On Wednesday Sept. 25, KOE hosted Powderpuff and a pregame tailgate. This tailgate started at 5 p.m. and was held on the concrete outside of the new FHN stadium. The tailgate included games, sold cupcakes and tickets for food. These tickets were priced at three dollars and allowed people to get a hot dog, popcorn and a drink from the concessions before the start of Powderpuff. 

“The tailgate wasn’t that bad,”  junior Olivia Abeln said. “I was a little mad about the fact that I couldn’t just get one hot dog. I just wanted a hot dog and they wouldn’t let me get just a hot dog. I was upset but the cupcakes were good.”

As well as the new addition of the tailgate, this year’s Powderpuff was even more special with it being the first time in three years that it was held at FHN. 

“I thought Powderpuff was fun, because I really really enjoyed playing in it,” Abeln said.

 Powder Puff is a fun, yearly tradition where the senior girls play flag football against the junior girls and the guys have the opportunity to be cheerleaders. Both groups were very committed to their roles with the cheerleaders having their hair in pigtails and were wearing skirts, crop tops and wigs. The players also decorated their jerseys with their class color, glitter and rhinestones. 

“I really liked bedazzling my jersey, but it took so long,” Abeln said. “It took like six hours to do the front and the back combined, and I was so tired after that.” 

Other than the outfits, a lot of preparation went into the game, with each team having several practices before the actual game. 

“We had about three of four practices,” Abeln said. “The practices were at Wapelhorst field and it was actually really nice except for when it was really hot. We got the plays pretty well, and just the preparation was great.”

Not only did the guys have the opportunity to be cheerleaders but they had the opportunity to be coaches. The coaches ran the practices and created plays that the girls ran during the game. 

“Powderpuff was really fun,” senior Leesha Kamotho said. “Our senior guys were really encouraging.” 

Having the game be juniors versus seniors added to the long-standing rivalry between the senior class and the junior class making the game very tense with the score of the first half being 42-38 with the seniors leading. This also led to expectations not being met.

“I thought we would pass the ball more but we kept passing to the running back,” wide receiver, Abeln said. “And we wouldn’t really pass to the wide receivers. Which made me a little upset because I’m pretty good at catching and I really wanted to get a touchdown.”

At half time the cheerleaders danced to a pop mashup of songs and even did a stunt, raising one of the cheerleaders into the air. 

“The half time performance was so good,” Kamotho said. “It was very fun and I could tell the guys were so dedicated.” 

As the second half of the game started, there was even more tension which led to the game getting physical. 

“When I was going for the ball it went way over my head,” Abeln said. “And I couldn’t reach because a bunch of girls were surrounding me and one of them picked me up and threw me to the ground and I hurt my back really badly and it hurts a lot.”

In the end the seniors came out on top winning the game 77-56. This did not discourage the junior though. They are already looking towards next year when they hope to beat the current sophomores. 

“Next year I expect we’re going to win,” Abeln said. “Because when we are seniors we can get away with a lot more stuff. Maybe not tackling, because that hurts. We all learned from something that day and just that we are going to win. And since we’ve already had one year of practice, we at least know what the team’s probably going to look like next year and what to expect more.”