The Dark Side: front: Queen Myradala (Myra Maines), Darth Mel (Mel Content), Darth Tater (Norma Lee Wright), Indy Sith (Indy Cent), Nina Millimeter. Back: Yvette YourMaker, Sargentina, Sonya MouthShut, Chuck Yeah!!!, Go-Go Hatchet, Sassy Squash, Anne Akin (Anne Arkie), Carnage Wilson (bench coach), Tori Adore.
Well, the bout was Saturday. It was a blast, I got to dress up as Darth Vader, I really liked the gals on the team, and it was very educational. Unfortunately, my theory proved wrong, or at least incomplete. We were outscored pretty significantly, which caused me to revise my view: I still think that a strong defensive team can shut down a good jammer, but, what I failed to take into account is, a good jammer is an individual, and a strong defense is a group that has to work together and all be on the same page strategically, so having a total of zero full-team practices pretty much precluded my defensive powerhouse of skaters from two different teams becoming a well-oiled machine by the time of the bout.
A friend of mine is working on a board game version of roller derby to be played with dice, and I've been thinking about the mechanics of the game. Something that may be unique to roller derby versus other sports is that both teams are playing offense and defense simultaneously. In most sports, there's a clear demarcation as to what role the players have at any given time---even if it may change often based on one team stealing the ball or puck from the other, at any given moment, the players are either on offense or defense. But in roller derby, any player can be doing either (or both) at any moment. It makes strategy a real challenge. I didn't have much opportunity to really talk strategy with the skaters but I'm hoping to do so in the future.
Now that the local league season is over, the All Stars take center stage. The Windy City Rollers are a league, and have multiple teams that play each other, but they also have a "travel team" made of the best players from all the local teams, and that team takes on the travel teams of other leagues around the country. The schedule has not been set yet but they will play a number of bouts over the remainder of the year, culminating with the national tournament in November.
This year brings a new twist. The All Stars are one of the top teams in the country, and are competitive with the best other leagues from major metropolitan areas. But there are a number of other leagues in smaller cities, or just less-established or less-accomplished, and it doesn't make sense from either perspective for the All-Stars to play those leagues' teams. Well, for the first time this season, the WCR is putting together an official second travel team, which will (a) provide an opportunity for WCR skaters to skate against teams they might not otherwise, and (b) give up-and-coming skaters experience in inter-league competition, and keep them skating competitively throughout the rest of the season.
Many of the Dark Siders, including Kelly (Mel Content) are going to be on the "B" team, so I am looking forward to their bouts. Of course I'm also looking forward to the All Stars bouts, too.
According to scuttlebutt, a number of prominent skaters will be retiring from the league after this season. Skaters seem to have a half-life in the league of about three or four years. I'm sort of amazed that skaters at the very top of their game would walk away, as seems to be happening in several cases if rumors are true, but I'm sure there are dynamics at work in the roller derby world that are unlike other sports---they are not paid, and to compete at the top level of the sport (and the really good skaters in the WCR are definitely there) places serious demands on a skater's time. Flat-track roller derby is relatively new and has changed a lot since it started (it was resurrected from the corpse of old-school banked-track roller derby in 2000, and just started in Chicago in 2004) and it's still evolving---this year is bringing a substantial revision to the rules. So perhaps the game is moving away from what brought some of the relative veterans into it. I have heard that over the first few years it became much more athletically-focused than when it started, but most of the reported retirees are excellent athletes, so I don't think that's it. I wonder if it may be a case of no more worlds left to conquer. It will be interesting to see if the next generation of skaters---the women who have been skating for just a couple years---stick with it longer, or if they start bowing out in another year or two.
In the mean time: it's been fun to be a fan, and it was fun to be a sort-of coach, and I'm eager to see what happens next. I know I'm not going to be a skater! Other than that, who knows?
1 comment:
Chuck, on occasion I assemble and captain a scratch team of runners - called "The Dark Side".
On an all-female team the shierl must be male - is that part of the coach's duties? Although since you lost... ; - (
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