Derby Tour Update 2011

I've done a craptastic job of updating this blog regularly, as in most of 2010 was missing. I'm trying to pick back up the slack and get back to regular updating, but one of the fun projects has fallen seriously out-of-date.

In case you don't remember, I started my Derby Tour project in 2009 when I began skating with DDG. The tour includes away bouts in other cities as well as my random drop-in to a league practice in another city that I may be wandering through.

Since I'm a few months behind in this blog in terms of my derby-associated travel, let me update my travel summaries....

1. Sin City Rollergirls -- Las Vegas, NV [April 2009, April 2010, June 2010]
   
2. Ohio Rollergirls -- Columbus, OH [April 2009]
   
3. Roller Girls of Southern Indiana -- Evansville, IN [May 2009]
   
4. Hard Knox Rollergirls -- Knoxville, TN [June 2009]
   
5. Sintral Florida Derby Demons -- Orlando/De Land, FL [June 2009, July 2009]
   
6. Nashville Rollergirls -- Nashville, TN [July 2009, 2010]
   
7. Memphis Roller Derby -- Memphis, TN [August 2009]
   
8. Mobile Roller Derby -- Mobile, AL [August 2009]
   
9. Classic City Rollergirls -- Athens, GA [September 2009]
   
10. Carolina Rollergirls -- Raleigh, NC [November 2009]
    
11. Chattanooga Rollergirls -- Chattanooga, TN [December 2009]
12. Burn City Rollers -- Phenix City, AL [February 2010]
13. Oklahoma Victory Dolls -- Oklahoma City, OK [March 2010]
14. Houston Roller Derby-- Houston, TX [May 2010]
15. No Coast Derby Girls -- Lincoln, NE [June 2010]
16. Green Country Rollergirls -- Tusla, OK [June 2010]
17. Panama City Roller Derby -- Panama City, FL [September 2010]
18. Tallahassee Rollergirls -- Tallahassee, FL [September 2010]
19. Little City Rollergirls -- Johnson City, TN [June 2011]

I'm back to tagging all Derby World Tour stops and compiling a map... look out for future stops! And if you have any "Gotta See It" suggestions on stops I need to make, let hear them in the comments section!

Puerto Rico poster!

I'm getting excited!

Puerto Rico or BUST!

One of the great things I love about Roller Derby is the fact that its a hobby that allows us all a new avenue to travel and explore different areas. This was the inspiration behind my "Derby Tour" project, to skate with as many teams as I could all across the country... and the WORLD. (I need to do some updating of my Derby Tour notes, yikes I'm behind)

To that effect, I was majorly bummed to have missed the trip last year to Hawaii with the rest of the girls, but always wanted to make a trip to my homeland of Puerto Rico and have been searching for a start-up team there for some time now.

Thanks to the wonder of Facebook, not only did I find a team there.... I found several! They've organized together into the Tropic Terrors of Puerto Rico. This consists of about 5-6 teams spread out across the island in San Juan, Mayaguez, Ponce, Arecibo, Bayamón, Caguas... a BUNCH of rising derby on a pretty small little island! That's exciting to me!

The Reckless Bandidas in San Juan is the team that I have been working with on a Pan-American game versus DDG. They are all very new to derby there, and will be using this as one of their first public debuts to the sport. We've set up a bout for October 22 in San Juan, and are really excited to be skating on the island!

So.... there's a bunch to do in just a short time to get there, and a few of us DDG's are trying to come up with some ways to support getting the team there. Look out for a benefit show to be announced soon!

In the mean time, if you can help throw a few coins into my Puerto Rico or Bust piggy bank below, I'd be MUCHO grateful!

WEPA!

Skate Wars Return: The Fempire Strikes Back!

Well, I'm slacking again on updates, FOR SHAME!

This bout was our annual Skate Wars saga bout, with this year's episode being The Fempire Strikes Back! The inner geek in me loves this bout... we get the added excitement of the Storm Troopers and Darth Vader breathing down our necks that the fans (and us) just eat up.

Our B-team was taking on the Tragic City Rollers B-team from Birmingham, AL while the All-Star team faced the Louisville, KY Derby City Rollergirls.

