Making Powder Moves: After not being held last year due to COVID-19, the Powderpuff game was held on Nov. 13th

Instead of lacing up their cleats for football practice, the varsity football players head to the Lancer Dancer room with one common purpose: perfecting their hip rolls and pirouettes for their routine to Toxic by Britney Spears for the halftime performance of the powderpuff football game.

Powderpuff is the one time a year where the cheerleaders, Lancer Dancers and football players get to swap roles. Cheer and dance play a flag football game against one another while the football players do cheers on the sidelines and put on a halftime show for the crowd. Each powderpuff team is coached by the senior football team captains: Kyler Haughton, Ben Luetje, Jack Muller and Ryan Ward.

“For cheer, I feel like we’re always the sideshow,” senior cheer captain Maddie Thibodeau said. “We’re out on the sidelines and we spend so much time watching the game happen. So it’s gonna be pretty fun to actually be out there and be the main show for once.”

The game is played with mixed teams, with junior cheerleaders and dancers going against senior cheerleaders and dancers. Playing with girls from their own teams, as well as the other team, allows different groups of girls to come together, according to senior Lancer Dancer Maliyah Darrington.

Powderpuff is also an opportunity for girls to try out a new sport like football who normally wouldn’t, according to junior cheerleader Sophia Snyder. Whether the cheerleaders and dancers have been around the game their whole lives or they’ve never touched a football, Snyder believes everyone will get a chance to experience the game for themselves.

“I’ve been to countless football games since my brother plays college football,” Snyder said. “So I’m excited to actually get in there and see what I can do. I really want to see if the football skills come through genetics, or if he just got lucky.”

The game will be played with flag football rules and no tackling. Even after some of the football captains encouraged it, cheerleaders and dancers decided that tackling would be too much of a risk for potential injuries. The game will have four quarters, each ten minutes long along with a ten minute halftime. Junior team coach Haughton is even adding simplified plays from East’s playbook.

The cheer and dance teams normally stay pretty separated. With cheer on the sidelines and dance out on the field for halftime performances, they never really do anything together — besides joint pep assembly performances and being next to each other on the track during fourth quarter, according to Darrington.

“[Our combined dance], Chill Ball, is one of the only bonding opportunities that we get with the cheer girls, ” Darrington said. “We never really do anything with them outside of games and school, so I feel like doing something with cheer will be really fun.”

Powderpuff is a way to meet new people, but also a way to become even closer with girls they already know, according to Thibodeau, who has many close friends who are Lancer Dancers. She’s excited to be on the same team as her friends for the first time, and powderpuff is an opportunity that they wouldn’t have otherwise to participate on the same team.

Senior dance captain Sydney Beck likes that the game is played with mixed teams because she believes the game wouldn’t be as effective if it was simply just dance vs. cheer.

“We obviously don’t know some of the cheer girls that well,” Beck said. “So it’d be kind of awkward to be like going against them. But this really like unites the teams. Which I think is good. It makes us like have a bond that we wouldn’t have if we weren’t playing a game like this.”

Due to COVID restrictions, neither team has played a powderpuff game before. Normally the senior team has one year of experience under their belt, but this year is an even playing field.

“All of us are gonna get out on the field and have no idea what we’re doing,” junior Lancer Dancer Kate Cronenwett said. “But that’s what is going to make it fun. None of us have played before, so it’ll just be a lot of chaos and running around.”

Having girls from two different teams will be an advantage out on the field. From fast senior players, to cheerleaders using their jumping abilities, the variety of skills will help them win the game, according to Beck.

“I think we have a lot of athletic players that will make some moves for us out on the field,” Beck said. “[Senior] Olivia Lisher is really strong and will probably be put at quarterback, [Senior] Megan Angel is pretty speedy. [Senior] Kay Kay [Winn] is just all over the place, I really think she’ll be able to juke out the juniors. And then obviously the cheer girls, they’re good jumpers. So maybe they’ll be jumping over the opponents. I think we have a lot of assets, I’m excited to see what we do.”