Inferno & Memphis Roller Derby

We had a great meeting with Inferno today.

Brad Brains (our new marketing director) and myself were in attendance. Brad was just voted in this morning, and he's on top of it! I'm so glad he was there with me.

A fellow skater works for them in the media department. She said they expressed interest in helping our league. Thanks to Lyn-da-licious, we are building a great relationship with Inferno. They offered to work on our November 1 & November 22 posters for the last two games of the season.

The concepts are amazing, and it's comforting to know that so many great people are spending so much time working on getting more people to our games, is just beyond words for me. What a great opportunity.

Thank you,
Julia Karre
Mark Adkins
Linda Corti
Susan Ewing

and all the awesome artists that worked on these conceptual designs for us.

and our own Lyn-Da-Licious

What a great team.

I took over the creative position following in Brad's footsteps. Large shoes to fill. He's an amazing artist & photographer. Like many artists, we see eye to eye on a lot, and butt heads in other areas. Today, it seems we were both drawn towards the same concept for these games and it felt good. I'm glad to have him as new marketing director. I think he'll propel us forward in a way we've been sorely in need of the for past 3 years.

I'm also looking forward to direction in that department, that I've been lacking. I'm so glad he could make the meeting today and I see two great posters coming out of it.

Thanks Inferno!

The Stomp - Tennessee State Conference

The Stomp (2008) aka Honky Tonk Stomp (2007) - Is comprised of the three Tennessee All-Star teams going up against each other in a three day event. Nashville Rhythm & Bruisers, Memphis Hustlin' Rollers & Hard Knox Roller Girls.

Last Year, the Hustlin' Rollers walked away with the title of state champions.

MRDeviants (the loving nickname for our fans)

It's basically unofficial. We are not WFTDA certified yet, and neither are the Hard Knox Roller Girls. Nashville Rhythm & Bruisers are, but are not currently ranked amongst the leagues in WFTDA. Reason being they have not played enough league sanctioned games for ranking.

This weekend is a re-match of 2007. I had the opportunity to travel last year to Nashville and play in the game against Knoxville. It was a hard game, my first as a travel team member and as a jammer, my performance was very poor. My coach Jonjitsu put me in as a blocker after our skater Lyn-da-licious was viciously stomped in the kidney with a skate. The paramedics were quick with advising her to go to the hospital, but she refused. Not a surprise. She is one of the toughest skaters on our league. She insisted he throw me in as her replacement, as I normally don't block, but she knew I was up for the task. He did, and I did well as a blocker, succeeding in stopping the opposing jammer several times.

Personally, I felt really bad about my jamming, because in a game previous to this against our inter-league team the WMD's, I managed to score the most points in the game and we won that game by just 5 points. After watching the video's of the 2007 Honky Tonk Stomp, my spirits were not so much dampened. I watched jammer after jammer experience the same woes as I. They couldn't break through, they fell on the slick spots and ultimately didn't score any points either.

I've remained on travel team this whole time, but it seems a bag of mixed nuts. Either my health or other things have interfered with my practices and ultimately my ability to travel out of town for games.

I'm wishing my teammates the best of luck this Stomp and If you have a chance to visit Knoxville, you'll be in for a treat.

Sunday, they have miscellaneous scrimmages against different derby girls, refs against coaches, etc. Lots of fun.

For more information, please visit Hard Knox Roller Girls Dot Com

Whoop That Trick Hustlin' Rollers!

Thursday Night Practice & Demands of Roller Derby

At our previous venue, Funquest, we would practice nearly 4 days a week. Tuesday night is always league practice. At Funquest, we'd practice from 7-9 on the weekdays and on Saturday or Sunday the times varied. 5-7 Saturday, 7-9 Saturday, 9-11am Sunday, 11-1 Sunday, so on.

We moved into the Mid-South Fairgrounds sometime in February of 2008. The limitations of the venue has forced our practices into a 3 day period. All back to back. Tuesday night is still league practice 7-9. Wednesday & Thursday nights are team practices. However the scheduling is so late. I find it very hard to attend the late practices. Practice now is 6:30-8:30 or 8:30-10:30...weeknights. I miss our old practice times, and never thought I would, or the 45 minute drive to Collierville.

Skaters are required mandatory skate hours (time spent on your skates) Our league requires 12 per month mandatory. Our league also requires 8 service hours a month. Service hours include time dedicated to building the league, promoting, working for the leagues benefit. Directors are exempt from service hours, because directors usually work an upwards of 30-40 hours a month on building the business. I'm creative director for my league. When we first started, I was bout production director.

