A Fond Farewell

Next week, our Warehouse is scheduled for demolition.

This place has been our home as long as I've been a part of the Charlotte Roller Girls. Unlike many of teammates, I came after the days where we practiced at Kate's. I had already decided I wanted to join when I saw that the Charlotte Roller Girls were moving to NoDa. That really settled it for me. Not only did I want to do this sport, but now they were in my backyard.

I have only ever known the Warehouse. It was dusty, dirty, possibly moldy, dark, and dank. The stairs to the bathroom were rickety and terrifying. The door was heavy and quirky. The neighborhood is not great, and we had some sketchy experiences. I'll never forget the night I was first slated to take my Day 2 assessments and the lights went out. We spent the rest of the practice doing an offskates workout...in the dark.

But the space was ours. We had access to it 24/7. I went to as many practices as I could and cherished the hell out of our space. We settled in over the past 3 years, made it our home. We decorated it and stored our stuff there. I kept my gear and skates in my locker for a while.

In the name of progress, the city is expanding their lightrail project. It's going north. We've known about this, but were told they wouldn't need to demolish our nearly historic facility. Suddenly, we heard otherwise. In mid-November, they let us know that we would be expected to vacate by December 31st. We did so, and the building is on the demo list for January 12th.

This place means so much to me and my teammates. It's where I honed my skating skills. It's where I learned to play roller derby. It's where I learned to play with a team. It's where I've practiced weekly since beginning my journey in 2010.

I have a lot of sadness about losing our home, but I know this is an opportunity for us. This is an opportunity for us to grow our league in new ways. The year starts off with a bang and a crash and can only go up from here. I'm excited to see what 2014 will hold for us. Check out the Charlotte Roller Girls this year. All home bouts will still be at Grady Cole!

Ok, I'm Young. Enough.

Disclaimer: These are my opinions. If you're offended, I don't care.

I am one the youngest skaters in my league. And I have been for a while. I joined shortly after turning 19 (the required age at the time). I was the youngest for some time until a high school classmate of mine joined recently.

So I get a lot of those, "Are you even old enough to drink?" kind of jokes. (For the record, I am.) And they get under my skin a little bit. It undermines my achievements when people belittle me because of my age. Not only am I one of the youngest skaters in the league, I am also the youngest member of the Board of Directors, the youngest member of the Training Committee, and the youngest member of the All-Stars Charter.. My youth has never been something that stopped me from succeeding.

Without getting too philosophical, young skaters are the future. A lot of leagues spend time and energy training Juniors to feed into the adult team and help take over when the trainers start retiring. There's plenty of youth in this sport and young skaters will keep coming as long as roller derby keeps being awesome.

I'm young, sure, but I'm making a difference. I have no power over when I was born. And I'm pretty tired of the jibes. I will respect you if you respect me. Thanks.

Ref Love

I'd like to talk about refs.

I've recently started reffing on the side. Our head ref was loaning his skills and asked if I'd be available to ref a men's bout. I am a skater who is reffing. I am a skater who happens to know the rules pretty well and has a whistle. As a trainer, I'm used to looking for penalties during practice.

Refs are volunteers, just like the rest of us. If they're lucky, they get a travel stipend to go to an away bout, but often not. They don't get all the glory that skaters do. They keep reffing to make sure that we skaters are safe.

So when skaters yell at refs, it de-values what they're doing. I know that there's a higher percentage of men's skaters who are refs, but please refrain from calling penalties while on the track. We spent a long time at our practices stressing that even when we don't have a lot of refs, we on the track need to not be calling the penalties ourselves.

When skaters yell at me, it makes me not want to ref that team again. Our refs are extremely valuable, let's do everything we can to retain them. Before you start to yell something at a ref, I urge you to remember, that they are watching the feet, forearms, heads, chests, directions...etc of up to 10 skaters on the track while skating in close proximity to other refs and often avoiding skaters going out of bounds. It's a lot to think about and I ASSURE you that yelling at them doesn't help.

Please thank your refs. Buy them beers at the afterparties. Include them in your league functions. Thank them and thank them again. Make sure that your refs know that you appreciate their efforts and couldn't do it without them.


