#rollerderbymarathon

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!