Football is traditionally played by men on campus, but for one night during homecoming, it becomes a female sport in an annual event called Powder Puff. Powder Puff has been around since the ’70s at Utah Tech University.
It hasn’t always been a part of Homecoming Week, but in recent years, the event has become a tradition. In this event, there are two female teams, one sophomore-junior and the other senior-freshman, competing in flag football with the university’s football players coaching on the sidelines.
“It’s about women empowerment with girls playing a traditional guy’s sport. It shows us that we can do that too,” Kelsey Paterson, a sophomore elementary education major from Eastvale, California, said.
The stands were full of students cheering the women on. There were some wearing red in support of the senior-freshman team, others in white rooting for the junior-sophomore team, and even more wearing neither color with eyes fixated on the field.
“It brings everyone together. Everyone’s cheering even if they don’t know who they’re cheering for. It’s a good environment,” Stockton Walker, a sophomore business major from Lyman, Wyoming, said.
Before preparation for the competition began, the participants and coaches were strangers. They were given only two days to learn each other and the game.
Macy Beck, a senior recreation and sports management major from Las Vegas, said: “It was so fun. I loved being able to practice with everyone, get to know new friends and come out here and play. It’s not something you get to do every day.”
The sophomore-junior team won 13-0. Each touchdown throughout the game merited loud screaming and clapping. The excitement afterward was visible as the women on both teams hugged and congratulated each other.
Beck competed last year and won, so it was time for other students to get their turn, such as first-time player Whitney Hurt, a sophomore general education major from Draper.
“It was obviously awesome to win. It gives you this big aura around you,” Hurt said. “But it was fun because I didn’t know any of these girls and then we came together as a team and won.”
The competition wasn’t like the usual sports games on campus because there was no prize for the winner, and it did not affect Utah Tech’s athletic rankings. The women were playing for fun.
“I don’t think we get enough chances like this to play for fun. It’s [sports] always a big competition,” Beck said.
Homecoming Week is full of activities meant to bring people together and foster a sense of school spirit. Between the alumni coming back and the students coming to campus activities, it allows students to form new connections. This activity brought people together through the cheering in the crowd, and the teams and coaches who were able to meet each other and grow together as a team.
