This past Thursday, the junior and senior girls squared off at Richard Harper Memorial Field in an intense flag football competition. The experienced senior girls team had an apparent advantage going into the game with 40 players on the roster and some impressive athleticism across the board. The juniors, on the other hand, came in with only 14, and despite having a lot of talent, had the difficult task of taking down the seniors.
The game kicked off, and within the first two minutes, the seniors were on the scoreboard with a trick play running touchdown by Cara Anderson ‘24. It was a brilliant strategy drawn up by the senior coaches that was perfectly executed by the team. After a failed two-point attempt by the seniors, the junior girls got the ball and put together a good drive down the field. Unfortunately, they fell just short – only twenty yards from the end zone – and had to punt the ball back to the seniors.
The juniors were not done yet, though, and their defense came to play. With 11 minutes left to go, Zel Vranka ‘25 made an amazing interception to deny the seniors any chance to march down the field. With the ball back in their hands, it seemed as though quarterback Melissa Purcella ‘25 would lead the juniors in another offensive drive to tie the game up. Again, though, the senior defense held strong and the juniors were unable to break through. With yet another possession change, the seniors had it at their own twenty yard-line. Then, senior quarterback Vela Fine ‘24 took the snap and handed it off to fellow senior Piper Wiese ‘24 who sped past the junior defense and into the end zone in what was an 80-yard touchdown run.
After another missed two-point conversion attempt by the seniors, the juniors got the ball back, hoping to stop the seniors from running away with the game. Despite some good attempts to attack the seniors, the junior coaches could not come up with a play to break down the senior defense, which proved to be basically impenetrable all night long.

The seniors had the ball back once more with only two minutes left in the half, hoping that they could take the game out of reach of the juniors by halftime. But, in the final seconds of the half, Elliot Steeples ‘24 launched a throw down the field towards a receiver that was picked off by junior Isabella Romero ‘25. Romero ran the ball back almost 20 yards and was close to making it a pick six, but unfortunately was forced out only five yards from the endzone, marking the end of the first half. As the clouds began to creep in around the stadium, it was the boys’ turn to take over and show their cheerleading prowess.
Dressed in white crop tops and short black shorts, the junior boys looked ready to win – until the senior boys walked in wearing firefighter outfits. The seniors quickly took the lead with some well-choreographed moves and some great individual dancers. But the juniors were not willing to shy away from the competition, and where they lacked in dancing skill they made up for in their unbridled enthusiasm and energy they carried throughout the entire dance-off.
Even through the pouring rain, the two teams continued to dance until finally it was announced that the final dances would be done inside of Simms, unfortunately also canceling the rest of the game. The teams carried on, but despite the juniors’ best efforts, they were no match for the seniors.
The rest of the night, students in the 10-12 division watched amazing skits from clubs and sports across Academy and finished off an awesome Homecoming spirit night. But we will never know what could’ve happened in the final half of the game. Could the juniors’ have made a spectacular comeback or would the seniors have continued with their winning ways?