As the cool breeze blows upon the turf, the WHS girls set sights on the championship game. On the night of Sept. 25, freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors laced their shoes and tied on their flag belts to play powderpuff football on the brand new turf of the football field.
Each team was allowed three coaches from their grade levels. There would be two games total: the first game and the championship game. The main point of the game was to have fun with classmates. But along with having fun, students like Edith Uribe-Salomon (10) wanted to do it for something bigger.
“I wanted to do something fun now that I don’t get to do anything fun after school. Just crossfit, working out 24/7. It’s something I definitely wanted to do for Windsor,” Uribe-Salomon explained.
There were several great plays, including multiple 2-point conversions from the juniors, touchdowns from the freshmen, interceptions from the sophomores and flag pulls from the seniors.
All grades had a variety of skills and teamwork. The first round was sophomores vs. seniors and freshmen vs. juniors. Kickoff was at 7:15 p.m. for both of the first games. The freshmen and seniors wore maroon jerseys while sophomores and juniors wore white.
During the first half of the first game, the freshmen got the first touchdown of the night. All four teams made many great passes and made communication their key focus. Maya Brasch (10) made three touchdowns along with many great runs, passes and catches.
With the help of players on the football team, the girls had a better understanding of how to accomplish their goal of winning, but the coaches also provided lots of motivation. Mikey Munn (12) was one of the three coaches for the seniors.
“We practiced on Sunday and tried to learn and make some plays and try out girls for positions,” Munn said.
Other football players like John Stephens (10) didn’t coach but were able to see the game he knows best in a different atmosphere.
“It was funny and cool to be around friends. It was also a fun time — a different kind of atmosphere than just a normal football game,” Stephens said.
As the first game came to an end, the juniors and sophomores advanced into the championship game. Within the first five minutes of the game, sophomores made a touchdown, putting them in the lead 8-0.
With the championship game starting, both sophomores and juniors had their heads in the game, waiting to see who would come out on top. Reyleigh Hess (11) added 7 points to the scoreboard for her team when making the second touchdown of the game. This touchdown put the juniors in the lead at halftime.
During the first play after halftime, Brasch was in the endzone when tackled, causing her to get injured. The junior defense took a knee per junior coach Sam Cooper’s (11) request. After a little bit, Brasch was up and playing as if nothing had happened, but this time, with the new name of the G.O.A.T.
With both teams fighting for the win, only one could come out on top. As time continued to decrease, anticipation did the opposite. Sophomores made two more touchdowns along with several flag pulls. When the clock hit 00:00, the sophomores won 21-14.
In hopes of inspiring girls, WHS continues the powderpuff tradition each year. Teachers like Sam Boshart (staff) — who teaches P.E, coaches football and refereed the game — hope that with continuing the tradition, more people will want to participate.
“It gives girls an opportunity to do something they haven’t done a lot. Right now the fastest growing sport in Colorado is girls seven-on-seven flag football. And so it’s something that if we can get people interested through playing powderpuff, maybe we can get a team started that competes against other teams across the state,” Boshart explained.
Clearly, at least some of the girls at WHS are interested and talented at the sport, and, if nothing else, enjoy competing. After all, when asked what her goal of the night was, Uribe-Salomon replied, “To win. Duh.”
