To try and make North Cross a more egalitarian school, along with many other schools in the nation, we host an annual powderpuff football game. This is a football game where the girls play instead of the boys.
Two players from the boy’s varsity football team took on the role of the head coach assisted by their teammates. By teaching the girls the ins and outs of flag football, the girls were ready to take on their classmates. 
This year Kam Johnson ‘24 was the head coach for the Freshman and Sophomore team. 
“[I’m excited] to show what we worked on in practice. We worked really hard and were ready to beat the upperclassmen,” Johnson said with a passionate feeling toward his team.
The Junior and Senior team was coached by Cross Thompson ‘22. “[The underclassmen] really stand no chance, we’re winning, that’s all,” Thompson said, feeling very confident about his team.
The underclass(wo)men have their quarterback, Deja Garrison 24’, taking them in a strong direction with her speed and tenacity. 
“I’m excited for all of the fun. Whenever someone scores it’s really hype” Garrison said
Flavia Daniels 23’, the 6-foot German exchange student led the upperclassmen with her agility, strength and speed by being their quarterback. 
“I don’t know [why I was chosen], I can throw the ball good and Lambert saw me running and was like ‘Flavia’s the fastest so she’s the quarterback,’ Daniels said. She was fired up to be part of a sport she’s never played before,  “I’m excited for the game and for people to watch us. I’m not a football player, I’ve never had a game like this.” 
The defense sisters Teea Hash 24’ and Alexis Hash 22’ will be going head-on against each other. “Our team’s biggest strengths are running the ball and our defense,” Teea said, reflecting on her team. “I love being able to play with the kids that I’ve been in high school with for the past four years,” Alexis said. 
On the sidelines, we had the best cheerleaders, college counselor Julie Avvatsmark and SCA Advisor Susan Wenk. They made the cheering uplifting for everyone.
“I am so excited to have Powderpuff back because with covid we were not able to do Powderpuff,” Wenk said with fire in her heart and passion in her eyes.
The upperclass girls may have won the game 21-14, but the more important victory was the way all girls won respect for playing.

What does Powderpuff mean to you?
According to Gridiron Queendom, in 1945, the first ever Powderpuff Football game was played. The name “Powderpuff” was given to the games from a makeup product that girls used at the time. Although the games are much more “glammed up” than the guys’ football games, by having more stylish uniforms, no padding or gear, and lots and lots of glitter; it is a chance for girls to take on a male dominated sport. 
  Although female sports tend to be more glamorized, here at North Cross the upper school takes charge and makes it as competitive as possible. 
“The games give girls the opportunity to play a male dominated sport,” Alexis Teter ‘23 said. 
With our amazing student body, the game is treated just the same as almost any varsity sport would. 
“People tend to put a lot of effort into the game,” Flavia Daniels ‘23, the quarterback for the upper school team. The student section was beyond supportive of the athletes. By yelling and screaming at either the referees or when their team got a touchdown; the crowd was always cheering.  
Throughout the week leading up to the game, there was a lot of smack talk between the upper and underclassmen. 
“There is healthy competition,” Ned Tower ‘24 said, “which brings the upper and underclassmen together, at the end of the day we are all on the same team.”
According to some upper schoolers, this year’s game was far more intense than the games in the previous years. With most of the girls participating in varsity sports, the competition this year was relentless. 
“I don’t think people really held back in the game,” Maria Krotov ‘23 said. 
With all of the students, coaches, and teachers cheering on the players, the field had this supportive yet brutal energy flowing throughout the whole game. 
“It was super brutal,” Danny Phung ‘24 said. “I could feel the intensity and excitement through the spectators and coaches.”
Despite the ruthlessness displayed among the girls, the game really does bring the entire upper school closer together. 
”Nothing is a one gender sport,” Adoria Sanders ‘22 said, “you do what you put your mind to.”
This shows even more that women are just as capable to play an intense game of football as men are.

By Hania Raza
This lecture was very informative, and I learned a lot from listening to Leonard Pitts Jr. speak. The main topic of his lecture was America’s gravest crisis, the misinformation crisis, where knowable facts are denied. This crisis has existed for many decades, but the degree to which it is affecting our lives is much higher today. The misinformation crisis feeds other crises and makes them worse. If it is not solved, none of the other crises will be either because, when we cannot agree on facts, we cannot solve our problems with debate. Mr. Pitts mentioned four examples of this: COVID-19, racial reckoning, climate change and political polarization. All of these major crises have been made worse by ignorant people who preach to the ill informed. He also provided reasons for why this crisis has become so immense only now by explaining the “perfect storm,” which caused it. The “perfect storm” is made from distrust of authority, internet and social media, journalistic cowardice and miseducation of the American student. Towards the end of his lecture, Mr. Pitts talked about some of the possible solutions. For example, no one should use social media as a source for news, and everyone should make their assumptions fit the facts. This event reminded me of one of the senior speeches last year, where the topic of “The Double Standard of Mainstream Media” was discussed. I would recommend this lecture to anyone, as it is very relevant right now. 

By Ani Eagan
Hi Mr. Pitts,
I am a white high school student at North Cross School and in our journalism class, our teacher shared your article, I enjoyed reading it a lot and thought it was interesting, so I figured I would send you an email giving my opinion. 
I don’t really find learning about topics such as slavery to have “traumatized” me at all. I think it’s very important to learn about these things and learn about the mistakes that have been made in the past, as they are the grounds on which today’s mistakes are being made. While the things that happened are awful, kids learning about them is important, as they did in fact happen, and as a kid who learned about slavery and the discrimination on race in our history, it hasn’t “traumatized” me at all. It frustrates me when I hear adults say things like this, especially when they are white, because we are not the ones that this has had a large impact on, and simply being ignorant to it doesn’t make it go away. 
As someone with some childhood trauma and issues with anxiety now, none of that came from things I learned in school, and simply leaving things that happened out of history when teaching it to children, isn’t teaching history right. I definitely think schools should be teaching about slavery, and of course, that it was wrong. It’s important for kids to hear about mistakes that were made and hear the full story. 
Thanks,
Ani Eagan