As bout production director, I had to research how bouts were managed. Tickets, crowd control, security, volunteer management, acquiring an announcer, acquiring equipment for the production (track, lighting, sound, microphones, rosters, scoreboard) A lot of research went into it and with the help of some other well established leagues and great volunteers, and fellow bout production skater committee members (Hurt Reynolds & Nox) our committee produced the only two sold out bouts of our 3 year career. None of us had ever done anything like this before. We had news crews at the bout, thanks to our great PR department.

Now I'm creative director and I do posters,
, maintain our website MemphisRollerDerby.com, which we are meeting with an ad agency to redevelop, commandeer writers, photographers, videographers, produce bout books and rosters for the league. It's all hard work. I spend an average of 2-3 hours a day working on that aspect. On top of being a skater and training, needless to say, it's hard. I think it's worth it though. Now I feel like the mother, that wants to see her child succeed.

The pressure and demands take it toll. So many of us that take on the role of director or board member, end up quiting the position 'just to skate' again. I just remind myself of why I'm here. I guess that is the one thing that keeps me going. However, I would love to just say "I'm just going to skate."

At this point, it's not about being on the winning team, or meeting so and so celebrity. I look at the faces of the girls that believe in our organization and have worked since day one, and also the girls and guys that have joined and believe in it, and think to myself that I need to push through it...No matter how hard it gets.

To the nitty gritty:

Thursday night practice - my team has a new trainer. Her name is Manda Malice and she offered her services to our team. I'm so happy she did. Our team has the most drop-outs and trades in the entire league. I don't think it stems from so much strife as it does from family issues, and people moving or making life changes that being a volunteer on an organization that demands so much time, they just couldn't do it. There are no hard feelings either, amongst dropped/traded teammates.

Our practice was Thursday, 6:30-8:30.

Manda made it clear (and gratefully so) that this is a team effort. We geared up, and were told that whoever is fully suited, they move to the middle of the rink and wait on one knee in supine position until the rest of our team joins. This adds pressure. Much needed pressure, to gear up fast. I'm usually the first up in gear, I don't really like to lallygag around, I'm here to skate.

Before we geared up, Manda led us through core building drills. Drills that G.I. Jane would be proud of. Rocky Balboa would quiver. She led us on to endurance, pack and scrimmage drills. In total, our practice lasted 2 hours.

My favorite part of her hard edge approach to the first time training our team, was that she said "I know you may have relaxed after scrimmaging before, but now, you're going to do 20 laps." Love it.

Today, I'm in so much pain, that every muscle in my entire body is feeling the intent of her drills. Even though it hurts, I'm so grateful. We need this. I can't imagine doing this back to back though. I'm a little wary of the Tues, Wed, Thur. I wish they were spread out more. One day on, one day off - to recover.

I do look forward to our next training session with her. She brought us together as a team, and in the 3 years I've been a PKP, this is the first time someone else had the strength to wrangle in the strong personalities our team possess. I feel she'll harness it, and bring us to where we need to be.

Dirty Secrets first post! How exciting :)

I've decided to keep a weblog of my training, injuries, practices, bouts, pr events, travel & life as a modern day derby girl. I've been doing this for almost 3 years, come February and I can say honestly that it has taken me just about that long, to really understand why I continue to stay and play.


I'm not a writer by profession, however, I thought it would be great to have a log, and share it with other like minds, and voyeur's who may be interested in derby, or playing derby, but want to know more about exactly what it takes to form a league, skate, train & build the business of modern day non-profit flat track, derby association with the goal of being WFTDA (Women's Flat Track Derby Association) certified.


Our league started from scratch. Approximately 30 girls attended the first meeting (which I could not attend). I was hesitant. I wasn't sure I really wanted to play roller derby, but it seemed exciting. Then I went to the second practice, and I loved it. I found that I knew several of the girls already, and met so many new faces.


At first we just haphazardly formed committees, through appointments. We had committees such as, training, sponsorship, creative, pr, bout production, events & fundraising, community service. Over time, along with the learning process of structure, we've almost fine tuned our structure to a smooth working entity, with a good chain of command and process flow.

We've come across roadblocks, where very few fellow leagues were generous in handing out their 'secrets' for sake of competition. It is almost like a mother, trying to teach their child to walk with a 'do it yourself' mentality. Don't give up necessary knowledge needed to be successful, instead, let us fall a few times, watch us make mistakes, and once the mother watches you fall, then get up, fall, then get up, and finally start walking... the mother senses a proud feeling. Then she gives us tips, but only enough to help us grow.

I feel comfortable saying that building a roller derby league from scratch is difficult. We have a lot to be thankful for. Other 'fresh' leagues around us, that offered us guidance and improvement. It's really an amazing feat, instances where many leagues fail, and others succeed is more common than not.

It's a learning process.

I feel that's a good insight into the business aspect of building a league. My next post will be about the physical & mental work that goes into it. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy the journey.