The girls of Jupiter High School on Friday night proved their point, at least for now — that they can play tackle American football as safely as boys and have as much fun.
Three months after school administrators tried to kill the nation’s only tackle powder puff American football game after 50 years, citing safety concerns, the Jupiter juniors defeated the seniors 18-0 in the 51st contest.
Although that result might spur some razzing over the summer and at future class reunions, the more important tally for the game’s future: no serious injuries. One girl left the game with a limp.
“I hope this will keep the game going,” senior Megan Mendoza said. “Maybe, one day, it will lead to scholarships. That is what I hope.”
When the game almost died in spring, the girls went to work to save it — and got a civics lesson in the process. They lobbied the Jupiter Town Council, convincing the members the city should take over as sponsor. They borrowed helmets and pads from a local youth league, bought liability insurance — US$470, donated by one player’s dad, covers both squads for up to US$2 million — and agreed to the town’s requirement that they go through weeks of practice and conditioning drills.
They were willing to do about anything to keep their alma mater from becoming just one more of the thousands of US high schools that play flag powder puff, a no-contact version in which girls stop opponents by pulling flags off their belts, rather than wrestling them to the ground.
They found an easy ally in Jupiter Mayor Todd Wodraska.
He coached his class’s girls — his future wife played on the opposing team one year — when he played American football at Jupiter High in the 1980s. He did not want to lose the excitement and sense of tradition the tackle game brings to the suburb of 60,000 in Palm Beach County.
Wodraska said the town commission takes the risk of injury as seriously as the school board did, but thinks it can be mitigated.
“My colleagues agreed that if the girls go through safety procedures and the girls and parents are willing to acknowledge the risk, then we can host the game,” he said.
At Friday’s game, a lightning storm delayed the start and cut the crowd from its usual packed home stands to about one-third full. The game, while sloppy with fumbles and penalties, would have still warmed a gridiron purist’s heart a bit: It featured lots of straight-ahead running with few passes, little trickery, swarming tackles and the occasional hard hit.
Spectator Sharon Owen, a Jupiter preschool teacher, said she attended the game to support the girls, calling the original decision to cancel the game “insane.”
“They have been playing this game for 51 years; they should carry on the tradition,” she said.
The school’s withdrawal of support could affect next year’s boys’ team. Brianna Hockman joined the boys’ squad, saying she wants to prove that girls can play American football right alongside the boys. During Friday’s girls’ game, she was clearly the most valuable player, scoring all three of the game’s touchdowns on 75-yard, 57-yard and 42-yard runs, and was a force on defense.
“I am not as good as some of [the boy players], but I put in just as much work,” she said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB