Commentary: Powderpuff more than just gridiron glory

By Natalie Clericuzio     8/19/10 7:00pm

During O-Week, new students are bombarded with advice from advisers, coordinators, fellows, head fellows, PAAs, diversity facilitators, masters and RAs. For the most part, this advice is helpful and does point new students in the right direction. However, if I could give one piece of advice to every female new student, it would be the best advice I received during my O-Week: Play powderpuff football. Some of you may think I'm crazy to regard this as the best piece of information I received during my O-Week, more than academic counseling, encouragement to get enough rest and to find balance in my life. And as a head fellow at Wiess College, I know that all of those things are important. But, encouragement from my fellows to play powderpuff was the advice that has made the biggest impact on my time at Rice.

I must confess, though, that I wasn't always so gung-ho about powderpuff. I mostly went to that first O-Week powderpuff practice because that's what everyone else was doing and I did not want to be left out. At the practice, I was hot, tired, nervous that I would mess up and afraid that if I sucked, someone would make fun of me.

Luckily, my fears were unfounded. The upperclassmen players were full of encouragement and the coaches did not make fun of me once, even though my arm strength was - let's be honest - non-existent and breaking down for flags did not come naturally. Even so, that first practice did not have me convinced.

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Out of peer pressure from my ppuff-playing suitemates, though, I kept attending practice. Eventually I was assigned to defense, where we had several upperclassmen ahead of me and there was little pressure that I would have to perform in a game-time situation.

In fact, if you were to ask any of my coaches from my freshmen year about me, they would have to tell you that I was not a standout. I was just the opposite. None of the footwork required of a cornerback made any sense to me. I was confused about my zones and I had trouble focusing on the flags and the ball in the air.

Despite all those struggles, after a year of powderpuff I was hooked. When the season ended, I couldn't wait for next year. The next year, we needed a safety and I decided to try it out and I've been playing that position ever since. Reflecting back on my first year on the team, though, I know that season helped me grow as much as any other experience my freshman year.

First of all, playing powderpuff pushed me outside my comfort zone - a lot. I'd gone to the same school since first grade and just coming to Rice was a big step for me. Playing powderpuff had me doing things I was not very good at in front of people I barely knew. Needless to say, I had butterflies before every practice for the first month of the season. Gradually, I came to realize that my coaches and the other players were happy that I was on the team, even if I wasn't an all-star as a freshman. It was OK that I wasn't the best player out there. And so I started to be less self-conscious and just tried to have fun.

Powderpuff helped bring me out of my freshman shell and bubble of self-consciousness. When you're messing up all the time, you can't afford to worry about what people think of you. You just have to put yourself out there and go for it. After that first season, I became more outgoing and more willing to try new activities. Knowing that my fellow Wiessmen will cheer no matter the outcome was a great boost to my self-confidence and helped me become more involved in my college.

Powderpuff is also a great way to stay active. While it might not be the most exhaustive sport to play, it's an easy way to work in some physical activity into a busy schedule. This was particularly helpful for me as I was still figuring out how to manage my time as I adjusted to the demands and schedules of college academics. In fact, on Thursdays, powderpuff practice came right after my Gen Chem lab, meaning I always had something to look forward to.

As I enter my last year at Rice, Wiess and playing powderpuff, I owe powderpuff for truly integrating me into my college community. I made many of closest friends at Wiess from the powderpuff team. And while cheer battles happen only at Beer Bike and O-Week, powderpuff games are once a week. So to all new Rice students, support your college's powderpuff teams on Sundays. And to all the new female Rice students out there, I encourage you to go to that first powderpuff practice. It could be the beginning of something great - I know it was for me.

Natalie Clericuzio is a Wiess College senior and Thresher sports editor.

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