My First Derby Bout!

Saturday I suited up and hit the rink for the first time. Although I’ve been training for this for months, I still woke up that morning incredibly nervous. Many of the girls told me this was a great first bout: we were holding a “mix-up” game of players from across our league. The teams were formed to each include players of different skill levels, and it was the opportunity to play with people from other teams (we have three home teams within our league). The game also didn’t count for team standings, so there was less pressure to win.

The “Mix Mash Smash Bash” teams were the Stock Market Crashers, the Economic Meltdowns and the Bailout Bombshells. The evening was organized as a round-robin, with each of the three teams playing against each other for a half hour. I was on the Stock Market Crashers team.

The game was at the Denver Coliseum. Whereas we practice on wood, we were playing on concrete. I made sure to arrive at the venue early to get some practice in on the different surface. The Coliseum was really warm: we managed to get fans pointed at the benches but it wasn’t the most comfortable.

Our team brought different food for the locker room: water, powerade, skittles, cut oranges and lara and luna bars. I stopped at Country Buffet before the event to carb-up. It was weird for me to be getting ready for an event in the evening: my standard practices of pasta the night before didn’t seem to be appropriate.

I was very nervous leading up to the event, but we had two of the members of the Mile High Club, Rockett and Wicked Sister working the bench for us. They set up our lines, made sure we kept track of who was in the penalty box and gave us coaching while we were skating. With 14 girls on our team and five on the track at a time, they had me go out the very first jam! So much for nerves!

Within a few jams, they gave me the illustrious star helmet cover. The jammer is the member of the team that wears the star, and is the only skater eligible to score points. Even with my uncertainty skating on the concrete surface (we were all sliding a little around the corners), I still managed to put the speed on. The first time I jammed I managed to get a penalty, but still well enough that I jammed several times over the course of the game.
One of the new rules for WFTDA 4.0 ruleset involves a situation where both jammers get penalties. It actually came into play in this game: both Honey Punches of Throats and I had three minor penalties when the jam started (you are sent to the box for your 4th minor). I got mine first and was headed to the box. I don’t even think I’d sat down when Honey got a penalty. The new rule says that I would therefore be released as soon as Honey got to the box, and then she would serve the same amount of time as I had. (generally penalties are a minute long).
Our team did really well, beating the Economic Meltdowns (a.k.a the white team) 115-65.

Then we were off for awhile while the other two teams played. While some players thought we were at a disadvantage because we would cool down between the bouts, I was thankful for the break! By the end of the half hour, I was definitely tired. A couple friends had come to watch me, so I visited with them, then some of us sat to watch the other game for awhile. It was a much closer game, and we didn’t know how it was going to end up when we started our warmup. In the end, the Meltdowns beat the Bombshells 87-71.

Then we started our own game against the Bombshells. The Bombshells had some really strong players, and it was definitely much more of a challenging game. I haven’t yet learned how to take hits well, and with the slippery concrete I fell into the bumpers 3-4 times over the course of the evening.

Disco and I hitting the bumpers

One of their biggest hitters, Primal Rage, definitely got into my head. (Hey, her bio even says one of her most well-known traits is her “ability to launch skaters into the crowd”). I took a good fall at one point that really shook me up. I wasn’t hurt at all, just unnerved. Although the first game had gone so well, this one shook me up a bit and I had to sit a few jams out to regroup. We had a few of the coaches helping us this time, and the guys were really great at giving me the time I needed. When I was ready to go back in, I gave the disclaimer that I didn’t want to go out if Primal was out, so they subbed in Moira Lee Devoid for me when they saw Primal hit the rink. I’ve never really been a team sport sorta gal and never had a coach for anything so I was really thankful with how supportive and accepting they were. Within a jam or two I offered to don the star helmet again, my fears (mostly) allayed. With less than two minutes to go, our team was down by 10 (87-77). Knowing how important this last jam was, the captain and co-captain of the Mile High Club were put on the jammer line as a showdown. Our jammer, Ariel “Crash Dance” Quigley took the lead, and lapped the pack several times. Our team did an amazing job at keeping Tracy “Disco” Akers from getting through the pack in order to be eligible to score. After a few quick laps, Crash called the jam off, and all of us held our breath and the scoreboard updated…. 77…79…81…83.
Final score: Bombshells 87, Crashers 83.

So, our tournament ended up with all three teams winning one game, and two of them were incredibly close. It was great derby, I’m sure much more thrilling than some of our recent games (Green Barrettes 297, Slaughterhouse 12, or Mile High Club 313, West Texas 48). Overall, I felt like it was a good game. While I had a little bit of a freakout in the second bout, I need to remember that this was my first bout, and I’m playing against some pretty incredible skaters (the Mile High Club is ranked by Derby News Network as 6th in the nation).

My next bout will be in September, and I’ll play with my home team, the Green Barrettes. While yesterday was fun, I know I have plenty to learn and I look forward to seeing how the next time goes!