Hard Hitting Bootcamp Photos

I spent Saturday morning watching roller girls from teams located in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia (hope I didn’t miss anyone) knock each other around on the track. I went to the Hard Hitting Bootcamp put on by the Quad Skate Terrors. The event was held at the Hamilton Round-up Roller Rink in Hamilton, Ohio.

The QST arranged for Mark Weber to attend the event and help coach the skaters. Mark was one of the X-men of the Nevada Hot Dice on RollerJam that was televised on TNN. He’s a heavy hitter as seen in this video and was a good instructor at the bootcamp. He got right in the pack and had the ladies hitting him for practice during the drills. Mark is shown in action in the photo at the right.

I tried some different photo techniques during the bootcamp. A couple photos are shown below. I ended up taking quite a few shots that you can see in a Flickr set here. I tried to get a photo of everyone and I hope I was successful. Thanks to Juwana Hurt for letting me know about the event.

Quad State Terrors versus the Killamazoo Derby Darlins

Last Saturday night, Dianne and I went to Skatetown USA in West Chester to see the Quad State Terrors (QST) Rollergirls take on the Killamazoo Derby Darlins (KDD). The Quad State Terrors group is a pick-up team of skaters from Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio. For this bout most of the QST skaters were from the Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls with Grand Raggidy Rollergirls Dot Matrix and Viva La BOOM joining for the bout. I was not familiar with the KDD team. The announcers mentioned that several of the KDD skaters were rookies skating in their first bout.

During the opening minutes of the first half, the Killamazoo team started well and they capitalized on a couple QST jammer penalties that let KDD take and hold the lead. The KDD skaters Lady Hawk, Javelin, and Charisnakov were doing most of the jammer work. According to the KDD website, Lady Hawk is the team captain and Javelin is a coach. Both are solid skaters. Javelin was doing a lot of good work as a blocker too.

After those initial minutes, QST settled down and started chipping away at the KDD lead. It didn’t take long before they moved ahead and kept the lead for the rest of the bout. At the end of the first half the score was QST 61 and KDD 37. The primary jammers for QST were EMolition, Roseanne Scarr (in the photo at right), Dot Matrix, and Petal to the Metal, with Viva la BOOM taking her turns as well. One of my favorite jammer photos of the night is this photo of Dot Matrix headed for the pack at full speed.



My impression was the QST blocking was led by Nuk’em and Juwanna Hurt. The photo at right shows Nuk’em giving a shoulder block to KDD pivot Noam Stompsky. The photo below shows what happens when Juwanna Hurt gives a booty block -- it sent KDD jammer Charisnakov flying through the air.



Many other QST skaters such as Nastee, Arche Enemy and Buckhead Betty were always busy in the pack making some hard hits. The first photo at right shows the result of Arche’s block on KDD skater Ivanna O’bliviacha. Click here to see a photo showing Buckhead Betty trying to slow down the KDD jammer Charisnakov.

The QST continued to pull away in the second half and the match ended with a final score of QST 144 and KDD 91. Congratulations to the Quad State Terrors on their first victory in 2009!

Both teams have some talented skaters. Skaters from both teams were able to get lead jammer status on and off throughout the bout. There were some high scoring jams – at one point Roseanne Scarr had a 14-0 point jam that was answered by KDD with a 14-0 point jam just a few minutes later. Dot Matrix was one jammer that had a grand slam. There were some good blocks here and there throughout the bout and some pack members gave whips to assist their jammers. While there were some great individual efforts, I didn’t get a sense that either team had consistent, coordinated actions in the pack. As the season progresses and teams get more experience communicating with teammates and anticipating their actions, both teams should improve their competitive skills.

The announcers, The Tank and JoeXCore, did a nice job during the bout. Both of them know the rules and used that knowledge to explain the action very clearly. One thing that was missing was the excitement provided by a good sized crowd. Although Pistol Whippin’ Wendy brought along a cheering section with signs (see a photo here), overall the crowd at this first local Quad State Terrors bout was small and relatively quiet.

Their next local bout is against the Riverside Rollergirls at the Hamilton Roundup on March 28th. After the bout I talked briefly with Skinnie Minnie (at right) and Nuk’em (photo below). Thanks to both of them for taking the time to chat. Dianne very kindly took photos of me with each of them. You can see more photos from the bout in my Flickr photo set here.

Upcoming Bout for the Quad State Terrors

What are you doing on the evening of Saturday, February 28th? I'm sure you'll be with me watching the Quad State Terrors Rollergirls take on the Killamazoo Derby Darlins at Skatetown USA in West Chester. You can see the QSTR on MySpace. It will be the first local derby bout in 2009. Here is the bout poster with more information.

Quad State Terrors Rollergirls

If there is one thing you learn quickly about roller derby skaters it is that they are passionate about the sport. I guess that's true of any athlete. But the time commitment derby participation requires, that is above and beyond the other pressures of work and family, makes it seem that much more impressive to me when they pay to play.

So what do derby girls like to do when they have some "spare time?" For the Quad State Terror Rollergirls the answer is skate some more. The Quad State Terrors are a group of skaters from teams in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio that put together a traveling team that skates against other leagues. We saw them for the first time at the tourney in Evansville just before the holidays.

The Terrors have quite a few skaters from the Cincinnati area. I think their challenge is to gel as a group since they aren't practicing a couple times a week together. If they can anticipate each others' actions and communicate effectively, they will be a very successful team and will be a lot of fun to watch.

If you are on MySpace, you can check out their team page here. Their first bout of the season is in Knoxville on February 21st. On February 28th they'll be skating against the Killamazoo Derby Darlins at Skatetown in Cincinnati. The Killamazoo site mentions they finished their 2008 season undefeated. Should be an interesting event -- and it is right in our backyard. Be there to cheer on the Quad State Terrors!