Powder Puff Football is a tradition that extends back the first ever matchup at a Connecticut high school in 1972. Powder Puff Football is an event that invokes school spirit and is the opportunity for female athletes to compete on the gridiron and high school football players to take their turn at calling the plays. At West Washington the tradition of Powder Puff football has taken on many variations run by different student organizations throughout the years, but disappeared for a few years until it made its triumphant return in 2022 under the direction of the West Washington football program. "I have worked at West Washington since 2006 and officiated multiple Powder Puff games during my time as a football coach and teacher, but for one reason or another Powder Puff just kind of went away," said football coach Duane Nance "I thought it was important to bring it back to help promote school spirit and selfishly I had some nieces in high school at the time and really wanted them to have the opportunity to go out there and have some fun." In 2022 the current format of Powder Puff began under the direction of the West Washington football program and consists of 8 man football rules. The Senior, Junior, Sophomore and Freshman classes compete in a tournament style format for honor to be crowned gridiron champions for the year.
The 2024 Senator Football Powder Puff tournament took place at Art Sanders Field on Monday night October 21st. The Senior, Junior, Sophomore and Freshman classes competed in flag football games coached by fellow classmates from the 2024 Senator Football Team. The tournament format consisted of two opening round matchups where the Seniors faced off against the Freshmen and Juniors competed against the Sophomores. In the opening contest of the night the Senior powder puff team was led by the elusive running of Lilly Thompson and quarterback Olivia Gibson and came out victorious against the Freshmen. The Senior team played great team defense holding the Freshmen scoreless advancing to the championship game. In the second contest the Sophomore team led by quarterback Macy Lowery and running back Marlee Chase pulled out the victory in a highly competitive contest against the Junior team to advance to the championship game to take on the Seniors.
Prior to the championship game the Freshmen and Juniors competed in a consolation game. The Juniors won the game and had one of the highlight offensive plays of the night as quarterback Meredith Deaton completed a 50 yard touchdown pass to receiver Adelle Brown for a big score. The Junior defense also played tremendously, led the defensive pressure of defensive linemen Layla Manship and kept the Freshmen in check in the run game with excellent contain led by Shyann Springer and Laney Cambron on the edges.
The most exciting contest of the night was definitely the championship matchup between the Seniors and Sophomores. The Seniors started the game off with a methodical, well executed drive down the field orchestrated by coach Tyler Miller who utilized the dual running attack of Olivia Gibson and Lilly Thompson to take almost the entire 1st half and score a touchdown late in the 1st half. The Seniors also converted an extremely important 2 point try from the 10 yard line to open the game with the lead 8-0. The Sophomores took their first possession of the game with a little under 4 minutes to play in the half and managed to quickly move the ball down the field with explosive plays led by Macy Lowery and Marlee Chase. The Sophomores converted a touchdown with under a minute remaining, but the Senior defense held strong on the conversion attempt and held on to an 8-6 lead at the half.
The second half opened with a dominating defensive stand by the Seniors forcing a quick three and out possession for the Sophomores allowing the Seniors to grab the momentum and possession of the ball up 8-6 early in the second half. The momentum however shifted very quickly as the Seniors bobbled a handoff in the backfield that led to a change of possession and gave the Sophomores the football at midfield. The Sophomores capitalized on the momentum to push the ball down the field and grab the late lead and what appeared to be the game winning score 12-8 with a little over a minute remaining in the game. The Seniors stayed the course and were not daunted using a mixture of misdirection runs and pass plays to move the ball down the field and had the ball at the Sophomore 20 yard line with :23 seconds remaining. The Seniors with no timeouts remaining ran a wheel route out the backfield to catch the Sophomore defense off guard and converted the game winning touchdown taking the lead 14-12. The Sophomores gained possession with under :20 seconds on the game clock, but failed to get much traction as time ran out and the Seniors took the victory winning the 2024 Senator Football Powder Puff Championship. "We couldn't have asked for a better night for the Powder Puff championship. The weather was excellent, the game action was exciting, and it looked like the kids had a bunch of fun!" Coach Duane Nance stated.