In addition to the Dolly Rogers and their plot for world domination, we’re announcing our newest team, the Dollinquents, who will be hitting the track in June for a few away games in the neighbourhood. They’ll be bouting at home in August and September, so make sure to check out our schedule.  You do not want to miss any of it.

CCDD’s newest team! Welcome to the family!

We’ve also got a whole bunch of amazing new sponsors. Have you been to our website www.capitalcityderbydolls.com or our facebook page lately? Did you notice that you can now buy merch and bout tickets? That’s all because of Shopify. Have you seen the Dolly Rogers’ new S-One Lifer helmets? We’re taking our sponsor with us wherever we go!

When we’re in Kanata, our favourite place to hang out is The Burbs on Hazeldean.  You can often find us hanging out there after practice, having a pint of local Beau’s Beer and some yummy snacks.  They’re also super at catering to the vegans in our league. If you want a salad wrap with guacamole, with a side salad, also with guacamole, they will do it for you. Because they’re just that awesome. You should give them a visit.  Tell ‘em we sent you!

We’ve also just found a new hangout in the market. Fatboys Southern Smokehouse on Murray Street has great bbq and live music on Saturday nights. We’ll be bringing our after bout parties there in June and July, if you need a ringing endorsement.

Capital City Derby Dolls are still dedicated to developing new skaters and keeping an active house league program. We’ve got in-house scrimmages planned for June, August, and September. Keep an eye on our facebook page for an invitation to come and watch your favourite new skaters KABD.

We couldn’t have done it without our fans, our friends, our skaters and our sponsors. Sponsors like Michael Lewicki, Hedges Sutherland Law Firm, Boxall Heating (boxallheating.com), Bigger Beards for Brighter Tomorrows, and Neon Skates have been there for us since day 1 and we can’t find enough ways to say thank you to them.

We hope to see you at our home opener on Saturday at Jack Charron Arena in Kanata. You can buy tickets online at capitalcityderbydolls.com!

Hairy White was awarded the best trophy maker award.  If you haven’t seen his work, it truly is incredible. He made all of our trophies this year, and we thanked him with this piece of crap art.

Coach Red got a mushy letter and a cheque as thanks for EVERYTHING he does for the league. The Dolly Rogers are currently ranked 14th in Canada, and it’s all because of his hard work and dedication to the league. While he’s lucky to have such great talent to work with (*cough*), he has one of the hardest jobs this league begs anyone to do. Speaking of which, if you want to coach, we’ll be looking to fill some openings for our next season. Be prepared to be yelled at while also being loved to death.

We said thank you to our top volunteers (Alpha Blocker’s daughters), the lovely Hannah and and the equally lovely Sarah. We can’t find enough ways to show our appreciation for these incredible young women for everything they do for us. If you see them manning our merch table next year, please say thank you…and then buy a t-shirt or 2.

As has become a tradition, given we did it for a second year in a row, here’s the list of CCDD awards!

LOUDMOUTH of the year: Ruby Wreckage

Heaviest Hitter: Whips N. Chaynes (sLamb!)

Most Versatile Player: Violently Jill

Exceptional Jammer: The Hamburgler (Sneaky Dekey)

Most Improved: Nina Nails (bLamb!)

Most Sportsmanlike: sMel

Most Underrated: sMel

Quen of the Afterparty: LOB

Most Bionic: Bust’er Up

Best Derby Kiss: Bust’er Up

Rookie of the Year: Elizabeth Berserkly

Best in Stripes: Hairy White

Best Attendance: Ruby Wreckage

Our final award was Best Knockabitchdown Face, which wound up in a tie after league votes. After a KABD face-off between Deanna Destroi and Whips N. Chaynes, the crowd was wowed by Deanna’s KABD face.

We couldn’t end the awards ceremony without thanking our refs, NSOs, volunteers, friends and family and the Board. Our refs put up with a lot. We had a lot of games, we had a lot of scrimmages, and we demanded they be there for everything. The great things about CCDD refs is that they seem to love setting us straight, so they came to everything and worked their asses off. We are eternally grateful for all they do, even though we thank them by squinting at them and making Voodoo dolls. Special thanks to Josh, who is both a player and a fine head ref.

