Girls of the gridiron

By Shane Mettlen

Published: November 17, 2008

Temperatures were near freezing Monday night, but that didn’t cool off the enthusiasm students at Eastern View and Culpeper High Schools had for the annual powder puff football games.

The charity event at Eastern View’s Cyclone Stadium featured teams from both schools with the junior girls from EVHS and CCHS taking each other on in the first game and seniors having their chance at the nightcap. Proceeds from the event went to the American Cancer Society and the Free Health Clinic of Culpeper.

“I wish I could say that when I was in high school I was thinking about the kind of fund raising that the kids at these two schools are doing, but I wasn’t,” EVHS principal Roger Mello said. “To see them out here trying to raise money is really inspiring, and they are having a lot of fun while they are doing it.”

Mello and his CCHS counterpart, Jeff Dietz, also got into the act. Between games the two principals faced off in a wing eating competition sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings. The two men put on quite a show, eating a combined 16 wings in one minute — Mello won by finishing 10 himself — but it was the students’ night at Cyclone Stadium.

“It’s good to see each other in a different light,” Dietz said. “You know, it’s not every day you get to try to go through 12 chicken wings in a minute. I was pretty impressed he got through 10 of them.”

With the girls making their moves on the field, boys from each school put on their favorite skirts and served as the cheerleaders. For Culpeper senior Matt Bennett it was an opportunity to goof off a little after a long, hard football season of his own.

“It’s fun to be out here and get to mess around with the other school,” Bennett said. “You get to see friends that you don’t get to see most of the year. It’s different because a lot of people we would have done this with last year are over at Eastern View now, but we get to go at them and it is a little competition.”

Not that the competition on the field was the focus. Students from both schools milled around the grounds enjoying pizza and other concessions and kids played on the inflatable castle. Quite a few in attendance missed it when the Eastern View juniors scored with less than a minute left to win 30-28. EVHS also won the senior game 20-8, but players on both sides left in good spirits.

“It’s good to be out here playing like this,” EVHS junior Miesha Brock said. “Nobody gets mad at anybody or anything. It’s good competition, but it’s fun.”

Shane Mettlen can be reached at 825-0771, ext. 127 or