The B-team did a fantastic job, and just fell short after some tough jammer-in-the-box plays. Man, they were really making some great improvements! Excited that they are coming into their own now!

I had the honor of being voted our co-captain for the second game in a row, which means I got the fun task of figuring out a game plan for our line-ups. Talk about a bajillionty scenarios! What to do if Skater X gets injured, if Skater Y is in penalty trouble, if Skater Z has to cover for X, and who is going to JAM?!? Its a complicated chore and in my OCD about readiness, I think we came up with a million What-IF lineups.

Not that it means much in the throes of bout-dom. That chaos is impossible to predict, and even the best laid plans are often little consolation. Thank God for level-headed crews!

So for this bout, we gained back some of our veteran blockers that had been missing, and it was decided that I would concentrate on jamming this game, instead of tiring myself out by blocking too.

I was in a 3 jammerish rotation of sorts, which gave me time to really watch what was happening on the track. The first half was really crappy for me. Derby City started walling-up in the back and would be 4 across right in the middle of the first turn. That gave me zero room to A) gain speed, and B) avoid the giant wall of 'gina without taking some massive stop-dead-in-your-tracks hits. For most of the first half, I'd have to fight my way through slowly. I missed getting lead 3 times, and would have to call off the jam early if I got it to keep DCRG from scoring. I managed about 13 points in the first half, figuring out by about the last jam of the period that the wall wasn't a strong as it appeared and coming through the middle was pretty easy after a quick little juke to the outside.

With that little gem of information, the second half was all a different story for me. The blockers were doing great at breaking that initial wall up, and being able to go in an just grab those quick 3 and 4 to zero jams were slowly adding up. Unfortunately, I was the only DDG jammer to score in the second half, and they just didn't add up enough for the win. We ended up losing, 53-104. It gets frustrating, we know we are a good team, but just can't pull it out on game day.

Here's a little highlight reel from Rocktt Xtra:

After seeing that, I know of a few things I want to "tweek" myself in my game.

Thanks to all the great fans that came out to support us! We really appreciate all of you!

PERSONAL GAME STATS:

• Skated in 13 out of 43 jams (30.23% of the game), all as a jammer.
  
• Of the 13 jams, declared lead jammer 10 times (76.92%)
• Scored a total of 31 points in the game, an average of 2.38 points per jam
• Plus/Minus was +9
• Highest scoring jammer of bout
  
• Highest +/- of bout, the only jammer for DDG in positive
• Highest lead percentage
  
• Only DDG jammer to score in the second period
  
• Only 1 minor back-block in the bout.
  

Up Next: An away bout vs Little City in Johnson City, TN, then its Greased Lightning time for Summer Fights on July

Dixie Derby was RAPTURED!

All in good fun, we decided to get in on the #RaptureBomb fun!

NO PACK!

Because we all know refs don't get raptured!


ROLLER DERBY REALLY DID SAVE MY SOUL!

A weekend to remember

I'm sure plenty are aware of the situation in Northern Alabama as a result of the marathon of storms to hit this region on 4/27/11.

But there is positive news to come out of the tragedy, and this is OUR story as team and the kindness and outpouring of love and support from the derby community:

Please read my Examiner.com article: Not Even a Tornado can break derby bond and spirits.

No words.

There are no words to describe how angry this makes me that someone could do this.

Meet Lori, aka Lmbr Timber Onu of Emerald Coast Roller Derby, was victim of a severe domestic violence attack on April 23, 2011. Lori is having surgery to repair broken eye sockets, nose and cheek bones. She faces a long recovery and mounting medical bills with no medical insurance. ECRD and many other people who love Lori are planning events and fundraisers to help.

PayPal link to help Lori:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_sxclick&hosted_button_id=36EF74RAATAZS

You may also send donations to:
First Citizens National Bank
Attn: Scott Luce
391 Main Street, Genesee PA 16923

Checks need to be made payable to : Kristine Milkeris-Smith

Please write : "Lori Milkeris medical" in the memo line.

More information at Lori's Aid Facebook Page