Honesdale High Hosts Annual "PowderPuff" Football Tournament

On Tuesday October 13th, football at Honesdale reversed its roles.

It was an opposite day: the girls went to school with face paint and jerseys, while the boys went to school in pink and prepared to cheer.

"PowderPuff Football" is a new event at HHS. It has only been going on the past couple of years, but the turnout seems to get bigger and better every fall.

This year the girls kicked up the competition and really buckled down and practiced for a chance to do what was done last year: upset the big bad seniors.

Last year’s juniors, this year’s seniors were crowned queens of powderpuff and this year they looked to defend that crown.

This year’s junior class, was not happy about last year’s outcome when they played a tight game against the seniors and lost. This year the girls were ready to get even.

The sophomores (last year’s freshmen) were looking to make an improvement and maybe win a game. While all this rivalry and planning was going on, the freshman were still trying to get adjusted to the whole idea of this.

This is the first time the freshmen girls had played powderpuff football, and they were in for a surprise.

The powderpuff games are a little different than regular games. Instead of quarters, there are two 20 minute halves; and instead of a full football field it’s only half the size.

Other than that, it’s the same as any regular flag-football game.

Opening Kick-Off
As the nutty night kicked off and the juniors prepared their plot to upset the seniors, they took the field against the weaker freshman to take out some of last year’s anger.

The juniors jumped on top of the freshman early and often and kept pouring it on for a final score of 58-0.

The seniors then took the field against the sophomores and put on a show of their own. The final score of that game was 46-0.

This concluded the night, with the seniors and juniors ready to battle it out on thursday for the top crown. The sophomores and freshman would duke it out for the top underclassmen role.

As Thursday approached, the girls hopes for powderpuff were sadly dampened by the weather.

On Thursday morning, it was announced that powderpuff would conclude in a week. The girls marked their calenders and crossed their fingers for nice weather on the 22nd.

The week slowly passed and the girls grew anxious.

By the time Thursday came around the girls were ready to go again. The field filled up quickly, and the topless male cheerleaders helped pump up the crowd. The girls were ready to play.

The sophomores and freshman kicked off first. The sophomores were ready to pick on the freshman, and get their class’ first ever powderpuff victory.

The class of ‘12 went out and nearly shut down the class of ‘13. Some of the key players for the sophomores were Katie Kelly, Natalie O’Reilly and Abby Rickard.

The sophomores pushed 38 points across the board while only giving up 6 to the freshman. This was the first touchdown ever for the class of ‘13. This TD was scored by Mary Martin.

After the sophomore-freshman blow-out, the seniors and juniors took the field for an epic powderpuff battle.

The rivalry evolved into something similar to a Red Sox-Yankee game.

The war began, hair was ruined and nails were broken. A girl was even taken off the filed due to injury, it was a war zone!

The girls dug in their nails for a bitter fight to the end. Unfortunately, for the juniors the seniors proved to be the older more dominant class.

The juniors nearly won it while going for a 2-point conversion, but the try was broken up by a penalty flag, making the play illegal. This helped keep the seniors ahead and they went on to win the game 13-12.

Key players for the juniors were: Alexis McCarthy, Casey Leo and Alicia Manzione. While some of the key players for the class of 2010 were: Kim Martin and Katie Stinnard.

This event was a great turn out for every grade, and it looks like Honesdale’s girls have a bright future in football, as for the male cheerleaders, maybe not so much.

TWI Sports wishes all the girls the best of luck preparing for next year’s game.