Our adventure started on Friday, September 21st. We were to meet at Valero’s on Lohman at 2pm, but not everyone was there yet. One fact about derby girls, we’re not always on time. While we waited for everyone to get there, I handed out jerseys to the new girls on the team. It’s always exciting to get new jerseys! Our caravan finally took off around 2:30pm. For some of the girls, myself included, this was our first away bout. I was excited and extremely nervous. Our first stop was at T or C. They threatened to take my water away and only feed me ice chips. We got back on the road and shortly made a dinner stop at the Owl Bar in San Antonio, NM. Their hamburgers were delish! The shenanigans on the road made our 8 hour trip fly by. We were all excited to sleep!
September 23, the day of the bout. I did not sleep well but it was time to get my game face on. We occupied Denny’s for our team breakfast. After breakfast we parted ways. Some of us went to Walmart, while others went running, swimming, or to Starbucks. We all got bout ready and went to eat lunch before heading out to the venue. The bout was located at the Flagstaff Activity Center.
I strapped on my skates and took the track to test out the floors. A couple days before we left we had been informed that the floor was named, “The Swamp.” The track lived up to the name. It felt like skating on AstroTurf. The straight-aways grabbed your feet like mud and the turns were slippery. My first jam I was tug boating a 3 wall. 2 fell and I got a major back block. I felt so awful! During the game all I could think of was how awful the floors were! It was painful to skate on and from what I heard painful to watch us skate. I remember finally breaking free from the pack and watching the pack get closer to me faster than I could skate away. At the half the score was 77-8. After a pep talk from Racky Balboa and Andrematon, we held a stronger wall, played more aggressively, and rallied as a team! The final score was 135-23.
This was definitely a big learning experience for the Santas. I think about what we could have done better during the game, how we could have had stronger walls, how I could have fought harder as a jammer. I can dwell on these things but as a player, you have to realize that you can’t always win. Does it suck not to win? Yes, but you move on. All you can do is think about what’s next to come. Penalties won’t always be called…Refs are human too! You learn from your mistakes as an individual and as a team, give it all you got to work hard, and keep skating left.
We did however win the after party!
<3, Fatal Mishtake #9:15
September 23, the day of the bout. I did not sleep well but it was time to get my game face on. We occupied Denny’s for our team breakfast. After breakfast we parted ways. Some of us went to Walmart, while others went running, swimming, or to Starbucks. We all got bout ready and went to eat lunch before heading out to the venue. The bout was located at the Flagstaff Activity Center.
I strapped on my skates and took the track to test out the floors. A couple days before we left we had been informed that the floor was named, “The Swamp.” The track lived up to the name. It felt like skating on AstroTurf. The straight-aways grabbed your feet like mud and the turns were slippery. My first jam I was tug boating a 3 wall. 2 fell and I got a major back block. I felt so awful! During the game all I could think of was how awful the floors were! It was painful to skate on and from what I heard painful to watch us skate. I remember finally breaking free from the pack and watching the pack get closer to me faster than I could skate away. At the half the score was 77-8. After a pep talk from Racky Balboa and Andrematon, we held a stronger wall, played more aggressively, and rallied as a team! The final score was 135-23.
This was definitely a big learning experience for the Santas. I think about what we could have done better during the game, how we could have had stronger walls, how I could have fought harder as a jammer. I can dwell on these things but as a player, you have to realize that you can’t always win. Does it suck not to win? Yes, but you move on. All you can do is think about what’s next to come. Penalties won’t always be called…Refs are human too! You learn from your mistakes as an individual and as a team, give it all you got to work hard, and keep skating left.
We did however win the after party!
<3, Fatal Mishtake #9:15
