Every year, participating Morgan girls get ready to play a fun game of flag football, and participating boys pick up their pom poms, all to play in the beloved Powderpuff game. PowderPuff is an annual Homecoming tradition that takes place after the Homecoming game and dance. However, 2024’s PowderPuff has yet to be seen by the Morgan community.

Before this year, the role of planning PowderPuff was filled by Stephanie Davis and Shannon Robinson, but this year the two teachers decided to step away from PowderPuff and let someone new take on the role. Student Government then took the fundraiser and let the class advisors decide on who to give it to, and PowderPuff was ultimately given to the Class of 2026.

Colleen Couch, guidance counselor and class of 2026 advisor, spoke about how the class’ government wanted to take on the role of PowderPuff, but how it would have also looked different from in other years. “When we first started planning, normally it [PowderPuff] is tied to Homecoming weekend, but I think because it [Homecoming] was so early this year, we couldn’t have fields.” 

The class was given two dates to do PowderPuff, and landed on doing it on the earlier date, which was October 26th, four weeks after homecoming. However, there were some problems with this date. There were not a lot of girls that signed up for PowderPuff, and there were a lot of girls soccer games that coincided with PowderPuff.

PowderPuff had been postponed three times because of the girls not being able to do it, and with the addition of the girls soccer team making it to the State Championship, it made it harder to find a date for the game. Couch did not know the exact number of girls playing soccer that signed up, however the main reason why soccer girls could not play was not just because of them having games on or close to PowderPuff, but was because they could be injured. If they got injured while playing PowderPuff, they would not be able to play in soccer games.

One of the teams on PowderPuff, the pink team, had two practices for PowderPuff, but the other team, the purple team, had not even started practicing, because they could not find good dates to practice, leading them to be canceled.

The rescheduling caused people to be upset about the postponed games, especially seniors who have been waiting for this since their freshman year. 

Alyssa Ruthstrom is one of these seniors, and is the quarterback for the pink team. “It’s sad to have to wait so long, because I have already been waiting for my senior Powderpuff since my freshman year, and now I finally have a bigger position.”

Ruthstrom fell in love with football at a very young age from her dad, and even plans on having a career in broadcasting for football. She wanted to be the quarterback, because of how huge the role was for the game, and that it has been a football position that she has loved throughout her whole life.  “I think it’s fun to involve myself in it [PowderPuff], and put myself out there and make the most of my senior year.”

Ruthstrom found it annoying that PowderPuff was being rescheduled over and over again. “I really wanted to do it, and I was really excited for it. I don’t blame them for why it’s being rescheduled, they can’t help it with sports schedules since it’s so conflicting. It’s just annoying because we’ve had practices.”

Sports is not the only reason why PowderPuff is being rescheduled. A huge problem was the fact that no one was really signing up for it. According to Couch, “The biggest thing was the lack of interest in playing.” 

Couch did not know the exact reason why it was being postponed so much, even questioning if it needed to be revamped all together because of the lack of sign-ups this year. Compared to last year, there were a lot of signups and people participating, and the game itself was not postponed at all.

Nathan Levy, the Class of 2026 President, spoke about his reactions and thoughts to the low PowderPuff turn out. “We need to work on our class unity in order to build relationships and class spirit. PowderPuff has been moved to the spring, and we are hoping for a good turn out of the event and spectators.”

Since, PowderPuff is planned to be held in the spring, but there is no exact date yet. Ruthstrom thinks that there is a possibility that it could be canceled altogether due to it being so late in the year, but she states that there is still the possibility of having it.

 “I think in the spring, sports aren’t as demanding, like for girls softball, it isn’t that demanding. There aren’t as many games as soccer, and I feel like in the spring people will be more motivated to do it.”