NSOs, friends of derby and derby family: we can’t do what we do without you. You sell our merch, you track our stats, you work our games, and you buy beer. You ask for nothing but a good time and if people in the world were as uncomplicated as our amazing entourage, there’d be far fewer problems out there.

To the members of the Board: you work quietly and diligently, while maintaining full time jobs and remain committed to all practices. Thanks for finding practice space, keeping our ducks in a row, minding the members and the membership, getting programs off the ground, getting people interested in derby, keeping in touch with the world, keeping in touch with players…the list goes on. You know it, you do it. Yay.

With our Learn 2 Skate program well under way, we are super psyched for the upcoming year. We get such joy out of sharing the derby love in Ottawa and around the world, and we are so thankful to everyone who’s come through our doors. If you came to one of our bouts, tried on a pair of skates at one of our open houses or Learn 2 Skate programs, liked us on Facebook, followed us on Twitter, checked out our website (capitalcityderbydolls.com) or read our blog (capitalcityderbydolls.wordpress.com) we’d like to say thank you. The new season will be upon us before we even know it. The one thing you can say about derby: it takes up such real estate that you fail to notice how long winter drags. One minute the season is winding down, the next minute, it’s starting back up again and you’re freaking out because you’re not ready.

Derby love to all.

So, of course I turned to the Internet to get some kind of definitive answer about plates… And discovered this is a bit like turning to “Doctor” Google when you have a headache and then become convinced that you are clearly about to die from an aneurysm. There is a whole whack of information out there about skate plates. So, the research began…. And then at derby events this past season I spent much downtime between games talking to different vendors and skate techs to get some input. This of course just showed me that if you ask three different people then you’re still getting three different opinions. Not much consensus on the whole and still not leaving me with any kind of clear decision or even a clear direction.

I had figured having skated for a couple years now on the nylon plates that I’d have a pretty good idea of what I wanted in a plate- and on one hand I do, but on the other hand before making the investment into plates I wanted to be able to try them. At the end of September I got that very opportunity.

I went to the Sugarbush Showdown in Essex Junction VT- WFTDA’s East Region Playoffs with U Kent Do That to enjoy a weekend of good derby. Pretty much watching the pros of the sport. Between games we wandered the vendors, and I started up with questions about plates. And what we found was that one of the booths, Crazy Skates (http://www.skatesus.com/store/index.php?cPath=91), actually came equipped. They had Crazy skates in all sizes with the Crazy Venus plate mounted (http://www.skatesus.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=91_107&products_id=351). Excitement to no end. The rep, Malice B. Stopless (http://www.facebook.com/people/Malice-B-Stopless/100001748125994), was awesome. U Kent Do That and I visited that booth repeatedly. We tried on the same skates over and over. Asked endless questions. And even brought in our own skates–because who leaves home without their skates?–and so I would wear one of my skates and one of the Crazy skates and do a direct comparison. Trying out transitions, turns, even the eagle. Malice answered all our questions and was more than patient with both of us every time we came over.

The funny thing to me about the Crazy Skates booth was that they were set up as a part of the Bruised Boutique (http://www.bruisedboutique.com/) store which is where I actually originally purchased my current derby skates a couple summers ago.

By the end of the weekend my decision regarding plates was made. Now, this wasn’t solely on just having been able to try them, there was a little more to it than that- hence all the questions and why I repeatedly tried the skates on. It’s much harder part to describe exactly why I went with these plates. It comes down to a few things like skating style, the positions you play in derby, what you want out of your skates etc., plus the nuances of how I skate and then in a sense the more abstract pieces, like the way that I walk, so the way that I balance myself. I have for most of my life walked on my tippy toes so that was a factor in picking plates and then what size of plate and then placement of plate. Just when you think you’ve got one piece of the plate puzzle figured out, up comes another…

A little DIY surgery, and a lot of patience

This Thanksgiving Monday I gave thanks by buying my Crazy Venus plates from the lovely Georgia W. Tush of Neon Skates (www.skateneon.com). Neon was also a vendor at Sugarbush Showdown and Georgia let me and U Kent Do That know that her store would be carrying Crazy Skates stock. And on Monday she found herself in Ottawa working on the soon to open in Ottawa Neon Skates.

For the actual drilling and physical mounting of the plates, I really have to give the full credit to U Kent Do That. The placement and positioning was certainly a team effort and for that I knew what wanted but the actual mounting was a whole other story indeed….

Of course I went back to the Internet to find out more about positioning and mounting. My best resources for mounting were this derby girl’s 2 blog entries on the topic- http://diaryofarollergirl.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/diy-big-kid-customization-part-i-selecting-roller-skate-plates/ and http://diaryofarollergirl.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/diy-big-kid-customization-part-ii-installing-roller-skate-plates/ plus Sin City DIY plate mounting http://www.sincityskates.com/images/downloads/sincity_diy_plate_mounting.pdf. These resources really gave me good handle on what needed to be done, and so I decided to also document this experiment.

So, the before pictures… skates sans wheels, all ready for surgery…. And clean wheels and clean bearings for afterwards…

My set of supplies

Pencil to mark where the position of the nylon plate

Rules to measure and find the new centre line

Polish to shine up my skates

Polyfilla for the holes

The next step was to trace the position of the original plate.

Then the removal of the old plates.

Four bolts on each skate holding in the plate. A screwdriver and a wrench as tools for plate removal. Plate off the first skate, no problem. Last bolt holding in the plate of the other skate would just not come off. Stripped the nut and the bolt in this struggle, before getting a Dremmel to just cut the bolt off. If you wind up with this problem- safety glasses are a must!!

Finally, the old plates were off and the skates actually cleaned up. Polyfilla in to fill the existing holes and give us a ‘blank’ canvas to work on.

Now came the time for the placement of the new plates. First was determining the centerline for my boots. Best resources for that- http://quadskating.com/skates/centering-plates.htm. Basically, it comes down to where the space between your second and third toe are. So, out came the ruler and the markings. We fine tuned my centerline by measuring between two points of where the old plates were and then joining up those two points with a centerline offset by the centerline between my second and third toe.

Next, the position of the mount. After much talking and reading I had come to the conclusion that I might (would?) benefit from a forward mount.

I’d’ve chosen a short forward mount- essentially getting a plate that’s smaller than what you would normally skate on and then mounting them more towards the front of your boot to force you to stay on the balls of your feet. However, since I was already on the smallest plate this wasn’t something I could do. In effect there wasn’t all that much space to play with.

So, in that respect I had it a little easy, I have little feet, therefore little skates, and therefore the smallest plate available so less agonizing about whether of not I should do a forward mount or a short forward mount. Even with a forward mount, it’s not too dramatic and there isn’t that much empty space at my heel ultimately.

A little information on where to mount plates-

http://quadskating.com/skates/mounting-plates.htm

http://www.derbylife.com/articles/2011/11/ask_expert_plate_mounting_shortforward_vs_standard_mounting 

We taped my new plates in place- trucks, wheels, stopper, and all. And I stood up and pranced around trying to get as best a feel as I could. Up on my toes and all the rest. So far, so good.

I honestly thought that at this point the hard part was over and that drilling the holes and fitting the plate was going to be a quick job. Hahahahaha, goes to show what I know!

Ultimately, it just comes down to the mounting hardware and probably not ever having done it before. U Kent Do that and I dove right into this. I held the skate steady while he drilled and then it came to trying to fit (aka shove) all the bolts through the new holes and fitting. The one good thing was that all the holes in the skate boot were properly aligned with the holes in the plate (yay!).

More difficult was getting the hole just wide enough to get everything all the way through so the plate could actually bolted to the skate. Out came the Dremmel again to widen the tops of the holes.

Now, the mounting hardware that came with the Venus plates included shorter bolts than what typically come with mounting hardware for other plates. Crazy had wanted make life easier for people who would mount plates and so had cut down the bolts already thus hopefully saving people from having to saw off the extra bit of bolt with a Dremmel or other bolt saw. And I’m sure the bolts are a perfect size for a Crazy boot, but I have a Riedell 265 boot. So, unfortunately, this meant that the bolts had to be just so if we wanted to fit the washer and the bolt on and actually finish the mounting. And this is where U Kent Do That very patiently went about the small adjustments to make the bolts fit just right.

