sport].”
Because of Powderpuff’s exciting nature, numerous students–whether a player of the girl’s flag football team or one without any prior football experience–were appealed to join. Not only did this apply to the players but cheerleaders as well.
“The process of choreographing [the cheer performance] has been really fun, [especially] with figuring out what songs we want and what would be fun to teach the guys,” senior choreographer Nora Vargas said. “I [was] looking forward to the game, to them doing their dances in their costumes, and to the energy when all the students [were] there.”
In addition to the players’ long hours of practice, both the senior and junior cheerleaders have spent weeks practicing for their performances. The senior choreographers, Vargas and Leanne Ostrow, and junior choreographers, Victoria Matz and Eve Moskowitz, worked hard to teach the cheerleaders all their dances and cheers, ensuring that the performance would be full of energy and school spirit.
“The boys worked extremely hard,” Singh said. “Watching them come together and [performing] confidently after months of silly practices was amazing to watch.”
During their rehearsals, many of the cheerleaders learned a variety of dances, including some unique stunts such as cartwheels, backflips and more. Their hard work truly paid off and was shown in their impressive performances.
“I feel that the cheerleaders did really well, and I’m really proud of all of us,” junior cheerleader Taye Sangkhae said. “All of us had the choreography down by the day of the event, and I think we did better than the seniors.”
The cheerleading performances were one of the most popular and competitive aspects of the night, filling the student section with laughter and amping up the game. The outcome of the night itself was an 18-0 victory by the seniors.
“I thought the event was amazing,” Singh said. “I may be biased, but from what I’ve heard this has been the best Powderpuff out of all 4 years of my high school experience.”
