The seasons turn, turn, turn,

2010 was a year of change for the Furies; filled with injuries, pregcellency (trying to coin this phrase for sure), teammates moving on, and new blood moving in. Despite the upheaval- the levels of commitment, dedication, and hard work that all our skater's put forth has never been higher. Countless grueling hours of the off season were spent honing skills and strengthening our bond as a team. The Resurgence of Fury is a real and visceral thing, as any of our loyal fans that were at the season opener can attest.

Such hard works deserves a reward, and we claimer ours in recent weeks past as the Flat Track Furies got turned out in our finest, and took ECRG's annual roller ball by storm.

(From left to right) Top row: Terrin' Skirtz, Boldy Knocks, Katarina Van Rotten, Blitz Vixen, Repsycho, Boneyard Brawler, F- Baum. Second Row: Drive-by 45, Aphrofighty, Jenesis O'Sin, Noble Savage, Frankie Facebreaker. Third Row: Vexine, Blue Ruin, Stormbird, Cobra Commander. Bottom Row: Lady Lumps, Diezaster, Kiki O'Kiester, BurnaDeath, Medusa Harm. Not pictured but much loved - Sugar Hooker.

Some of you out in the vast interweb may be asking yourselves, "Dang how do they look so good, and also what the heck is RollerBall?". I'll answer the first with the same thing I say about our skating skills- all natural talent baby! Secondly and all joking aside, Rollerball has different meaning and importance for all it's attendees, but from the lips of Babes (A.K.A. my Furious sisters) -

"Rollerball is very special occasion for us Derby Gals. It is a time that we get to clad our bruised and scraped bodies in fun and sexy attire. We get to talk and laugh about non derby related stuff with our derby wives, derby widows, team mates, sole mates and league friends. It is the celebration of US: beyond average, athletic, courageous, and daring."

-Terrin Skirtz

"This was my first Rollerball with ECRG. In my old league, we had awards ceremonies and end of season parties, but nothing like Rollerball. It was great to talk to some of the skaters that I don't normally get to talk to, and to get to know their partners! This Rollerball was very special to me. Not only did I get to see how vast and amazing our league actually is, I proposed to the beautiful and extremely talented F Baum (and she said YES!) We even took our engagement photos that night! I am very proud to call myself an Emerald City Roller Girl. To see all of the league come together is a very beautiful thing! I couldn't be a happier roller girl, and couldn't ask for a better league to be a part of!"

-Frankie Facebreaker

"This season was my first Roller Ball experience...I am so pleased that we have this opportunity to ditch the booty shorts and dress up in some pretty fantastic outfits that perhaps haven't seen daylight in years...all to recognize the hard work that is done throughout the season. We have some phenomenal members of the league, skaters and non-skaters alike. They have absolutely earned recognition for what they have contributed. The food was fabulous, but the company was even better."

-Blitzkrieg Vixen

"My rollerball experience was fantastic... It included me drinking too much, being the last to leaving the bar, not sleeping in my own bed, and vomiting all the next day (The not sleeping in my own bed thing involved my boyfriend and I crashing at Bullet Brains' house)".

-DieZaster

"I was on the decorations crew and I was so happy with how everything turned out - like a fiery winter wonderland! And winning the award for top trainer was really important to me. Focusing on training my team helped me get through my recovery from knee surgery and it meant a lot to me for being recognized for the work I put into it. It also shows that people are feeling the Resurgence of FURY!!!"

-VEXINE

And just for posterity, here is a list of the various awards won by your favorite Furies:

Best Attendance- Blue Ruin

Best Sportswoman- Katarina Van Rotten

Rookie of the Year- F-Baum

Best Coach/ Trainer- Vexine

The Saint Award- Blue Ruin

"Belle of the Brawl"- F-Baum

Cleanest Player- Drive-By .45



*******************************
Signing out my darlings,
Your Mysterious and devoted Blog Mistress.

Fundraiser

Last day to participate in this month's Fundraiser! If you want to support your favorite roller derby team while eating delicious burgers - print out a voucher and head over to Dickie Joe's. Voucher's can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=189485517736486

2011 Season BLOG Opener!

Here it is. The year of the snake, resergence of the fury! We've worked hard and come a long way to get to where we're at. We still have a long way to go, because in my humble opinion, there is no such thing as "the top". Why put a cap on talent and skill? We're a team! We work hard and we will keep working even HARDER! With that said, I'm not looking at the season opener as the greatest bout of the century (even though it's going to be pretty amazing). Rather, I see it as a preview of what's to come from the most Furious women of the Emerald City Roller Girls!