With one skate pretty much done and mounted we called it a night for mounting. My suggestion on this was before going at my other skate the next day that a trip to the hardware store could save us (and by ‘us’ I meant my skate tech…) a little frustration. But a longer bolt that’d still fit the plate and then use the Dremmel to trim off the extra at the end…

And the next day U Kent Do That was back at it. A little under the gun by me since we had practice in Rockland that night… eeek! No luck on getting a longer bolt so right back at the skate the same way as the day before. But with yesterday’s knowledge the assembly went better. Both skates all ready for practice.

Eastern Block’her

Bust’er (Beauty) and Plow’her (The Beast)

You may have seen (or heard) some of CCDD’s finest at Beau’s Oktoberfest in Vankleek Hill on Saturday, September 29^th.  We were the ones in green, soaking wet from head to toe, and randomly yelling “inside line” for no apparent reason.

We ended up in that field, under a tent, an hour from home because our sponsors, Beau’s Beer, asked us to.  They have stood behind us for 2 years now and when they asked for 10 willing and able bodies for 6 hours on Saturday, of course we said yes!

We showed up having no idea what we were in for.  When we checked in at the “volunbeer” desk (how amazing is that!), we were told that we’d all be working the Eco Wash station.  I’m sure that everyone could see our faces fall when we learned that our fate was 6 hours of washing dishes. BUT, we reminded ourselves that at least we’d all be together.

It turned into the most fun you could have in a field, under a tent, elbow deep in sudsy water (or even worse if you were on the pre-wash station).  Our Beau’s co-ordinator, Lyndell, was amazing.  She assured us that we would be well cared for, that the beer would flow like dishwater, and that we would be well fed by the food vendors.

The things we’ll do for one another…

She was true to her word.   Flats of Lug Tread, Weis o’Lantern, and a delicious cider were delivered and devoured with incredible frequency.  Pretzels and tacos and chilli kept us warm and full.  We had fun.  The kind of fun you can only have when doing dirty work in the great outdoors with your friends and teammates.

We yelled and danced for no reason.  Occasionally, we might have been louder than the band.  Random strangers rolled up their sleeves and worked alongside us, not because we were short-handed, but because we looked like such incredible fun to be around.

I’d like to show you a whole bunch of pictures of our silly foolish dish washing madness, but our hands were too wet and dirty to take the photos.  Here are a few that we did manage to take before plunging back into the brackish depths.

Being awesome is hard work

My back is sore, my shins are bruised from tripping over buckets of dishes, and I have a welt on my backside where someone whacked me with a wet towel, but if Beau’s Beer asks us to come back next year, I’ll answer with a resounding YES!

Special thanks to Delicate Plow’her, Nina Nails, Hairy White, Numerat’er, Mel, Ha Lou Ween, Rick, Wry and Ginger, Elizabeth Berzerkley, and Ruby Wreckage for rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty at Oktoberfest with me.

They even had food for those crazy…vegans.

Taking a silly break.

Bust’er Up

Give it a shot!

At my football game last night, I watched a girl knock a few bitches down. I shouted, “HEY! Wanna play roller derby?” at her and then rammed the CCDD email address into her hand. Do you knock bitches down? Do you wanna knock bitches down? Do you know girls who could knock bitches down or dudes who want to try men’s derby? THE TIME HAS COME. CCDD is recruiting. We’re looking for people, THAT’S RIGHT, PEOPLE, 18 years of age and up, who want to get involved in this crazy ride as players, referees or eager volunteers. Volunteers can be under 18.

But…but…I don’t know how to skate?

Whatever. We spend the off-season teaching you how to skate, then how to play.

I don’t have skates?

WAH! You can rent them from us. We hardly charge for rentals…just enough to keep the skates maintained.

But…um…I’m not sure I’m cut out for this.

