As winter sports season is coming to a close, Agua Fria High School celebrates its end with a Hoopcoming spirit week! From Monday – starting it off with Superhero and Sidekick day; Tuesday – 2000’s day; Wednesday – Anything but a Backpack day; Thursday – Dress as a Teacher day; But closing the week off on a red out… The Powderpuff Game!

This is a significant year for girls’ flag football. Not only was this the first successful Powderpuff game in Agua Fria High School history, thanks to the efforts of multiple parties, but it is also the debut of girls’ flag football in Arizona high school sports.

Even though it is fairly new, this brings about numerous exciting opportunities and chances for our school’s team to rise to the top. That being said, this Hoopcoming Powderpuff game gives us a taste of the future possibilities for this sport in its coming first season.

Fifteen female students from each grade: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, all competed in this game of flag football. Throughout the Hoopcoming week, each team prepared for their matches with practices coached by our very own football players. 

The players from all grades were called into RTI to set dates for practice leading up to the game. “The practices were organized and everything was set in place,” Eriyana Young, junior, stated. “They called us for a meeting to set the days and hours for practice, also having the groups meet at the parks outside of school, we had all our coaches use cones and set examples on how every play is supposed to go. They also printed out all the plays and had us study before the game time came around.”

Initially, the teams were given two practices prior, Monday and Wednesday. However, some teams had more or less. The freshmen, for example, added a Thursday practice to run through their game plan with the hopes of winning all their matches. Blenda Llamas, a freshman, said, “My team and I were okay with adding an extra day of practice to make sure we had our routes and positions covered fully the day before the game.” She also stated how their practices were separated into categories: running, catching, defense, and routes.

The Juniors, on the other hand, only had one day of practice due to conflicting schedules with other sports. Joshua Young, junior, added that ”everyone in the team practiced and it was really fun and competitive overall.”

But alas, Friday rolled around, and it was time to see the fruits of each team’s labor. The hard work they put in throughout the week will finally determine whether they deserve to be at the top of this competition.

The first matchups: were the Freshmen vs the Sophomores and the Juniors vs the Seniors. 

The freshmen lost to the sophomores 6-12. 

The biggest obstacle the freshmen faced during this first game was their mindset. Once the game started, they became quite tense, holding them back from potentially destroying the sophomores. Blenda commented, “We were quick to doubt ourselves, especially since we had never participated in this event before. Even though we ended up losing, we all had so much fun.” 

The other matchup resulted in a dominating win by the juniors, ending the game 30-6 against the seniors.

The next couple of matches determined which team takes first place.

Seniors against freshmen. Juniors against sophomores. 

The results? The freshman won 27-6. And as the beautiful Arizona sun was setting, the juniors rose and kept their momentum, winning 30-7.

Eriyana expressed how she felt “overly great about winning” especially since the juniors had fewer practices compared to the other teams.

That being said, most of the girls who had experienced playing flag football during this Powderpuff game said that they were interested in joining. Hopefully, this starts a legacy here at Agua Fria High School for girls’ flag football as well as making the Powderpuff game a tradition.

Are the class of ‘25, ‘26, and ‘27 stepping up to win next year’s Powderpuff game? Or will the current juniors keep their streak one last time before graduation? Find out during the next Hoopcoming!