I must say, this is probably one of the strongest teams I've EVER been on. When I transferred to ECRG from Oklahoma City's Oklahoma Victory Dolls, the Furies were suffering some major losses to injury and pregnancy. Shortly after practicing with ECRG, the draft came about...and I was drafted onto the Furies. I was very proud, and very nervous at the same time. There were some huge skates to fill! Luckily, that kind of pressure was never placed on ANYONE, rather, the entire team accepted us draftees with open arms, and we formed a very strong bond.

We all hold equal weight on the team. No one person is more important than the other. We all contribute to our success. Each and every skater on the team is important. There are no individual super starts on our team, we are one giant super star together. I hold this team very dear to my heart, and am proud to be a part of it.

A wise man once said, "...with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you, there are no limits. Perseverance, dertermination, commitment, and courage-those things are real. The desire for redemption drives you. And the will to succeed-it's everything." That wise man is none other than Michael Phelps, most decorated athlete in olympic history.

We've put in the hard work, we sure do believe, and we sure as hell have confidence and trust in not only ourselves...but in each other. We have the perseverance, the determination, the commitment and courage...we have all of these things. This is merely the recipe for success, and come Saturday...we will succeed.




And for the rest of you skaters out there! Get ready! In roller derby, words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality!

Can't wait to meet you No Town! We're very excited to play against you!

~Lauren Neel aka Frankie Facebreaker

Striking back with great vengence and furious anger

So it's been assigned to me to have the next entry on our blog. This being a very difficult task for me since I'm not one to express my feelings or reveal my inner workings very easily. I'm certainly not an english teacher, heck I'm lucky to have graduated High School so forgive the spelling, grammar and/or punctuation errors, But here we go......

Being a derby girl can be a very challenging task on a day to day basis. Most people see the big production on a Saturday night everyone dress to impress. Putting on their game faces to give a good show of sportswomanship to our fans. But it's much more than that.....

Each of us have day jobs, husbands, wives, children, significant others, pets or any combination of the mentioned. On a daily basis we have to make the choice (sometimes difficult) to go to a practice and leave the ones we love so that we can get better at the sport we equally love. We practice our hearts out! Sometimes you get praised while other times you get criticized. The praise we love, but the critical comments can make you wonder if you really want to continue doing this sport that you thought you were good at and enjoyed doing.

So after being sick for 3 weeks and being benched 3 bouts in a row all with good reasons :0) or so the captains explained, I decided it was time to get my head back into the game. I was feeling healthy, I decided that although I had been feeling angry and not really worthy of playing the game I've grown to love, it was time to put all that negative feeling aside and be a positive member of my team and put on my game face.

So June 9th I geared up for our scrimmage and got in the game. I had some amazing hits that landed people on their butts. And then it happened...... I got nailed, which for those who watch know that doesn't happen very often. But I went down and couldn't get back up. We had a Doc on site that day which doesn't happen very often. He came an assessed my knee and said I was fine put ice on it and learn to control my falls. HEHEHE easier said than done in derby. A week later still not able to skate or even walk without pain, I decided to go to my own Doc. Come to find out I had partially torn both my PCL and LCL ligaments in my right knee. This putting out of the game for 6-8 weeks at least.

When you get injured you get to see the life you leave behind every time you decide to go to that practice. And I must say it is easier to sit and do nothing than make yourself go to a practice that is going to make you tired and sore. So after 8 weeks I tried to get back into the swing of things that is derby but my knee still didn't feel quite right and I wasn't really feeling the love of the game that I had pre-injury/illness. Then we go into the off season so no real pressure to go to practice. But now it's October - Pre-Season to The year of the Fury and I've not really been active in derby for 4 months. I had gone to a couple of practices and felt OK.

Now is the time to get my head back in the game. When I started derby I wasn't afraid to get hurt and I always knew it was "when" not "if" I got hurt when it came to derby. Although now I'm not so much afraid as I am cautious about my previous injury. I'm making a new commitment to my team to give 100% of what I have. I believe now that my injury couldn't have come at a better time. I was negative and my head wasn't in the game. I was to wrapped up in my own feelings that I was a better player than what I was being given credit for.