That’s a fair comment. Which is why we’re having an Open House. Actually, we’re having two. On Sunday, September 23, 2012, and the following Sunday, September 30, 2012, from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., at the Belltown Dome on 2915 Haughton Ave., so you can come and try it out and THEN decide if you could maybe, JUST MAYBE, play derby.

How does it work?

Well, you give us $15.00 ($10.00 if you have your own skates) and we put you through some basics. You’ll be introduced to the people who run the league and to all the amazing coaches who will be physically torturing you, while you have the time of your life. Derby’s a tough, full-contact sport so while we teach you skating fundamentals, we also “gradually” whip you into shape. AND, we offer competitive skating and non-competitive skating, so for those of you who are looking for something different to keep you moving but prefer a house league style of play, we’ve got you covered.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up. Right here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDJBdTJXMm80M2NkWEJDWGNXcEtiQUE6MQ

Dig up your bike helmet, borrow some elbow and knee pads and steal some wrist guards. Fill a bottle of water. Pack your ID and health card. If you’ve got skates, you should bring those. If not…when you registered, you told us your shoes size and there will be skates waiting for you. Wear whatever you want…but if you wear shorts, get some leggings on so that you don’t risk rink rash.

IT’S JUST THAT EASY. No more delays. Bring a friend for moral support…we fully encourage spectators.

For those of you who are all like, “SCREW YOUR OPEN HOUSE! I JUST WANNA SIGN UP!” Well, go right ahead: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFZSak82Um5KU0I1MTN2bXk2Y21DOHc6MQ#gid=0

Questions? Email us at capitalcityderbydolls@gmail.com.

Wanna stalk us? Awesome. Here’s how:

www.capitalcityderbydolls.com

www.facebook.com/capitalcityderbydolls

@CCDerbyDolls

Stop thinking…just click on the sign-up link. What’s the worst that can happen? You fall on your ass? Great. I spent all season doing that in front of spectators. So come one out. Have fun. Do something different. And be a part of something totally awesome.

xo

Delicate Plow’her

CCDD’s Dolly Rogers will be taking on the Oz Roller Girls. It’ll be a first meeting for these teams, but they have similar records so it’ll be a tight bout…and that’s exactly what the people wanna see. So. COME ON OUT. Watch some awesome derby before we pack it in for the winter and start training new players.

Suicide seating available: bring a chair if you wanna get comfy.

We are sponsored by Beau’s Beer. Bring ID for access to the Beer Garden.

Tickets: $10 in advance, $5 for kiddies under 10. If you’d like to buy at the door, it’ll be $12, $7 for the under 10s.

See you there!

xo

Plow’her

Enter Red. CCDD’s coach.

He looked at the facts and concluded the following:

1. the Dolly Rogers are going to beat Kingston;

2. Riot Squad is going to beat the Debutantes; and

3. there can be no men’s game if the men are scattered around the province coaching/reffing their respective women’s games.

The solution: pretty obvious. The Debs play the Skateful Dead. Riot Squad and the Dolly Rogers stay in Ottawa. The men’s game is on. We call this an ideal solution. Blow-outs are no fun. They’re great for the players because the learning opportunity is priceless, but the crowd is not so entertained. Moreover, it’s hard to raise the profile of men’s derby when the men can’t have a game. Finally, there’s so much great derby in this city that why travel when you can have a helluva night right in your own city?

Perfect.

Except that GTAR can’t roster a team for Kingston. And the Skateful Dead need an opponent. And it’s on us to do something about it. And so something is exactly what we did. We asked our newer players how they felt about bouting, and following a positive response from a number of players, we were on our way to a roster. But there were still gaps that needed to be filled; gaps that are being filled by RVRG. There are still some details to sort out, but August 18th is turning out to be quite a day:

1. RVRG is playing CCDD;

2. the men’s team is made up of CCDD and RVRG members (our boys count as league members); and

3. CCDD and RVRG are playing together in Kingston.

This is the truest sense of cooperation. For those of you who don’t play derby or know much about its history in Ottawa, things haven’t always been this easy. In fact, it’s been a long, hard road but this last year, with its freezing cold practices out in Rockland, represented a noticeable shift in derby culture in Ottawa. The development of a friendship off the track, the opportunity to nurture a healthy and positive rivalry on the track, and the fostering of a sense of team cooperation in Kingston make August 18 a great day.

