Senior class conquers Powder Puff tournament of ‘21

Powder Puff is an event that has been going on for seven years at Rolla High School. It is an event that breaks societal normalcy of men being on the football field and women on the sidelines cheering them on. Throughout this event, women and men switch their stereotypical roles. The two coordinators were Ashley Wood and Adalie Lauth.

“It is a chance for girls to play flag football, and then guys get to cheer,” said senior Ashley Wood, one of the coordinators of Powder Puff. “It’s switching roles because there’s a lot of girls that want to play football, so it gives them a chance to just play against other girls in a simple flag football game.”

The atmosphere is unique.

“[The atmosphere is] pretty good,” said Wood. “[The girls] get to come up with their own plays. They’ve got their own team. They get to get their own shirts, juniors versus seniors. It’s always fun.”

Wood had her own predictions about the event.

“I think [the game] will be pretty good because we’ve got a lot of people excited [to play],” said Wood. “We also have a lot of people excited to watch, even though it’s gonna be cold. I’m excited because there’s a lot of competitive seniors that I know that are really excited to do it.”

The colors for Powder Puff change every year, but the juniors and seniors get a say of what their colors will be.

“What we do for the teams is colors. The seniors picked hot pink and the juniors picked baby blue. Then, the cheerleaders just have to show up for whatever team they’re supporting with their own shirts, and they get to design their own shirts, just a pink and blue kind of rivalry,” said

The planning is very in depth from organizing signups to coordinating with Student Council for concessions.

“[For] signups it was the first person [who brought their] $25, and they got a spot,” said Wood. “Then what we had to get ready [for] was practice. [We had to] find people to be coaches and be the game announcers.”

Many people find out through social media and advertisements.

“There was definitely a lot of advertisement for signing up [to be on the] teams, ‘’ said Wood. “We had to advertise at lunch [and with] posters. We posted it on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.”

There were two main people in charge.

“We do everything and get everything planned out ourselves,” Wood said. “We have a little helper, Chase Lindsey. And he’s been such a big help to us. He’s on it if we need him to run to the athletic office and check on the date… which is super helpful.”

There was excitement around the event.

“I’m super excited for the cheerleaders Halftime Show,” Wood said. “They are doing phenomenal [in practice], but I’m excited to watch that, and then I’m just excited for all the girls [to be] playing out there and having their families come and cheer them on while they’re playing football.”

Around 150 people attended the event. Seniors emerged victorious with the score ending at 26 to 20.