Every year, Woodland has a tradition where junior and senior girls will play flag football and senior and junior boys do cheerleading. This tradition is being brought back to Woodland for the first time since COVID. This year’s classes of 2024 and 2025 decided to bring back the tradition. 

However powder puff goes beyond Woodland. Many schools around the state of Connecticut also participate in annual powder puff games. Some schools even play rival schools during the games. 

According to “The Choate News” the origin of powder puff games comes from the 1940s and gained popularity with time. Powder puff originally started when there weren’t enough boys to play sports games during World War II. Too many young men had been drafted into the war.  So the women stepped in and played football for the men. 

Powder puff later became more popular in the 1970s, and continued to be the tradition that it is today, allowing girls to play football and boys to do cheerleading once a year at the powder puff games. 

Some schools go even further than the annual powder puff games though. Some schools are now creating a girls flag football team for girls to play on. According to CBS8 the powder puff games are beginning to transition to flag football games and leagues around different states. 

This year’s Woodland powder puff game took place on November 30th, between the two teams of Chris Decker and Steve Bainer. Bainer’s team won this year’s powder puff game, with the team of Sofia Ligi, Erin Donnely, Madison Harte, Jenna Chicano, Julia Rowely, and Lucia Rubano. Great job to all the girls who participated in this year’s powder puff game.