The girls’ Powderpuff football game has been a tradition at Niles North for many years. Excitement is high for the annual, much anticipated contest between junior and senior girls. The game is set to take place on Oct. 7 at 7:00 pm on the main football field.

This year’s players will attempt to live up to the standards created by last year’s game, where the seniors ended up winning in the last five seconds after the juniors put on a strong showing for much of the night.

“I think there’s a lot more excitement this year due to the drama that happened at last year’s game. I think people will be a lot more interested, hoping for a similar outcome,” senior Sofia Tagkaloglou said.

Anticipation is high for the junior girls this year as well. “I think everyone is looking forward to the game so much because it’s such a unique opportunity to be able to play football as a girl,” junior Samar Ashrafi said. “It’s usually considered a guy sport, so it’ll just be fun for us to show people that girls are capable of playing football too, even if it is only flag.”

The girls’ first practice is on Sept. 30. The second practice is on Oct. 5, which begins after hallway decorating, another Powderpuff tradition that is filled with competitiveness between the juniors and seniors, from 11:30 am until 3:00 pm.

While this game is notoriously known for its cattiness and hostility between the girls, with some schools even cancelling the event altogether, Niles North has never had an issue with inappropriate conduct by the players either during the game or outside of it.

Asking what the seniors’ game strategy is this year, Tagkaloglou said, “I think we can use our experience from last year to our advantage. We’re definitely going to practice a lot more to try to improve from last year and make sure we win.”

Come and support the junior and senior girls when they go head to head on Oct. 7th!