by Rowan O’Brien-Williams

This year, the STA administration is considering prohibiting seniors from playing the Powderpuff game, a football game that, according to former athletic director Mike Egner, STA and Notre Dame de Sion High School seniors have played since at least the early 1990s. According to principal for student affairs Mary Anne Hoecker, the administration has not yet issued a formal statement regarding the matter, but they do not support the game.

“It’s not school sponsored, therefore, it’s not school monitored, which means there’s no way to ensure that there aren’t accidents, damages done or unnecessary physical interactions,” Hoecker said.

Since the game isn’t school-sponsored, in previous years, students have planned the game on their own. Hoecker feels upset with the way students have handled doing so.

“Students have gone underground with planning [the Powderpuff game]…because they knew [the STA administration] didn’t support it,” Hoecker said.

These planning methods especially became an issue last year, when last year’s STA seniors played the Powderpuff game versus Sion. According to athletic director Mark Hough, seniors played the game at Leawood Elementary School without the proper permission to do so. In addition, they drove a car onto and dragged the bleachers across the track, causing about $2000 in damage. Last year’s senior class paid for all these damages.

Former senior Maddie Lueke was involved in these events. According to Lueke, it was to the understanding of the seniors from both schools that they had permission to play on the field. In addition, neither STA nor Sion seniors had anything to do with moving the bleachers.

“[STA seniors] were in the process of getting permission to play at another field when Sion came to us and said they already had permission at [Leawood Elementary],” Lueke said.

Although the game was not technically affiliated with STA, the STA administration became involved. According to Hoecker, the Leawood Elementary administration sent a letter to Hough reporting the damages to their field and the estimated cost of repair. Hough harbors no hard feelings toward the seniors who caused the damages.

“[The damages were] and honest mistake,” Hough said. “They probably didn’t know any better, but they made a couple of bad decisions as far as driving the car onto the field and dragging the bleachers.”

These events will affect the decision the STA administration makes about the Powderpuff game this year. Senior Mari Kerwin says she feels annoyed by this possibility.

“All of the senior classes before us have gotten the privilege to play, so why can’t we?” Kerwin said. “I was really looking forward to getting to play [the Powderpuff game] this year because I have heard about how much fun it is from previous senior classes.”

Kerwin also said she feels disappointed about the way last year’s seniors handled playing the game.

“I think [last year’s seniors] could have planned [the game] a lot better and not damaged the field,” Kerwin said. “They could have focused more on just playing the game, not causing damage. I don’t think that it is fair that we are not allowed to play this year based on the decisions that they made last year.”

However, senior class treasurer Alex Mediavilla says she understands the administration’s point of view on the issue.

“I can see the difficult position it would put the administration in,” Mediavilla said. “I think its because of the fact that [the Powderpuff game] is such a physical act and there’s a very high risk of injury and it’s a large liability for [STA].”

Mediavilla also feels that last year’s seniors didn’t mean any harm by their actions as far as damaging the field.

“I think [last year’s seniors] didn’t mean [the Powderpuff game] to be malicious,” Mediavilla said. “I think [the seniors’ actions] were kind of intended to enhance the experience, but it kind of went wrong. What they thought was making [the experience] more fun ended up hurting their cause.”

However, there are some options for changing the game’s unsupervised and dangerous nature. Hough said he would be willing to run and supervise the game, making it flag football rather than tackle football.

“Playing tackle football without pads is extremely dangerous and tackling without knowing how to is dangerous,” Hough said. “I love [the Powderpuff game] as far as school spirit and class bonding. I think it’s a healthy, fun rivalry between [STA and Sion], but I think it should be flag football. What scares me to death is people getting hurt [from playing tackle football].”

According to Hoecker, the administration has not yet confirmed this option. However, they will talk with Hough regarding a flag football game.