The 16th annual Kati Fisher NHS Powderpuff game will be held today, Nov. 4, honoring a former Northwest R-1 School District student and raising money for scholarships.
The game will be at 6 p.m. at the high school football field, 6005 Cedar Hill Road, in Cedar Hill. Admission is $5.
Kati Fisher was 13 and a seventh-grader at Valley Middle School when she died from a heart condition in 2006, said her father, Bob Fisher, a longtime Northwest High School science teacher who retired in 2017.
He said the game has raised $150,000 in scholarship money over the past 15 years.
All the money from admission fees and shirt sales go toward scholarships for Northwest High seniors, Bob Fisher said.
T-shirts cost $15, crewneck sweatshirts $20 and hooded sweatshirts $25, and they will be sold at the game, Bob said.
He said the event also brings in a lot of donations. In all, the event typically raises about $10,000 a year, he said.
Fisher said the money funds scholarships for 13 or 14 kids every year. Seniors must apply in the counselor’s office.
“It’s not based off GPA or anything like that because it’s based off the things that were important to my daughter, like being involved in school activities and extracurricular activities,” he said
Fisher said while Kati had a heart condition it never held her back.
“She played softball, she was a cheerleader, she did Girl Scouts,” he said. “She pretty much participated in any activity.”
The powderpuff games pits Northwest High senior girls against junior girls.
Fisher, who was the high school’s head football coach from 2003-2006, said he oversees the game, but his wife, Nancy Fisher, a secretary for the Northwest High counselor’s office, organizes it.
Members of the Northwest High football team serve as coaches.
Fisher said seniors have won the game every year except 2009, when the juniors won.
“(The seniors) have done it a year before so they know how things work and usually about halfway through the game the junior starts figuring it out,” he said.
Fisher said the game was held last year, but not until the spring because of COVID-19.
Fisher still is a coach for the Northwest High football team, and he is a substitute teacher.