Homecoming season means a lot of celebratory activities for Berkley High School students: football games, spirit week, the homecoming dance; but for upperclasswomen, there’s an additional excitement, Powderpuff. In line with annual Berkley tradition, participating junior and senior girls went head to head in flag football on September 28th. This year’s seniors won 12-6, making this the second victory in a row for the class of 2023.
This year, the seniors were coached by Berkley High’s own varsity football players David Rolands, Nolan Wesner, and Max Walstad. Juniors were led by Sunny Kadlitz, Brendan Bushey, and Ryan Hoerner, who are also on the varsity team. Although this year’s juniors put up a good fight, it seems that the class of 2024 was no match for seniors like Ava Beard, who suffered a gruesome cleat-to-the-face injury during the very first play of the game.
Senior participant DaKya Cunningham filled us in on what she described as “the greatest success, [her] touchdown, because it got the whole crowd hyped, and was very fun.” After a touchdown off of a fumble by Senior Kaytlyn McPherson, Cunningham’s TD brought the score to 12-0 at the third quarter. And the greatest failure? Both DaKya Cunningham and fellow senior Brooklynn Duncan agreed that the greatest failure of Wednesday’s game was junior Emily High’s 4th quarter touchdown.
All together, Cunningham and Duncan collaborated to agree that the key to success for next year’s seniors would be “good organization, strong leadership, willingness to give 110% and, most importantly, just having fun.”
Of course, this year’s matchup would have gained significantly less traction had it not been for this year’s featured announcers, seniors Riley Shafritz and Jonah Wolfe. “I thought it was super exciting, there were some talented athletes. It was a good game,” said Shafritz. “I wasn’t expecting to be an announcer, but I kinda just went up there and it was cool.” Shafritz adds of the last minute decision to bring student announcers on board. Ultimately, this year’s Juniors put up a good fight, but proved unvictorious against the 2-0 seniors.