Annual PowderPuff game raises funds for uniforms

Adrian Guajardo Jr., Staff Writer

The competitive nature of sports sometimes makes those who play them forget what they should be all about — fun.

That’s not the case with the annual Powderpuff football game. 8 teams signed up to play flag football this year as part of the end-of-the school year festivities. The game was well attended during 8th period, filling the gym with a full-house and providing some stress relief for students and teachers alike.

Teams were allowed to have boys as long as the teams had three girls on a team. Teams had to pay $30 for their entrance fee to field a team of 10 players. The addition of boys to the teams in what is traditionally a competition for girls has helped generate more interest in the tournament and brought in more funds for the cheerleading team, which organizes the event as a fund-raiser.

Cheerleader coach Susie Gielow said that although Akins does not follow the traditional PowderPuff model of the football players teaching and cheering for girl teams, it’s still great fun.

“One thing I like about it is well first of all physical activity,” Gielow said. “It gets really physical. It’s fun people get excited about. It’s fun to see the teachers play. They won last year which was very important we rarely get to see our teachers doing athletic things outside the classroom.”

The teacher team Chemical X won again this year, beating 3-2 student team Vicious & Delicious extending their winning streak.

The event is important for the cheerleaders because it helps pay for a substantial portion of their costs related to sending team members to camp and buying uniforms.

“Cheerleading (doesn’t have a) budget so we start out with zero dollars at the beginning of the year so we have to raise all of the money we have,” Gielow said. “Any money we raise goes towards sending our kids to camp, it goes to uniforms that we get for the kids. But yeah we just hope to do some fun things and be able to have enough money that we are not struggling for the girls because they deserve it.”