Powderpuff Football Faces Upper- vs. Under- Classmen

Fair Grove High School started doing their annual Powderpuff football game in 2004. The game occurs during the last school period on the day of homecoming on the football field, it is a game of flag football in which the girls are the players and the guys are the cheerleaders. The game lasts roughly an hour and gives the girls a chance to experience the feeling of being out on the field. This year’s theme was Upperclassmen vs. Underclassmen, with 14 girls on the upperclassmen team and 18 girls on the underclassmen team. Each team had 4 coaches, all of which were junior and senior football players. Both teams have an all male cheer squad to help get the students in the stands excited and interacted, this year we had 6 upperclassmen cheerleaders with 2 coaches and 11 underclassmen cheerleaders with 3 coaches.

Powderpuff is an annual event that is hosted by FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) as a fall sports pep rally, “Since it is football season, we put a fun spin on it and reverse the rolls,” said Cayse Overstreet, one of the club sponsors for FBLA. “I personally enjoy Powderpuff because I think it is a fun twist on normal pep rally’s,” added Overstreet. FBLA leaders felt that it was a good year overall, but are talking about changing some things in future. FBLA sponsors and officers have agreed to go back to themes for the teams rather than underclassmen and upperclassmen, “We have even discussed making it a community event in the evenings for family and community members to enjoy,” stated Overstreet.

Brystol Bates (11) has been playing in Powderpuff every year of her High School career and this year she played on both offensive and defensive line. “We had a really strong line with Ryah Icenhower at center and Taylor Bell on the other side, our offense was the better one with Jordan Coddington at quarterback and Sidney Hill, Cydney Fullerton, and Macey Stallings,” said Bates. Bates enjoys the ability to play a sport that isn’t typically played by girls and the ability to learn something new and interactive, even though sometimes it gets “too intense.” Both teams held at least one after school practice before the game, these practices were simply to run plays and teach girls the basics. The game started with the underclassmen up six points, but the upperclassmen quickly brought it back with Sidney Hill (11) scoring two touchdowns and Macey Stallings (11) scoring one. At the end of the game the upperclassmen won 20-12.