Athletic Director Matt Shomper’s secret recipe for success is — in fact — no secret at all.
Ask any of the 1,500 or so paying fans in attendance at Tipp City’s City Park on Thursday night, Oct. 1, for the annual Junior-Senior Powder puff football game and they would probably tell you:
In terms of sustaining athletic excellence over a period of time, it really does take a village to get the job done.
The winning elements
• Consider Junior class head coach Kyle Pignatiello. He’s been planning to be coach in the Powder puff football game since he was in the eighth grade. He has developed a playbook and a passion for this particular contest.
• Consider all of the other student coaches, who haven’t devoted their lives to this game as Pignatiello has, but who donate their personal time for charity just the same.
• Consider the many dedicated band boosters and parents who manned the concession stands.
• Consider “Parents Who Care” another booster-driven organization that sponsors an appreciation dinner for both teams after the game every year.
• Consider people such as Jerry Eberle, who volunteers to referee the game in conjunction with volunteers from the school faculty each and every year.
• And finally, consider the volunteer student managers and team captains who organize team practices and who also design commemorative T-shirts for sale before and after the game.
Friday night lights
A question for readers to ponder: If an athletic program functions on this level in semi-private on a Thursday night, it should come as no surprise when it functions on a high level on Friday nights when everyone is looking.
“Our annual powder puff football game was started almost 30 years ago by the student senate and it is still sponsored by them today,” said Jan Bishop, an 11th and 12th grade English teacher as well as a faculty advisor.
“The girls take the game very seriously and the event showcases their athletic ability and sportsmanship.”
All one has to witness is the crowd’s reaction to the somewhat scripted antics of Joe “The Banana Man” Spears on the sidelines and during the halftime break.
It takes a very big man to wear the funky yellow banana suit in public.
“The students actually have a banana cheer that they do at all of the games,” Bishop said, laughing.
“In fact the whole school did it together at the homecoming pep assembly on Friday afternoon and it is pretty impressive en masse.”
Impressive indeed.
The final score on Thursday night was Seniors 22, Juniors 0 — a tie game.
Everyone won at City Park that night.
Contact this writer with story ideas at hotair@hotmail.com.
About the Author