Over the past three years, Powderpuff Football, a girls-only league, has risen in popularity as the competition amongst high school girls reaches new heights. June 2 will consist of a day-long tournament at City Park in LaGrange, ultimately raising hundreds of dollars for the Legacy Guild Scholarship, a scholarship dedicated to raising money for the college tuitions of teens who have lost a parent.

“The atmosphere is great,” Maddie O’Donnell ‘16 said. “People are grilling out and everyone is having fun, but when it comes to game time, it gets competitive.”

With about 12 to 16 teams participating and about 15 girls per team, the event generates plenty of support for the Legacy Guild Scholarship, co-organizer of the event Chase Nacker ‘16 said. Each team member and coach must donate $20 in order to participate.

“So many girls join because of how fun it is,” O’Donnell said. “But at the end of the day, everyone is there because it’s a great cause.”

Over the years, however, the friendly tournament has evolved as more teams focus on winning instead of just playing for fun. Last year a few teams even held practices prior to game day, something that had never been done before, O’Donnell said. Despite the more competitive atmosphere, there are still a variety of teams focused on both winning and having a good time.

“Some girls are really competitive and some really aren’t,” Julianne Fortuna ‘17 said. “I think it really just depends on your personality and your zodiac sign.”

The event faced discontinuation when last year’s seniors graduated and no one remained to run the program. That’s when Jimmy Saracco ‘16 stepped up to ensure that the fundraiser continued. Since then, the overall excitement for powderpuff has grown, with teams now creating jerseys and other forms of spirit-wear in order to raise awareness for the cause, O’Donnell said.

“As long as we make sure that as many people know about it as possible, I think it still has the potential to grow even more,” O’Donnell said.

The future of powderpuff is still unclear. The flexibility of the event, however, allows for the fundraiser to adapt to the increasing number of participants.

“I could see it becoming a series event where we expand the amount of charities we raise money for in the future,” Fortuna said. “More people want to join, and it really has the potential to do a lot of good.”

For more information, you can search the LT Powderpuff Football page on Facebook.