Who says football’s just for guys? Not NCHS! During the new annual school cookout, NCHS hosted its annual Powderpuff Football game! Starting back in 2021, the cookout and the Powderpuff game became an annual tradition!
What exactly is a Powderpuff football game? Powderpuff football is football without tackling your opponents. Instead, it is played by pulling flags out of your opponent’s belt. It is played the same as traditional football in most other aspects. Powderpuff is most commonly played by girls and younger players.
In the inaugural 2021 Powderpuff game, it was the seniors and sophomores against the freshmen and juniors. After a hard-fought game, the seniors and sophomores were the victors.
This year, Gavin Frasier, Gavin Anderson, Gavin Whitehead, and Landon Semler were the coaches for the Sophomore and Junior teams, and Haidyn Bulmer, Neil McMartin, Tylin Thrine, Cade Logston, and Quentin Boatright were the coaches for the freshmen and senior team.
This year’s Powderpuff game was the freshmen and seniors (blue team) against the sophomores and juniors (pink team). Looking to expand their win, the juniors arrived at the field with fire in their eyes. After talking up a big game in the pre-game interviews, the sophomores and juniors sheepishly did not emerge as the victors, for it was the seniors and freshmen who emerged victorious.
Junior team Coach Gavin Anderson predicted that their team would win in a blowout, 46-0, which would have been a sweeping victory compared to last year’s 21-14. Freshman and Senior Team coaches Hayden Bulmer and Tylen Throne predicted a 21-7 score. Instead, the sophomores and juniors were defeated by the freshmen and seniors in a score of 12-8.
Junior Laura Fischer said, “I feel my team performed the best we could. Our coaches were not really cooperating with each other and kept us players confused, but our two line-backer coaches did a fantastic job at keeping us line-backers focused and organized.”
Senior Ryan Greaser, the announcer for the game, said during the post-game photos, “You guys shouldn’t be smiling for the camera since you just lost,” but there were still plenty of smiling faces during and after the game.
Even though there could only be one winner, everyone still had a ton of fun.
Junior Olivia Owens said, “My favorite part about playing Powderpuff was how our team played together and how intense everyone gets in the game. This was one of the best days of the school year!”
Fischer said,” My favorite part of the game was playing with all of the other girls that wanted to just have fun.”
Teammate Junior Alaina Bowman agreed, “I loved the concept of friendly competition with other girls in school. My team competed well, though we lost. I had a ton of fun.”
Despite the loss, Anderson said, “I feel as if my team performed great for being taught everything in 30 minutes learning on the go and improvising. It was a lot of pressure for the players with constant screaming but they handled it well and played amazing and put on an amazing game.”
Senior Madison Bell said, “[I enjoyed] playing with my close friends and enjoying time with everyone, especially the different classes.”
Senior Gabriella Frombly said, “I would 100% play again it was so fun, and I’m so glad I did it.”
The Powderpuff Game wasn’t the only event of the afternoon; the school cookout had many more attractions to flaunt. Face Painting, stickers, cookies, caricatures, hair tinsel and feathers, inflatables and obstacle courses and a rock climbing wall brought in by the National Guard, and of course, the burgers and hotdogs. However, everyone can agree by far the highlight of the afternoon was Mr.Thompson getting his head painted.
Junior Lucie Broyles petitioned around the school to let Mr. Thompson have his “little bald head” painted by her, and over hundreds of signatures on the petition later, Thompson obliged.
“My “favorite” part was Lucie’s enthusiasm for the project. She was relentless in making this happen. It’s refreshing to see someone with this kind of determination”, Thompson said, “I wouldn’t hope there would be a need to do it again. Hopefully someone else will get the opportunity to do something like this.”
What did Mr.Thompson get painted on his head? In his classic chemistry teacher fashion, Avagadro’s number, the Mole: 6.02×10^23.
The School Cookout and the Powderpuff Football game are new, fun traditions that we can look forward to for years to come, and who knows, maybe Mr.Thompson getting his head painted will become an annual tradition as well! New Castle was glad to see so much participation in the cookout festivities this year, and they hope to see students get to enjoy these festivities for many years to come!
