Gabriella Chikhani
Staff Writer
Four shirtless male cheerleaders, bedazzled with glittered leopard footprints on their faces and chests, waved their orange and green pom-poms around as they pumped up the crowd with their cheer, “Leo fans we wanna see you stomp and shake it.”
The two teams heading off to battle were huddled on separate ends of the field and were swaying from side to side as they chanted their final cheers. On one side there was team Coalition dressed in all black and on the other was team Sigma Kappa wearing maroon sorority jerseys.
The Power Puff Girls Powder Puff game Tuesday night at Ortmayer Stadium, organized by the Campus Activities Board, was a another spirited event.
In the annual pre-Homecoming game, Sigma Kappa defeated Coalition, 26-12, and each member went home with a Yogurtland gift card.
“We had a basic idea of what we wanted to do prior to the game, and then during the game we made a lot of adjustments based on what the other team was doing,” said Kason Kennedy, junior kinesiology major and Sigma Kappa coach.
Five La Verne football players coached Sigma Kappa and one track and field athlete coached Coalition.
Coalition was made up of 14 members from Iota Delta, Phi Sigma Sigma, Alpha Omicron Pi and two non-organizational members.
“It’s not like we’re old rivals, but when it comes to competing in sports it’s kind of like that Adam Sandler movie when the prisoners play against the police officers,” said Jaime Kons, sophomore public affairs major and Coalition team player.
The team named itself Coalition because the players came together from different organizations. They all wore black to show how they were different but united as a team.
“It was a lot more competitive than I thought it was going to be and it started off as fun but then once it became the second half it got really serious. But we were the second best team out there,” Kons said.
The Sigma Kappa team was made up of six Sigma Kappa sisters and two audience members recruited minutes before the game started.
JT McLuckey, junior kinesiology major, and Kennedy wore headsets to discuss strategies and coach Sigma Kappa in play changes during the game.
“They used their individual strengths really well to form the team, and teamwork-wise they were all in it, and you could tell that they all wanted to win,” Deanna Doss, senior business major, said.
The competition on the field was fierce. There was shoving, shirt pulling and arguments over the calls made by the referees.
“There’s a whole other side to every girl and you wouldn’t think you would see it, but then the competitiveness came out on the field,” Kons said.
During the halftime show the four male cheerleaders took to the field to show off their dance moves. When the music got cut off, the guys kept humming and dancing along making a “Mean Girls” style comeback.
Savannah Torres, sophomore CAB major events co-chairwoman, said the board picked the Power Puff Girls Powder Puff game to go along with the Homecoming theme and to help bring out the inner child in students.
When the game ended, players from both teams congratulated one another with high-fives and gathered for a group photo.
Gabriella Chikhani can be reached at gabriella.chikhani@laverne.edu.