Don’t miss it. BUY TICKETS TODAY.

See you there!

xo Plow’her

Best night of your life!

Every sport has referees. If I were a pro-level ref, I’d probably sleep with a gun under my pillow because that player-ref relationship can be SO volatile. The ref’s your best friend when the call’s in your favour, and when it’s not, you’re making a ref Voodoo Doll on the bench between shifts. One need only scratch soccer’s surface to see how unpleasant a ref’s life can be. And while players lament after games, rehashing bad calls, refs defend their actions and, like players who exercised poor judgment, refs must also live with their mistakes. Players and refs have more in common than they realize.

BUT. There’s always a BUT. And when it’s a player (me), writing about refs (them), there’s definitely a looming sense of doom. Do I blame some of this weekend’s results on poor reffing? I sure as hell do. I got two majors that upon video replay (damn technology), these majors were most definitely not warranted and changed the course of our first game.  One of our jammers got a major during the last jam of the second game. Was the penalty warranted? Possibly. But had all the jammers on the other team committed the same foul without it being called? Absolutely. So was her call fair? Yes, as far as the scope of the rules go; no, as far as the way the game was being called. So, now that I’ve (fairly) managed to enrage any zebra reading this, I will now attempt to explain that as much as I’m bitching about the level of reffing at this tournament, I would also now like to take responsibility for it. Under no circumstances should the refs be blamed for this weekend. Nor should they be blamed for a game you played last week. Or a game you played last season.

Derby is in its infancy. These are the dirty beginner years, where the rules are constantly in a state of flux. Derby is fighting some harsh stereotypes, trying to establish and perpetuate legitimacy, all while training athletes, using coaches with little experience (compared to other sports), and trying to establish some kind of reliable officiating. This is a tall order for both the establishment of derby and for each struggling league, with a shoestring budget and few committed volunteers. It takes years to develop solid refs, just as it takes years to truly develop solid skills as derby players. And right now, the sport is booming, with thousands of women (and men) strapping on skates and giving this whole crazy mess a shot. But derby reffing just isn’t attracting the same level of interest. And because it’s up to leagues to ensure its refs are trained, we have no one but ourselves to blame for any unsatisfactory reffing in this sport.

Each league owes its refs the same level of attention it attributes to its players. Each league owes it to its refs to challenge them, the way each league challenges its players. To achieve this, leagues need to commit to a common standard and they need to enforce that standard. And leagues need to exercise a lot of patience in the meantime because this will take a lot of time. And it’ll be worth the investment. Right now, I know that one of CCDD’s refs calls a short 20 feet. So when he’s on the track, I tell my players, dude calls it short. Stick together. Another of CCDD’s refs calls a long 20 feet, so when dude’s on the track, I know I can tell my players to take some chances. It’s unusual for a team captain to base game strategy on how she knows refs will call stuff. Such knowledge gives you an advantage over another team that should actually never factor into a game situation. The game should depend on the team’s skills, their ability to adapt and their ability to pull out all the stops within the scope of the rules. Period.

So what does all this mean? It means that this tournament taught CCDD that ref development has been overlooked. That refs are key to the game, not just in helping it run, but in developing players. By enforcing the rules in terms of a common standard, the sport can achieve a level of consistency that will contribute to its legitimacy and its development. Reliable, solid calls build better players. Accepting that neither reffing nor playing will ever be perfect is accepting a climate and a culture that is present in sport. Accepting and adhering to a standard means that teams won’t have to be told to “cut the refs some slack cuz they’re new and this is their first time reffing.” We heard that this weekend. I can’t imagine how those new refs felt dealing with such fast-paced games. We met one poor girl who walked out of a game because it was too overwhelming. That shouldn’t happen. It’s like throwing a freshie into an RVRG Vixens game. If you want to break and discourage people, that’s the way to do it.

