#roccityrollerderby

It was a busy derby weekend for me. Friday we had the QCRG end of the seaon Awards Banquet. On Saturday I reffed 4 games in two different cities.  I reffed a double header with some of my favorite ref friends in Stratford, ON and then reffed another double header with some of  my other favorite ref friends in St. Catherine’s ON.  No....I’m not going to rank who are the better ref friends because both sets have had major influence and impact on my development as a ref and I can’t thank them enough. However I will say that one certain head ref has an obsession with “Hamilton the Musical” like I do and that might rank her up as my favorite ref ever.  Especially when she drove by as I was leaving, rolled her window down, stuck her fist up in the air and shouted “I’m not throwin away my shot!” 

 That was a lot of derby in one day for a person.  But that wasn’t the end of the derbz for me over the weekend. I played in my first scrimmage as a player on Sunday with the Flour City Fear and some of the wonderful people from ROC City Roller derby. Some of their A and B team players showed up and we mixed up the squads. It was a blast.

I was very nervous heading into it. Up until that point I had only participated in a handful of practices where I was allowed to hit or be hit. I definitely had the shakes lining up for my first jam.  Oh, did I mention I am a jammer?  My first jam I took some big hits. This was a lot of not being hit before and deer in the head lights wtf am I doing out here kind of stuff. But I kept pushing and I think I actually made it out of the pack. The next time jamming, I actually managed to get lead!  I’d like to say it was my amazing jammer skills and footwork that got me out first, truth be told it was my amazing blockers Schramm and Hater Tot that cleared the biggest lane in the history of roller derby for me to skate on through.

Getting lead is a wonderful rush. I don’t know how to explain it. I guess it would be like when you score a goal in hockey or soccer.  It makes you feel like a million bucks. From this point on I settled down on my nerves and concentrated on the game at hand.  I have a new found respect for forearm penalties.  As a ref you don’t realize how easy it is to get an arm up on someone or push them or accidentally grab them.  I probably committed 25 forearm penalties and I need to work on that.

At one point near the middle of the first half, I was jamming and I took a hit from one of the ROC Stars named Star Spangled Bam Her that felt like my skeleton had removed itself from my skin and was floating through the air away from me.  I got in in the 585 and I landed in the 716.  That is how hard I got hit.  I bounced right back up. I hurt...but damn it I wasn’t going to give up.  Again...somehow I think I ended up with lead on this jam but man did it hurt.  I proved to myself I can take a huge hit and keep on going.  I wanted to high 5 her after the jam but never got the chance to because I ended up taking a penalty and had to go to the penalty box between jams.

I could give you a play by play of the rest of the day but the gist of it is that I learned a lot, had fun, got hit and gave hits.  I was unsure about playing but no longer. I’ve got this.During the game our bench coach gave me feedback and I did my best to implement it into my game immediately. I love the fact that all the women who showed up from ROC City to play with us were so supportive. It was very easy to keep a positive attitude no matter what happened with that type of support. I can’t wait for my first games in Cleveland on July 23rd. It is going to be a blast!

It’s been almost a week since I have been able to skate. New member intake plus boot camp tomorrow. I am dying to get on my skates again. Of course, I now have a sick child who I am hoping will get better so I can go. Only derby related thing I did this week was NSO for another QCRG bout. Started to learn a new position: penalty timer.  A little more complicated than lineup tracker but that’s ok. I love learning new skills. And they almost got my name right during intros this time! We’ve only put on 10 of 32 bouts this season so there is plenty of time to get it right.

Proper Pronunciation 4 - Incorrect Pronunciation 4. This bout is neck and neck!

You may remember from the last blog that I passed my assessments enough to move on and join the refs practice. Sadly, this past week, the refs practice was cancelled because the Furies take the Thursdays after there is a bout on on a Wednesday. This bummed me out. I was looking forward to making a fool out of myself for the first time on the Riverworks track. I thought about asking Rochester if I could join them for their ref practice on Tuesday night but I want my first ref practice to be with my league.

I’ve begun plotting a way to new skates because as my skates get older, my feet are moving around within the boot. I wear thick socks as it is. My next step is two socks but if I get a skate that I can try on first that is a better fit instead of ordering from amazon, I’ll be better off. I need to find time to make it into the skate shop though.

If anyone is looking for derby related podcasts, I found a good one: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/derby-rocz-podcast  Rochester Rollerderby puts on this production and they do it on a weekly basis. It is pretty entertaining and they have good on air chemistry. I may have marathonned the heck out of it this week at work. So if you are looking for some derby related entertainment, check them out. You won’t regret it.

Looking forward to this week. New member intake tomorrow (knock on wood), ref practice Thursday (weather depending) and maybe even fit a Tuesday practice in there as well.  

No pictures this week. My phone died and it took time to get a new one.

I feel this post is important because when I told a family member that someone close to me played roller derby and that I was going to try to become a ref, they responded with “Isn’t it only women who are brutes that play?” I was taken aback a bit by this comment but then I thought about my own misconceptions about the sport before I started to learn myself.

So who plays roller derby? Preschool teachers, college students, stay at home moms, counselors, college professors, accountants, former hockey players, wives, baristas, floral designers, former figure skaters, bar tenders, photographers, teenagers, 20 year olds, 30 year olds, 40 year olds, 50 year olds, bus drivers, the popular one, the quiet one, the wallflower, the loud one, vegans, carnivores, omnivores, servers, lawyers, doctors, scientists, nurses, Americans, Canadians, British, Australians, Finnish, etc. You’d be surprised who plays.  

Perhaps the best thing about roller derby is that most, if not all, of the organizations are member run. Members of a league are ask to pay monthly dues and purchase yearly insurance to be able to skate in their respective leagues. On top of that, most leagues require some sort of volunteer time from its members to assist in the operation of the league. They do their own recruiting, training, promoting, event planning, community outreach, marketing, fund raising and much much much more. Even the main sanctioning body, WFTDA, is a grassroots organization that was built from the members up. Many leagues practice and play at local roller skating rinks, ball hockey arenas or even out doors if an indoor facility isn’t available. With the growth of the sport, some teams have even been able to move into derby specific venues. Queen City Roller Girls (QCRG) recently moved into a 15 million dollar facility at the Riverworks entertainment venue in Buffalo, NY that was built for the purpose of roller derby and nothing else.  ROC City Roller Derby recently moved into their own space in Rochester, NY.

This video that features people from Denver Roller Derby perhaps is the best I have seen that explains who and why people play roller derby: