On Tuesday afternoon, Alpha Phi Alpha continued its freshly new tradition each year during homecoming week, hosting their third annual Powderpuff Flag Football game.

The game was held just north of Mae Smith and Schneider towers on east campus at SIU and was open to anybody wanting to participate in the event. Students who weren’t even in a sorority/fraternity were all welcome and encouraged to play in the game.

Teams were separated by colors white and black and had specially made shirts for the game to show off their names and numbers on the back. Members from Alpha Phi Alpha helped coach each team, including Jayshaun Murray and Jaquarius “JP” Phillips. The black team ended up taking the match over the white team with a 21-14 final score.

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Murray said the fraternity wants to host the event because the girls on campus need some more acknowledgment.

“We do it so the girls can get a little recognition on campus because we feel like a lot of the events on campus are held towards gentlemen. We just wanted something strictly for females during homecoming week, especially during breast cancer awareness month. We get a great crowd, so we wanted to try to do it every year now,” Murray said.

Murray was in charge of preparing the white team that participated in the game. They called themselves the “Ice Warriors” for the game. He said he’s enjoyed doing it every year that he’s been involved.

“They come with good energy. They’re the reason that makes us want to do it again every year. When we do our signups table, they bring all the energy and a crowd by promoting it and all,” Murray said.

Both teams were equally as excited about being able to play in another powderpuff game in their lives. Black team player Francesca Stewart said it was another chance to play something she loves.

“I used to play flag football, so like this is kinda my thing anyways. I just wanted to be here and be involved and get into it and have fun.” Stewart said.

It wasn’t just a heat-of-the-moment thing for everybody though. Some of the ladies put in a couple of days of work to try to perform their best for the event.

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“We ran drills for like two days a week and figured out what we’re going to be running, we would learn the plays, and just get a feel of us as teammates in practice,” Stewart said.

For preparation, everybody needed to learn the basics before they could decide on teams, so everyone practiced in a group for a couple of weeks before the big game.

“They needed to learn how to catch, so we made them run straight, curve, and slant routes while trying to catch the ball. That was as a whole group before we split them up into teams with our draft. We chose female captains as well and they picked the teams, we’re just responsible for teaching them how to play,” Murray said.

The annual event is one of the features of what Alpha Phi Alpha calls “Alpha week” which coincides right along with homecoming week. Various events have already been going on like their “breakfast with bros event on Monday, as well as their Sunday church service. Murray said there is still plenty more to come throughout the week

“Tomorrow we’re gonna do a breast cancer walk before the concert, Thursday we have the block party where we collab with SVC and Friday is our annual step-show, and then the tailgate before the game followed by a pageant, which also helps allow females to highlight their talents on campus. There’s also a scholarship given out there from our fraternity if they win,” Murray said.

Many of the fraternity events will continue across campus throughout the week and everyone is free to enjoy the festivities hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha as well.

Sports editor Joseph Bernard can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Jojobernard2001. 

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