Football will be played at Houchens-Smith Stadium Wednesday night – but it will look a little different from what WKU fans are used to.

WKU’s Campus Activities Board has spent the past month prepping for its first annual powderpuff football game. The CAB has been able to recruit four teams, which have been practicing daily to take home the powderpuff championship title.

“We practice like every day,” Denaleigh Starks-Scott, a player, said. “I don’t necessarily believe in ‘practice makes perfect’. I believe in, ‘perfect practice makes perfect’.”

Starks-Scott’s team has been prepping at a park off campus for the past week, with practices lasting anywhere from an hour to three hours.

“I feel like we’ve [gone] over plays and tried to execute them to the best of our ability, which is all we can do,” Starks-Scott said. “We’ll just go to the field and leave it all out on the field.”

Powderpuff is a unique twist on flag football, played by female students and coached by male students. Each team has around 10 to 15 players with only seven players competing on the field at a time.

CAB put up fliers in the Downing Student Union to recruit players, coaches and referees for the game. An interest meeting was then held to start putting the teams together, getting coaches ready and training the referees.

“It took a lot of time. We had to find students who wanted to play, we also had to find students that wanted to coach, and we had to find students that wanted to be referees,” CAB member ShyAnte’e Williams said. “It’s taken a lot of time; we’ve been able to reserve the football stadium. That took a lot of work as well, but it’s definitely been worth it.” 

CAB planned the game as a way to get students more involved on campus at large. 

“We’re just hoping that it will get students more familiar with the Campus Activities Board and come out to more of our events that will allow students to engage outside of the classroom,” Williams said. 

A lot of planning and practice has gone into making the tournament possible. CAB and the teams participating are very excited. 

“I think you’re in for a treat. Everybody’s been working really hard,” Starks-Scott said. 

WKU students are invited to watch the game for free, which will be taking place Wednesday, Sept. 28 in Houchen-Smith Stadium at 7:30 p.m. CT. There will be two games going at once and the winners of those two games will then compete against each other for the championship title.

News reporter Izzy Lanuza can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @izzylanuza.