RCHS gears up for Homecoming with a friendly game

By Miranda Baines

Published: October 9, 2008

Girls scoring touchdowns on the football field. Guys wearing skirts, cheering on their team.

That was the scene Tuesday night at Rockingham County High School’s powder puff football game, a Homecoming week tradition.

“It’s a tough sport,” said Haley Williams, who played on the freshman team.

“A girl can do it, too. A girl can do anything a guy can do,” Mimi Melvin said.

“They’re doing a lot better than I thought they would,” said Sage Lawson, a varsity football player who coached the senior girls. “We had no practice at all.”

The powder puff game is a fundraiser for student council.

Tuesday night was senior Symphany Joseph’s first experience playing football. She was excited to get out on the field.

“It’s our last year, so we might as well do something fun,” she said. She expected to win for two reasons - the senior team had bigger players and the seniors “win every year.”

Juniors Katie Pace and Amanda Edwards think their team put forth their best, despite a 16-0 loss.

“We held them better than last year’s seniors did,” Edwards said.

“We’re ready for next year’s game already,” Pace said.

The guys got into the cheerleading as much as the girls got into playing football. They kept the crowd pumped throughout the game, cheering, doing stunts and even dancing.

“We love the sport,” said senior Ben Moore, a competitive cheerleader. He said his favorite part of the sport is “flying.” Moore was thrown in the air several times during the seniors game.

“They like doing the stunts more than anything. They actually get into it,” said Jean Stammetti, student body secretary. She and the other varsity cheerleaders dressed up the guys in skirts and coached them, according to tradition.

The cheerleaders had a good crowd of fans to entertain.

“This year, it seems like the stands are really packed,” Stammetti said.

Clayton Reid, a senior “cheerleader,” did flips to entertain the crowd at the game, but wasn’t too happy about wearing a skirt.

“I was forced into it,” he said.

The freshmen and sophomores game ended when sophomore Mercedes Jones, a junior varsity volleyball player, was hurt. The seniors game ended the same way, when junior Brianna Shambley went down on her knee during an interception.

Pace said some coaches won’t let their players participate in the powder puff football game because “somebody gets hurt every year.”

• Staff writer Miranda Baines can be reached at or 349-4331, ext. 35.