Queen of the Rink! January 15 Bout Recap

We won our bout on Saturday! It was so fun and amazing - the team worked so well together. We were pushed to do so because we knew that Nickel City would be a very big challenge.

After the first few jams I knew the bout was not going to be a blow out. I saw so much impressive derby from both sides, but especially the Hellions!
All photos below by Andy Kainz unless otherwise noted!

Shockratease and Deadlie Mercury working together to stop the jammer.

Pork Slap sends a jammer flying.

Epic Kate-tastrophe jamming against one of KCNO's best jammers, and team captain, Addy Rawl.

Hanna Solo using the Force.

I think I actually landed this hit. Wooo.  Photo by Pete Rodriguez.

For this bout we also introduced to brand new skaters: Valerie Valkyrie and Disharmony! Both girls have previously written guests posts (Val 1 | 2 and Disharmony). Anyway, these two have been KICKING ASS at practice so I knew they were ready. Disharmony is always where I need her to be when I'm jamming - up in the front clearing me a path! She's got great endurance and always gives 100% on the track. She rules.

Valerie is amazing at holding the line and not afraid of giving a hit. In the two pictures on the left you can see that we were working together in one jam. The KCNO jammer managed to get by me, but within seconds Valerie was able to race ahead to booty block her and slow her down, allowing Mathundra Storm and myself to catch up and form a strong three person wall. YEAH!!

I am SO PROUD of these two girls. And we have a couple more coming up in the ranks so expect to "meet" a couple more new Hellions soon!


What I really think pulled this game together for our team was our constant team work and remembering the drills we had worked on in the past month or so. I've never seen us work so tight together. We were constantly in the front of the pack holding walls and recycling when necessary.

NCKO had a few fast jammers which we had to adapt too.  In the first period they were up 78 HoT  - 90 NCKO. The game wasn't quite this close for the whole period however... Pork Slap scored 20 points in the last jam of the period to lessen their dominating lead.  That's when we really started gaining momentum.

In the second period KNCO caught on to our walls and were able to fight fire with fire. But we just kept up what we were doing and we caught up and took the lead with only a couple minutes left in the game. It was very close at the end, the last few jams really decided it. In the end, the Hellions won the bout 130 - 121.

NNKO were pretty amazing. I'm so glad they came out and was honored to play them. We may have won the bout, but they won the after party. I got to talk to a few afterwards, including Beauty School Knockout, who is totally freaking sweet and nice. After parties are always crazy socially overwhelming for me, but I'm glad I got to talk to a few of their girls.

Thanks again Nickel City Knockouts for coming out and pushing us hard!

A few other people I need to thank:
Kitty and Flexi, who served as alternates for this roster, allowing Valerie and Disharmony to show us what they're made of.
Missy and Beefcake, our coaches.
Members of Albany All Stars Roller Derby, Capital District Men's Roller Derby, Central New York Roller Derby, Utica Roller Girls, the Quadfathers, Ithaca League of Women Rollers, and other leagues who made it out to see the bout (let me know if you were there and I missed your league!). Thank you all so much for supporting Local Derby!!
All the fans!  Thank you for your support! Derby!!!

Next Hellions Home Bout: Saturday, January 15

Advance tickets are available online at brownpapertickets.com or from your favorite rollergirl.

As usual, we're offering a special derby discount to local roller girls: where your team jersey, scrimmage shirt, or other artifact with your team logo/image on it and get into the bout for only $5 at the door.

Definitely attending the bout?  Say so on Facebook!

For this bout we're playing the Nickel City Knockouts, one of the Queen City Roller Girls teams from Buffalo, NY.

Toronto Roller Derby

Me in front of Toronto's venue

This summer Mr. T and I both got our passports.  Last week, we spent a week in Canada and for part of it we were in Toronto.  We were lucky enough to catch a Toronto Roller Derby vs. Queen City (Buffalo, NY) game on Saturday night.  It was awesome!  ToRD's space is in what looks like a refurbished airplane hanger (it's also called "The Hanger", so go figure).  The event was a double header, with ToRD's upcoming girls (The D-VAS - Deadly Viper Assassination Squad) against Durham Region Roller Derby (also from Canada).  They played a shorter game (two 20 minute periods) which was fun to watch - it's great to see new girls working on their skills, especially since I was (am) in "their skates" just so recently.  Although evenly matched for the most part, the D-VAS pulled ahead to end the game with a final score of 105-63.

Mr. T rocking Hellions gear!

But the main event was ToRD vs. Queen City.  It was a great match between both league's star teams: ToRD's CN Power vs. Queen City's Lake Effect Furies.  Watching them warm up was even entertaining.  Both teams had solid warm up drills, and the Furies especially demonstrated their teamwork.  One impressive drill was where they all skated single file, and the front skater would call out a skill (plow stop, turn around toe stop, etc) and they would all do it perfectly in unison.  Every single girl could plow stop in under ten feet (more like five) - without crashing into the girl in front of her.  Tight!

The first period they seemed like they would be evenly matched.  Up until the end of the first period, the score was within about 5 points, with the lead switching between teams.  At the end of the first period, the Lake Effect Furie's were ahead, but not by much.

A couple jammers lined up and
ready to roll!

The second period is when the Furies really started to blow things up.  Their game play remained tight throughout the period, where CN Power on the other hand seemed to be tiring out.  They kept fighting, and still had a few impressive jams.  At one point, CN Power had an impressive 15 point jam by one of their star jammers, DefeCaitlin, and the crowd went wild.  Soon after, however, the Furies had an equally impressive 15 point, which also made the other half of the crowd go nuts - there were tons of Queen City fans at the bout, too!  CN Power seemed to be sending out DefeCaitlin every few jams to try to shorten the gap. If anyone could do it, it would be her.  She skated strong all throughout.  But it wasn't enough, and the game ended with a score of 110-79 with the Lake Effect Furies on top.

One last thing I want to say about the bout was that the two teams played each other with great sports(wo)menship.  Opposing jammers chatted as they lined on up; blockers gave and took strong hits and then acknowledged each other for their stamina.  You could tell these skaters are in sister leagues.