Powder Puff Football: Mountain Madness set for 11th year

There are some intense rivalries that have developed at Douglas High School over time. South Tahoe soccer, Reno baseball, Manogue volleyball and every team from Carson, for example.

But perhaps none of the above are as anticipated as the Senior girls vs. Junior girls Powder Puff flag football game held every year during the school's Block D Mountain Madness event.

This year's game is tonight at 6 p.m. at the Douglas High football field, followed at 7:30 by a tug of war competition, a milk chug contest at 8 p.m. and a lip sync contest at 8:30. Yearbooks will also be available for pick up from 4 to 6 p.m.

"I've wanted to play in this game since I was in the fifth grade," said Jourdan Burke, who will be playing safety for the junior defense this year. "We moved here and came and saw Mountain Madness. From that point, I couldn't wait until I was a junior so I could play in this game."

Indeed, the game has become quite a draw over the past 11 years, both on the field and in the stands.

"I think we have 85 seniors and 76 juniors playing this year," Block D advisor Ernie Monfilleto said. "Those are unbelievable numbers. I'm overwhelmed every year by the number of girls who come rolling through the halls wanting to play football.

"There were probably 2,500 people in the stands last year too. The home bleachers were packed and the visitors' side was half-full. It's turned into a pretty big deal. It's a great fundraiser for the high school All the profits from Mountain Madness go back into the school in some way or another."

This will be the 11th meeting between the two classes. The Seniors hold a slight edge in the series at 6-4 but the juniors have won three of the last four years.

"The seniors tend to get a little cocky sometimes," said Brent Eddy, who happens to be coaching the juniors this year, but coached the seniors last year. "They have a lot of stuff going on at the end of the year and the juniors are sometimes a little more hungry to get out there and make something happen. They've done well the last couple of years."

The teams began practice on Tuesday, giving them only three days of work before the game.

"Seniors always have a bit of experience under their belt," Eddy said. "They've played in the game and that's huge."

Senior coach Joe Andrews, who led the juniors to victory last year and was a part of coaching the junior squad when the game was first played in 1999, said that experience changes the structure of the first couple of practices.

"You're approach is a little different with the seniors than it is with the juniors," Andews said. "Juniors we started off by running them and putting them through stations to see who had a knack for doing what, who was good at blocking, who was good at grabbing flags, who had a lot of speed.

"With seniors, you kind of have an idea of where those girls will go already and then it's just a matter of shifting the newbies around to find a good fit. Other than that we'll be getting a lot of reps all week long."

The seniors sport to of the more potent weapons to ever come through the Powder Puff series -- dfensive lineman Minneah Holdridge, who is believed to be the only girl to ever play varsity football at Douglas High, and quarterback Jessica Waggoner, who was qualified for the regional Punt, Pass & Kick competition multiple times before exceeding the age limit.

"I think a lot of people are scared, like 'Oh, there's Jessica Waggoner,' and 'They've got Minneah Holdridge,'" said Susie White, who will play running back for the juniors. "If we come in with the mindset that we're not going to get dominated and just try to play hard, I think we will be OK.

"I got together with a bunch of the football players over the weekend and they showed me a bunch of plays, so I'll be ready."

Waggoner said there are no worries of the seniors being over-confident.

"We're not coming into this thing big-headed," Waggoner said. "We're just going to work hard and it'll be fun."

Coaches spend the week preparing a list of trick plays and misdirection offenses for the game.

"In flag football, you almost have to run some kind of misdirection," Eddy said. "You can't just line up and run smash mouth football. It's too bad you can't put them in pads. It sounds like some of them would be all for it."

Waggoner agreed with that thought.

"It gets pretty physical out there," she said. "The girls are all pretty serious out there. I wish it was tackle football."

The lack of pads hasn't stopped the chatter during the week, though.

"There's a lot of talk leading up to the game," Burke said. "It's pretty fun."

Admission to the game is $5.

"It's funny to see how big this has become," Andrews said. "It's a great chance to get a lot of people who aren't normally involved, involved. It's an awesome thing for the school. It's kind of become a rite of passage for the girls at Douglas High to come out and play Powder Puff football."