Spirit Week brings numerous exciting events to Malden High School, one of them being the annual seniors vs. juniors powderpuff game.
On Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016, junior and senior girls competed in the football game at the Macdonald stadium.
This year, the seniors hoped to win and have everyone on their team participate and try their best. Many of the students that took part in playing in the game said how powderpuff was a lot more laidback and fun than many of the sports offered at MHS.
“It’s just for fun, but next year [the class of 2018 girls will] take it [even] more seriously,” junior Mackenzie Furlong stated.
Many of the girls on both team were very new to sport, having only watched the boys play on friday nights. To get the hang of the sport, coaching staffs made up of football players worked with the girls several nights a week. With game day approaching quicker and quicker, the teams’ competitive attitude, mindset, and overall knowledge of the sport grew.
The game is new to almost everyone on both teams. Many people came out to cheer on both teams along with MHS football players. With so many fans, the girls gave them what they came for, and both sides played their hearts out.
Although the boys were only coaching, they showed great leadership, trying their best to help their team of girls to make plays. “Coaches were really serious about it,” Furlong explained.
Practices started 2 weeks before game day, in which they practiced 5 days a week without fail. “Our coaches Walter [Analetto] and Isaiah [Likely] were really helpful,” explained current MHS junior, Izabelly Barros.
With the help of football players, everyone on each team were able to learn more about not just the game, but also the strategic aspects of it too as the coaches spent a great deal of time to explain their players on what they are supposed to do and how they should do it. Coaches took their jobs sternly to assure that everyone understood. Senior coaches Joshua Simon, Won Andre and Pedro Lugo were excited to teach the girls how the game is played.
“The girls were a lot more vicious them we would have expected,” coach Simon explained.
“[The coaches had] always grown up with the sport so [they] didn’t [realize just how much the girls would] appreciate it as much as they did.” coach Simon said.
Many players on both teams also agreed that if they can, they would like to participate in the games again next year. It is a popular opinion that the games are always fun and playful, yet both teams do not fail to maintain their competitive mindset.
Though both teams gave it their all and showed off what their coaches had taught them, the junior girls came out on top and won the game 18-0.
This win is monumental as the seniors have won the powderpuff games almost always in the past, with the last time the juniors came close to winning being last year, when this year’s seniors, who were juniors then, tied.