Signing off,
Reffin' Rita

Monday Syndrome

Mondays, after a weekend of derby, are some of the toughest days I ever fight through.

Here's my thinking: I've spent the weekend kicking ass and taking names. I laid the floor that I skated on. I shut down the jammer and allowed my jammer to get lead. I hit people with my butt. I afterpartied hard with the people who had just been my enemies. Then maybe we had a hangover scrimmage or endurance practice the next day. I'm applying things I've learned and revelling in the derby that happened.

And then Monday rolls around. I go to work where people yell at me because I'm not a mind reader. I'm sorry there wasn't enough chicken on your salad. That was the amount of chicken you paid for. Totally out of my control.

Anybody else have the Monday Syndrome? What do you do to cope (besides go to scrimmage)?

What I Love About Roller Derby...

...is everything really.

But specifically, I've been mulling over something.

I never played sports as a child, other than those I was forced to in my Phys Ed curriculum (which, let's face it, there weren't a lot, I went to art school). When I arrived at middle school, I briefly entertained the notion of trying out for a sport. But you need to know how to do a sport before you can try out. Even cheerleading has basic requirements, which I lacked.

But roller derby? You don't need to know how the game is played, or even how to skate. If you have the desire to do it and a good attitude, we'll teach you the rest.  You'll learn the game and how to play it.

Roller derby is unique in that aspect. Any adult female (and in some places, male) can pick up a pair of skates and some safety equipment and be well on her way to playing roller derby.

I want to thank roller derby for being so open. For allowing me, who participated in musical theatre and dance in school over sports, to start playing a team sport at 19 and allow my drive to propel me to our charter team.

Also, welcome to all the Charlotte Roller Girls new recruits. I hope you love the sport as much as I do.

On This Day in Derby...

One year ago today, the Charlotte Roller Girls hosted a doubleheader. It was their third of the year. In March, the All-Stars lost to Tallahassee while B-Dazz posted a monumental score against Camel City. In May, the All-Stars beat Little City, while B-Dazz were defeated by Star City.

The opponents for June 9th were tough. Initially billed as a doubleheader against the New River Valley Rollergirls, until NRV let us know they wouldn't have enough skaters for two full rosters. Our ILC was tasked with finding a last-minute opponent for B-Dazz. The LowCountry HighRollers' Bruisin Betties turned out to be available. So the games were set.

This bout also marked the first time that the A game was first, a trend we continued for 2013.

The All-Stars started hard against NRV. They pulled ahead and maintained a lead for the duration.

B-Dazz took the already-warm track next. We were nervous, certainly. LCHR had swiftly defeated us at their house in February. But they weren't quite the same team we'd faced previously. They made small mistakes, which we capitalized on. We kept the momentum going the whole game. And we beat the Betties by approximately the same point spread they'd beat us by earlier in the year.

This doubleheader marked the first time both teams won at home in 2012.

In 2013, we're undefeated at home. Hope to continue that trend on June 23rd when the All-Stars play Soul City and the B-Dazzlers take on Kannapolis!

2013: Some Thoughts

I never did follow up with my Champs blog, despite e fact that I now have an iPad Mini...perfect for blogging on the go! But I do have some thoughts for the impending new year.

Firstly, it's time to update my gear. And one of these days, I'll figure out what I want. I am on the 265 boot with the DynaPro plate. I need a new plate, for sure. I'm intrigued by the Antik Spyder skate (well mostly the boot). I kind of want Antiks. A lot. But what plate? New skate totally? Is it worth it? This is the argument that's happening in the back of my mind daily. Also I aim to try new wheels in 2013, since I always manage to come back to Poisons.

New rules! I'm thrilled that the new rules are out. And more than a little scared. Like a lot of derby girls (and boys), I've only played under the May 2010 set of rules. I've heard of the times when rule updates were yearly if not more often. I don't love No Minors, but have been behind single whistle since we beta tested it at a scrimmage last year. But it does mean new strategies. I've played a scrimmage under the new rules and look forward to playing with my team when we get back from break.

That's all I got for now, but let me know your thoughts on gear and rules!