So here I am to humble myself and offer up the knowledge that I have and listen to the knowledge and wisdom of others and make this the most FURIOUS YEAR EVER.

Love to all my Furies, to our fans and all of ECRG.

~Noble Savage~

p.s. I'm not as bad at spelling as I thought, but thank goodness for spell check.

Shedding Skin

It's hard to describe the feeling of having your knee give out on you. If it's happened to you, you know that profound wrongness of joints that are not quite connected, the deep-inside mishappening of flesh and bones. Worse yet is the call that confirms the injury that all athletes dread: the busted ACL. In an air-conditioned office somewhere, a man in a white coat is scrutinizing the black and gray swirls of your MRI and pronouncing your sentence:

Torn.
Completely torn?
Might as well be.


Your first thought: My derby career is over!
Your second thought: Oh my god, I'm going to lose this fine derby booty!

Your third thought is not actually a thought - just tears.

Your fourth thought (you raise your fist in the air, the music swells): FUCK IT! I'LL BE BACK, BITCHES!

That's when you put on your big girl skinz and start planning your triumphant return. That's where I'm at right now.

And the rebuilding of my knee is coinciding with the rebuilding of my team. With all of the changes we've had lately - injury, pregnancy, life in general - the Furies are shedding the old and reinventing ourselves as the new. All of our struggles this season have taught us valuable lessons about determination and teamwork.

Every time I think I have it dialed, roller derby has a way of teaching me something new. When we first started this league, it was all about getting my head around this brand new thing, the physical challenge of it, and trying to get good at something that I wasn't naturally good at. Next it was keeping my head up when all of my efforts were slow to pay off and dealing with conflict in relationships. Then came a kind of era of confidence and competency: I made the travel team, I got voted co-captain of the Furies. And then the inevitable cosmic smackdown.

But I realize that every time my body sustains serious damage, tragedy tends to yield great benefits in the not-very-long run. In this case, I get to focus all of my energy on my team and helping my derby sisters get strong, stay motivated, and gain confidence. Even though I'm off skates, I can feel myself developing as a skater. It's making me focus on leadership and being a good captain. Hell, it might even make me a better person.

So love your knees, people. Appreciate all the awesome things your body does - including its amazing power of healing. And dig the new furious logo! I'll see you on the track, bitches!

love & bruises,

VEXINE

Before & After

Identity, it’s the way we define ourselves. Who we are, what we do, our goals, passions, and vices all wrapped up into one tiny ball. After my college career ended, I was floundering – adrift in a sea of possibilities, convinced that the universe had lied to me. There was supposed to be a path you see. Get good grades, go to University, find that thing that drives you, meet up with your other half, and come out the other side a better, brighter, more perky you. Yet four years and forty thousand dollars later, I was no closer to figuring out who I was going to be in this world than when I started. Where was that spark that was supposed to change my life forever?

When you meet someone new there seems to be this standardized set of questions that goes with the getting to know you game. Where are you from, what do you do, who are you? Now you’re conveniently classified in five sentences or less. I used to make jokes to cover for the boring job and the complete lack of motivation. Nowadays I answer with pride and say “I am a derby girl”. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the summation of everything I am, merely the realization of things I’ve always wanted to be.

Derby came into my life at a time where I was looking to be inspired. I went to my first bout and got a peek into a world filled with strong, independent, stunningly badass women. Needless to say I was hooked. For the first time in a long while I wanted to do more than just skate (excuse the terrible pun) through life. Every fiber that made up the fuzzy sweater of my being wanted to be one of those fishnet clad ladies. So I strapped wheels to my feet, despite never having done so before, and got determined.

Pretend to be a stranger, come up and ask me how I like playing derby: I love it. Derby is the anticipation before the fall, the perfect clarity of focus, the highest spike of adrenaline, and the drive to be great. I’m sure you’ve heard similar sentiments from sports enthusiasts of other cults. I’d contend though that the difference between them lies not just in the people that play the game but the way the game changes people. Confidence, charm, kindness, intelligence, fearlessness, and a work ethic to die for; all traits I’ve found in those I’m lucky enough to call my comrades. All things I’ve consequently found within myself. The most miraculous thing about this game is its transformative power- It allows those weighted down by the shackles of life to break free and become legends (even if only in their own minds).

Roller Derby . . . it may not be for the faint of heart, but it helped me to find mine.


-Jenesis O'Sin
#(perfect) 10