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Do not let the title fool you, Powder Puff Football is anything but. Yes, it is flag football, and yes, these ladies go at each other. If they would be allowed to put the full pads on, you can bet they would. There are plenty of great blocks, pushing, shoving, running people over and the ladies getting angry. It was clear they were having an absolute blast playing and it was even more clear they take this night very serious.

All four grades; Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors field a team. Each team is coached by football players from their class and the referees are the high school coaches. Each class dresses in the same colors, the fans match their class, cheer, chant, taunt, and poke fun at each other. The teams hold practices, strategize, get battered and bruised, “coaches” “argue” with “officials”, and they all love every minute of it. It is quite the spectacle and if you didn’t come down to watch it, you missed out.

The coolest part? They use this opportunity to raise money and collect food for Hastings Family Service. This year, they collected 180 pounds of food and $860 for HFS.

The rules are pretty basic flag football rules, and the intention is to keep the players safe while letting them have fun. The first round of games features the Freshmen against the Seniors and the Sophomores against the Juniors. The winners of those pairings face each other for the championship and the other two play for third.

This year, the Freshmen, led by QB Haley Strain, gave the Seniors a run for their money. The Seniors had the lead, but the Freshmen came back, tied it, and forced several overtimes. Overtime was one play for each team, alternating starts in the set. On the fourth set of OT plays, the Seniors scored, led by Quarterback Kendal Jenkins. When the Freshmen had a chance to answer, Jenkin’s made a huge defensive block, giving the Seniors the 24-18 win.

In the Sophomore and Junior game, the Sophomores jumped out to a big lead led by their Quarterback Skylar Little Soldier. The Juniors fought back with a little trickery. Their center said something was weird with the football, so she “tossed” it to the QB Kate Kummer. Kummer then took her time walking to the sideline where her coach was waiting with a new ball. The defense thought nothing of it, so they did nothing until the ball never made it to the field because Kummer took off down the sidelines. The Sophomore coaches protested hard, the loudest being Johnny Teigland who was nearly “ejected”. Of course, the sequence of the objections was over the top because the kids had a chance to give their football coaches grief with little fear of punishment. It was quite amusing and almost seemed scripted it was so over the top and over animated, but it definitely added to the show.

Game two put the Seniors against the Sophomores. This was a good defensive battle for the first half. Neither team seemed able to get much going offensively. The Sophomores had the lead 6-0 heading into the second half. The Senior coaches were unaware of one key rule. They believed the QB could not run the football, as it turned out, that was incorrect. The QB COULD run provided another player touched the ball before the QB crossed the line of scrimmage. This opened up the playbook for the Seniors and they quickly took the lead for good, ultimately winning 14-6.

The Juniors soundly defeated the freshmen 34-14 to take third. The night was a huge success in all aspects. Tons of fun was had by those in attendance and a solid donation was made to Hastings Family Service.

The fourth place Freshmen team and fans for the 2021 Powder Puff Foot- Photo by Bruce Karnickball Game. Photo by Bruce Karnick

The second place Sophomore Team and fans for 2021. This years second place, next years champs?

By the time the Juniors were corralled for the class picture, most had left. The third place Junior team.Photo by Bruce Karnick