Dixie State College’s annual Powderpuff Football Game is one of the highlights of Homecoming Week on the DSC campus, but this year’s event ignited a sports gender-supemacy debate.
Indeed, who is the better athlete: a man or a woman?
Karli Owens, a DSC student, said women can do anything they set their mind to.
“Girls can do anything–we can UFC, we can box you, and we’ll probably beat you,” Owens said.
Despite the positive comments and a convincing 12-0 sophomore-junior victory, some male students around the DSC campus aren’t entirely confident in a woman’s ability to lace up the spikes.
Among this group is Danny Brown, a DSC freshman who played high school football at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas. Brown said women struggle with sports, compared to men.
“Well, I actually believe that girls don’t have enough power to play football as males do,” Brown said. “I believe males are better in sports than females are.”
It’s an age-old question regarding whether men can do things better than women or vice versa. Some notable DSC figures however, like Dixie Student Body President Mike Sheffield, think women can definitely compete athletically with men.
“They (women) have a lot of great strengths to them,” said Sheffield. “And I think it’s important we remember the strengths women have as well. So I think, the game has changed a little bit as women are playing it but I think, essentially in a good way, as long as we make sure to play to the strengths women have too.”
Several players in this year’s powderpuff game felt their strengths provide an advantage over men on the gridiron.
“They can bite me homie; we’re probably better than they are,” said Shannelle Seegmiller, a DSC sophomore. “Did they [the men] watch the game?”
Other players note the women prepared just as intensely as men would for a football game.
“We had a strategy tonight,” sophomore-junior quarterback Mack Freeman said. “We did plays; everyone knew what they were doing and I felt it worked out well.”