With school spirit week starting yesterday, Homecoming season is upon us at Wakefield High School. Students can look forward to all sorts of events this week, including this afternoon’s highly anticipated Powderpuff game, continuing the age-old tradition. The game itself starts today at 6 p.m., located on Wakefield’s football field; tickets are currently available.
In a typical sports season, fans can expect to see a variety of games, both male and female-led.
“Many of our sports are sister and brother sports like baseball and softball,” Wakefield’s athletic director Chancey Wolfe said. “We just added women’s wrestling, and we’re working on some other things, too. This gives our girls an opportunity to go out and compete for stuff they aren’t normally able to do.”
While football is a male-driven sport, Powderpuff provides women with the opportunity to play the popular game. Football and Powderpuff have a lot of similarities including penalties that are enforced and scoring – a touchdown equals six points and teams have a chance to score an extra point through a field goal.
However, there are a lot of differences, with the main difference being contact. Powderpuff is strictly flag football; this means there is no physical contact – the person who is in possession of the ball must have one or both flags taken off for it to be considered a tackle. This game, instead of being a 60 minute event, is broken up into two halves set at 20 minutes each. Deciding who makes up a team depends on the organizer, and for Wakefield High School that process was simple.
Two weeks ago, over 100 female students purchased a team shirt, securing their spot in their respective grades’ league. With this great turnout, coach Danny Inscoe, a physical education teacher and softball coach at the school, strives to fill Homecoming week with as much spirit as possible.
“[We play Powderpuff] to stay with [the] tradition and to build up the Homecoming spirit for the week,” Inscoe said. “I think it’s always fun watching our female athletes play a dominantly male sport and do well.”
Powderpuff allows athletes to display their talents across multiple fields, allowing for an entertaining game for players and spectators alike. Gabby Lewis, a junior, has been waiting expectantly to try her hand at the game, and she finally has the opportunity to do so as an upperclassman.
“I run cross country, so I don’t really get to play team sports, ” Lewis said. “[I’m excited] to play football because I don’t usually get to do things like that.”
On the other side of Powderpuff, freshmen and sophomores are preparing for their first turn at high school spirit. This is the first year the underclassmen have been able to play, and they’re raising the already high anticipation for the game. Blythe Ruff, a freshman, is the quarterback for the younger team.
“I thought it’d be fun as a freshman to play the sophomores,” Ruff said.
Despite the friendly competition going on, our athletes are ready to win. Throughout the school, there are many different predictions on who will take the title of Powderpuff champion home.
“The seniors team is stacked, [so I think the] seniors are going to beat the juniors,” Inscoe said. “We had a cap at 30 [students per team]. juniors and seniors filled up as of the last day, but [the] freshmen and sophomore [teams] could still have ten more people.”
Regardless of the winner, the game is going to be an entertaining one, with a halftime show in between the games. Make sure you come out to support our Wolverines, as well as to help raise money for the baseball and softball teams.
“[Powderpuff] brings your class together and it’s something fun you can do with your friends,” Ruff said.
