Another Rollercoaster

Note: this is heavy-duty Derby Drama. It's not for the faint of heart, or for those who have only a casual interest in my little roller derby hobby. You may want to skip this one if you want your image of what I do on my off-days to be fun and happy.

Proceed with caution...



I was soooooooooooo high on Saturday.

Today I'm sooooooooooooooooooo low, it looks like up to me.

When we last left our intrepid blog, we had a triumphant First Day of the Battle on the Bank Tournament. I barely slept Saturday night, but was pumped and ready to go yesterday.

Got to the track early, warmed up for what seemed like hours, drank an obscene amount of energy drinks, and was generally ready to kick more Team Awesome butt.

The first game of the evening saw a buttload of ejections from both teams (TXRD vs. San Diego), so the LA Ri-ettes and Team Awesome captains met with the refs to tweak the rules so that if anyone gets ejected in the first half of the game, they can still come back for the second half. You think you know where this is going, don't you.

Game time.





Things start off great. LA pulls a decent lead on Team Awesome. I'm put into a couple of jams, but get sent to the penalty box both times in the first quarter. Damn! But overall the team's doing well. I do my thang in the second quarter, and penalties on other skaters rack up. One, Krissy Krash, is ejected before halftime.


A rare shot of me skating while jammer Mila Minute is knocked down by Team Awesome skater Demanda Riot(she's the uber-scary girl with the face paint and dreadlocks. She hit me into the rail a few jams later and I thought my right breast was going to be ripped free of my body):















Score at halftime: 37-24 in favor of LA.

After halftime, things got ugly.

Team Awesome kicked into high gear and came back on us BIG time and started kicking our butts. As the second half of the game wore on, I noticed that I was put up on the track less and less. Team Awesome got the lead and held on for awhile.

By the fourth quarter, I skated in one jam. I didn't accrue a single penalty in the second half of the game. Krissy Krash got ejected again. I still don't get put into game rotation.

At first, I assume that it's because of the whole penalty thing in the first quarter. But, by the second half, my penalties are gone. So...why wasn't I put into game rotation?

I don't know.

Now, I'm not implying that because I wasn't being played, that Team Awesome was able to catch up to LA score-wise. However, there's nothing that can convince me at this point that I didn't at least play as well as the rest of the skaters on my team. So "choking" isn't an issue in my mind. If a skater is on an "all-star" team, they should play. Plain and simple.

EDIT: well, apparently choking was an issue in the captain's mind. She claimed I didn't skate well in the game. I still dispute that, but I gotta wait for game footage to see if I really sucked more than the other players that got to stay in.

I also think I was handicapped for that going into this situation, and had I known what the captain thought of me before the tournament, I might've done things differently...namely stayed on the Golden Girls team.

ANYWAY...

Oh, look, here I am...sitting. I got really good at that:























I got frustrated about not being played and said so during a quick break, and the Ri-ettes captain said, But Tara, it's for the good of the team!

WHAT?!

The game wears on. By the last jam, LA was ahead by 4 points. But, in the last jam, the LA jammer commits a major penalty, which means that the points she earned is given to the other team and an overtime jam is run with no jammer from the offending team. The score is now tied as a result.

Fuuuuuuuuuuck.

That caused some drama on the team. The LA team captain calls for "four big blockers", since LA has no jammer. I stand up, and get ignored. I sit down.

And cry like a big baby.

The overtime jam is run, and ANOTHER major penalty is thrown, so a SECOND overtime jam is called for.

HOLY CRAP.

I tried to leave the track at this point, but one of the refs wouldn't let me. I go back to the bench and continue to be miserable.

This has never happened before, and it certainly wasn't anticipated. The crowd is going NUTS. The announcers are confused, and say so over the loudspeakers. They practically demand an explanation from the head ref of the game, but he has his own problems to deal with.

LA's captain has skated over to him and started screaming in his face. She throws a helmet. Another LA skater throws her helmet. Those are grounds for getting ejected in the ruleset. Water bottles from the audience start flying into the infield. The head ref takes the abuse and tells LA's cappie to set up the next jam. He doesn't kick her out for insubordination.

She has the nerve to let herself and the other helmet-throwing skater skate that jam. While I still sat. Both teams have jammers.

The jam is played, and LA won by a single point, 63-62.

Btw, if you want to read the Dear Husband's furious text messages of the game as it happened, check out Derby News Network.

The instant the last whistle is blown I gather my sad self and quickly exit the track and go to the dressing rooms. On my way I pass the head ref surrounded by a phalanx of refs, also on their way to the dressing rooms.

As I start tearing off my skates, I hear a whistle being repeatedly blown. I go back out, and see the aftermath of a "fan" who had ACCOSTED the head ref. The "fan" was luckily thrown out without further incident.

Jeezus.

I finish packing up my gear, and in my still-gross skate clothes, text the Dear Husband that I wanna leave ASAP. At the time he's caught up in the rules debacle and doesn't have a clue about my own personal Waterloo in regards to the game.

In a comedy of errors, I end up outside behind the dressing rooms, smoking like a fiend and waiting to get the hell out of there as skaters mill about, celebrating. Have a beer? Um, no thanks. Going to the afterparty? HELL NO.

I had several people come up to me to tell me how great I skated and how badass I was in the game. WTF?!?!?!? Didn't they watch the game? It was truly disturbing to me, since all I did was warm the damn bench.

Finally, DH and I got ourselves squared away with late dinner plans with one of the TXRD retired skaters, Cherry Chainsaw. On our way out I came across the LA Ri-ettes co-captain. She smiled brightly and says, "You're the only one I didn't hug tonight! It was great skating with you!" I stared at her in absolute astoundment and said, "I practically didn't skate in the fourth quarter. What the hell..?" She stared back and whispers that she's sorry. I believe her, but I wasn't going to discuss the matter with her right then, so I made my exit quickly.

Thank gawd we got away from everyone for awhile. Had a fun and funny dinner with Cherry, and dropped her back off at the track at around 2:30am.

Drove home.

Fumed.

Cried.

Tried to sleep, but couldn't.


To keep things on a lame note: I had to turn in my freelance today. My computer monitor decided to malfunction while I was trying to print out my invoice, and I lost a contact lens while riding home on the murdersickle from Woodland Hills. It ain't easy trying to ride a murdersickle on the freeway when one is half blind. When I got home I cried some more and drank a beer.

Go, me.

MORE EDIT: apparently this entry is causing waves. I could take it down, but for now it stays up. My attitude is still going up and down, but I'll get over it. So will everyone else. I'm happy to hear that the visiting skaters overall had a blast, so that's good.