Fun at Eastern Regionals

Miss Ida

Rev. Al Mighty & Ida Felternatch

Miss Ida, one of our announcers who is really starting to make it big in the announcing world (she also announced for Central New York this season), announced her first ever WFTDA tournament this weekend. Paired up with one of my favorites, Rev. Al Mighty, she grabbed her microphone and didn't look back. I'm way proud of her and hoping she'll announce at Nationals, too!

Great showing by the Hellions of Troy
I attended the event with fellow veterans Flexi, Shockratease, and Mathundra Storm, as well as die-hard derby supporters (HoT and announcers!) Eloda Sarcasm and Miss Ida Feltersnatch. Referee Miranda Wrights was also volunteering at the event, and upcoming HoT refs Beau T. Call and Luci D. Dream also came down on Sunday to watch.

Not only that, but we had a whole bunch of FRESH MEAT make the trip down on Saturday to catch the action. Road Kill, Chicken Florentine, Rock Lobster, Snausage, Hassenfeffer, Soyrizo, and Souvlaki (in case you didn't know - we call our fresh meat by MEAT names, haha) ... I'm SO proud so many new girls came down to check out this important event. I had barely been on the team for 6 weeks when I attended the 2009 WFTDA Nationals in November 2009. That experience definitely shaped my perspective on roller derby in a great way.

Rubbing Elbows
I met some AWESOME people that weekend! I'm on a quest to learn more and more about WFTDA, and everyone I spoke with was so helpful. I ran in to some girls from Toronto Roller Derby, who I had seen play against Buffalo back in August. I also chatted with girls from Suburbia, Long Island Roller Rebels, and Ophelia and Square Brute of Hudson Valley Horrors. I also met some way cool NSO/referees via Miranda Wrights, including Grand Poohbah (Roc City - stats), N8 (Charm City - stats), Bettie Mercury and Ian Fluenza (CT Roller Derby), and Reffalo Bill (DC Roller Girls).

Staff breaking down the skate court.

Tournaments are really fun because you meet lots of really awesome people, and also run into people you met at a previous derby event. Everyone is there to support derby, so there's always something to talk about or catch up on.

Seeing how the big leagues operate
It wasn't all about the skaters.  At the end of the tournament I got to watch the crew breakdown the skatecourt, which was being borrowed from Gotham.   I think I've skated on this type of surface once before.  I just thought it was interesting to see the process of setting up the skating service.  The squares (12"x12" I think) are broken down by 16 (4 square) panels and stacked several high on platforms then loaded into a truck. Have rink will travel.

Star Struck

Miranda Wrights was my ride home after the tournament on Sunday night. She had some volunteer stuff to wrap up so I hung around her and got to talk with some of her pals. Miranda's been invovled with derby for a long time: she started her derby career with Brew City from Madison, WI. We were casually chatting with her old team mate, Grace Killy, we someone casually mentioned she was the President of WFTDA. Ahhhh, wow! She was so incredibly nice. I also met The Ruffian from Dominion Roller Derby and had a casual conversation with her about WFTDA membership. Later that night when I was doing some googling, I discovered she's the Vice President of WFTDA. Wow!