The transition from September to October is a universal indicator to Centennial students that the school year is officially in full swing. Amidst the whirlwind of upcoming college application deadlines, fall sports coming to a close, and SAT study sessions, the annual Homecoming week events offer a necessary break from the chaos.
Along with the annual Homecoming dance come many other Centennial traditions including the football game, pep rally, pancake breakfast and the highly anticipated powderpuff football game.
The Powderpuff game––named after a commonly used makeup tool––was a tradition first introduced at Eastern State Teachers College in South Dakota in 1945. World War II had just ended and the prospect of having a homecoming football game seemed inappropriate considering not many men had returned back to college. Subsequently, the female student body took the tradition into their own hands. While the event was more of an amusing twist on a classic high school custom, in more recent years, powderpuff games have become more of an effort to increase participation in girls sports across American public schools, especially in light of the passing of Title IX in 1972, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of sex in the United States. Now, many schools have incorporated the tradition into their Homecoming season festivities.
The tradition of the powderpuff game t has quickly become one of the most highly anticipated homecoming events at Centennial High School. “I’ve been wanting to do it since freshman year,” junior Julia Braganca, a wide receiver in this year’s powderpuff game recalls. While every school carries out this tradition a little differently, Centennial’s powderpuff games usually consist of a traditional flag football game; junior girls against seniors girls, with upperclassmen boys cheerleading and coaching from the sidelines.
Organizer of this year’s powderpuff game and Centennial paraeducator , Leandro Conti, commended the students for their management in the lead up to the game: “It’s awesome because the boys, they’ve taken leadership on that and they’ve come up with actual practice plan, ” he comments. Both the seniors and juniors had practices before the game to see how they worked as a team.“At first we split off into offense and defense and worked on different plays, and then after like one or two practices we all combined and scrimmaged,”explains Braganca.
Sammy Klein, quarterback of the football team and coach of the senior powderpuff team held one practice for the seniors prior to the game. “We actually only had one practice so I was surprised with how we played… I thought we played really well,” he notes. Klein coached the offense for the seniors and taught the players the basics of the game. “[We] just wanted to make it fun for them [players],” Klein says.
The stakes were high for the seniors this year following their win last year against the senior class of 2023. The team ran onto the field with high energy, their “2024 Seniors” flag waving high above them. “That was probably the highest motivating factor:to be undefeated two years in a row,” senior and powderpuff participant Akshitha Bandam explained.
Photographer: Yeseo Lim
The game was fast paced and had the stands glued to the hodgepodge of pink and blue shirts darting across the field. While the juniors had a couple of good runs, the seniors managed to come out on top for the second year in a row with a score of 16 to 8.
“It was fun, it was a great way to end off our last homecoming week,” senior player Nandini Wagle states. Her teammate Natalie Robinson adds that “undefeated felt good.”
Photographer: Yeseo Lim
Despite this year’s defeat, Braganca has high hopes for the class of 2024 for next year’s powderpuff game, “I’m sad that we lost but I think we have a chance next year to come back and win but we did a lot better than I thought we would against the seniors.”
While this year’s game leaves the junior class pumped for next year, the class of 2024’s win was a perfect bittersweet ending to their last homecoming pep rally as Centennial Eagles.
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