So, derby world: CCDD would like to shoulder some of this responsibility. We will train and develop our refs. We will use leagues like RVRG and MTLRD as examples. We will seek to provide our refs with a place to learn and we will run events to help our refs build their skills so that they are fully prepared to take on bouts and tournaments. We will encourage our refs to invite more experienced refs into our ranks to see how it’s done. And we will encourage our refs to go out into the derby world and get whatever experience they can. And when we’re ready to serve as a true example of reliability, we in turn will provide the expertise and knowledge we gain to assist those who are looking to improve their own skills. This us-against-them culture has to come to a complete stop and “refs” should just be a regular ol’ word.

Plow’her

I was travelling with Wry and Ginger, Sugar and Spite, and Tarawatt, and the general consensus was that we were crazy nervous and a little bit scared…but we were confident. The Dolls and our coaching staff have been training us, working us out, and strategizing with us for months, so we felt like we had the knowledge and training to get out there and give the other teams a run for their money.

If there was a theme to the weekend (other than the tournament theme), it was probably “Find Out How Much You Can Sweat!” It was hot and sunny outside and sweltering indoors. Just standing still indoors made me sweat from places that I didn’t know could sweat…gross but educational. After a quick warm-up and stretch outside, we made our way inside to gear up and pump ourselves up for our first game. At the tournament, our games would only be 20 minutes long each, so we knew we had to be quick and efficient in each jam.

The first game was a blur. We were evenly matched with the GTA Debutantes and we only collected a few trips to the penalty box. The second to last jam was a big point scorer for the Debutantes and we were 17 points behind going into what would be the final jam…we had to pull off something big to win. Before the last jam, I remember hearing the commentator telling the crowd, “Just one jam can change the whole game. It’s not over yet.” Early in the jam, the Debutantes jammer pulled a penalty, putting us in a power jam situation. Perfect! Immediately our Dolls clicked in to strategy mode and started ducking like nobody’s business. Our jammer, Angel Poison, took advantage and sped around the track, racking up an amazing 19 points, winning the game by a 2-point margin! Our entire team smothered Angel with hugs and sweat. We took our victory lap with pride and thanked the Debutantes for a nail-biting game.

Winning this game gave us a ranking of 7^th out of the 14 teams who were competing that day and ensured that we would be up against another Toronto team—the TORD D-VAS—later that afternoon. At this point, we knew what winning felt like and we wanted to feel that way again. Getting ready for our second game, we re-outfitted ourselves in our still soaking wet sweaty gear and headed out to the track.

Our second game started out well. We scored a few points and the D-VAS scored a few, but again it felt fairly equal and both teams seemed to be fighting just as much to score and keep the other team from scoring. About 7 minutes in, our blockers started to generate penalties…lots of them. We were consistently short-handed on the track and the D-VAS took every opportunity that we unfortunately gave them. The D-VAS had two incredible jams when we were short-handed on blockers and our jammers just couldn’t get past their solid walls. We continued to fight as hard as we could, but in the end, the D-VAS claimed their victory lap with a score of 69-10. Heading off to our dressing room, one of the D-VAS complimented us on our skills, telling us that our score did not reflect the effort that we put in. Of course we were disappointed that we had lost during an elimination round, but it was also clear on where we had gone wrong during the game and what we needed to do to improve for the future.

After a quick shower and bite to eat, we made our way back to the arena to check out the merch tables and take in some of the final games. Some of the fresh meat talent was incredible to watch. Montreal and Guelph specifically had a very high level of talent on their teams and were impressive to watch and learn from.

Playing with teams that we didn’t know was incredibly enlightening for me.  It allowed us to learn about new strategies and to play against people who had hidden strengths and weaknesses.

Coming back to town with this experience makes me incredibly excited to continue training with CCDD. I’m looking forward to pushing myself further and learning more strategy to improve not only my personal performance, but to improve our team effectiveness (especially when faced with challenges on the track).

Thanks to everyone who made this weekend what it was—the tournament organizers, our coaches, the Kingston girls who we combined with to complete our roster, the other Fresh Meat we met up with—and a huge thank you to our supporters at CCDD. Thank you for training us, coaching us, sending us your well wishes and congrats, and offering up some tournament insight. We hope that we made you proud as we represented CCDD in the big city.

Jen “Elizabeth Berserkley” Jarvis