Puppy Satisfied

So I've been struggling with a lot of things in regards to my derby career recently. I am played equally as a jammer and blocker. I don't have a wall I go in with regularly or anything. It's caused me a lot of strife.

But today I went up and participated in the Scrimmage-A-Fun hosted by the Carolina Roller Girls. It was a morning of fun scrimmages for NC skaters (I think a few SC ladies snuck in too) including a couple of bouts where CRG skaters took on teams of NC skaters.

I was in the Coast v. Mountains, Bruce Lee v. Chuck Norris, and the Rookies scrimmages initially. The way CRG handled people dropping out was that if you wanted to play in a scrimmage, you sat all geared up, with both shirts, near the jammer line. I felt like 3 scrimmages (out of 6) was enough for me. I've had some problems with my feet lately (um, my metatarsals shifted?).

My teams lost the first two bouts, but I felt good about it. I skated with some of North Carolina's best skaters. And I made a bunch of friends.

So the Rookies bout rolls around. From the Charlotte Roller Girls, we had Hitsteria, Nita Beer, Devlin Syder, Unleasha Monster, MzBehavin Mama, and myself. It was nice to work with my teammates. I was hearing foreign terms all day, so when I said something like "Thirty-one," it was nice to know someone knew what I meant. I heard the CRG Rookies. They had a coach they knew and a cheer. I was intimidated. But we NC Rookies worked well together. We got an early lead, I think it was 53-28. We did wind up winning, but the CRG ladies didn't make it easy.

We had some of the NC B-teamers ask a few of us rookies to stay in white for the next bout, the Carolina Bootleggers vs. the NC Rookies.They asked Devlin, myself, Hits, and someone else to move up. We found ourselves facing the creme de la creme of Carolina's skaters. Their roster included Elektra Q. Tion, Sheeza Freak, Beth Row, Erna Beatin...it was a tough group. We worked together, we played smart, but it was tough. We fought for every point we posted and had some difficulties with penalties. I mean it was a long day and we were all tired. I went to the penalty box only once across my 4 scrimmages. But we did our best. I gotta say I love the floor at Skate Ranch. I got hit and I would wobble, BUT I never fell. I took blocks from some of their heavy hitters. I remember Q coming up on me and leaning on me and I was just determined, "I am NOT going down."

It was a great day. I only had a minor problem with anyone I skated with/against. And it made me feel better about what I've been doing in derby lately. Thanks CRG for hosting us AND for the excellent pork.