Updates

Many moons circled and many wheel rotations since last I updated this blog. A brief account of the past year is coming soon, but for now I will say that I have received my GED from Northwest Florida State University and now I am attending classes with the University of Phoenix working towards a masters in special education. I returned to Memphis in September of '09 and started college in November. I decided to take some time away from roller derby to pursue my education and I am finally coming to a point where I feel I have the means to join again. I will update the past year with photos and videos, hope you enjoy them. :)

Change of Venue - for Dirty Constance

I've moved to the Emerald Coast and joined the Ft. Walton league, Beach Brawl Sk8tr Dolls. The founders have been around for almost 3 years, but with the size and turn-around, keeping a full roster has been a challenge. The Sk8tr Dolls have also had their fair share of name changes throughout the years. Formerly, Okaloosa, then Emerald Coast. The name Emerald Coast was too similar to Seattle's derby league, so the league finally settled on Sk8tr Dolls.

They've played 4 games, 1-3, yesterday being their (our) first win. I joined 4 weeks ago, and in that time I've learned a lot. Moving from a large league with 4 teams and 1 travel team to a league with a roster of barely 14 is eye-opening. There is a different dynamic that is exciting. A younger league, packs move slower, more injuries and falls, but after skating 3 years with Memphis, it's not any different than where we (mrd) were when we first went into season 1.

I'm really happy to be here with the Sk8tr Dolls! It's an exciting new adventure for me.
Here is the season schedule.

Check back for even more events, appearances and bouts!

Jan. 17 - BBSD vs. Red Stick Roller Derby (Baton Rouge) Away

Feb. 7 - BBSD vs. Red Stick Roller Derby (Fort Walton Beach) Home

Feb. 15-16 - Sunshine Skate (Tampa) Away

March 7 - BBSD vs. Capital City Roller Girls (Jackson, Mississippi) Away

April 4 - BBSD vs. Gainesville Roller Rebels (Fort Walton Beach) Home 1st WIN!!!

May 16 - BBSD vs. Mobile Roller Derby (Mobile) Away

June 6 - BBSD vs. Capital City Roller Girls (Fort Walton Beach) Home

June 21 - BBSD vs. Bradentucky Bombers (Sarasota) Away

July TBA - BBSD vs. Gainesville Roller Rebels (Gainsville) Away

July 25 - BBSD vs. Sintral Florida Derby Demons (Fort Walton Beach) Home

Aug. 15 - BBSD vs. Sintral Florida Derby Demons (DeLand) Away

Sept. 12 - BBSD vs. Greater Jacksonville Roller Derby (Fort Walton Beach) Home

Sept. 20 - BBSD vs. Jacksonville Roller Derby (Jacksonville) Away

Oct. 10 - BBSD vs. Greater Jacksonville Roller Derby (Jacksonville) Away

Nov. 7 - BBSD vs. Jacksonville Roller Derby (Fort Walton Beach) Home

I'll keep you updated as to any changes in the schedule.

2009 Memphis Roller Derby Season Schedule

Drum Roll Please!!!

Now you know, and now you have NO excuse for missing a game this season. It's going to be a fun one, first year as an official member of WFTDA (Women's Flat Track Derby Association). The intra-league team, Legion of Zoom has disbanded and merged their players into our other intra-league teams, Angels of Death, PrissKilla Prezleys & the Women of Mass Destruction.

JAN 24 - PrissKilla Prezleys vs. Angels of Death

FEB 7 - Women of Mass Destruction vs. PrissKilla Prezleys, Angels of Death vs. Rollergirls of Southern Indiana (Evansville, IN)

FEB 28 - Women of Mass Destruction vs. Demolition City Roller Derby (Evansville, IN)

MAR 14 - Angels of Death vs. Women of Mass Destruction, Radioactive City Roller Girls (Paducah,KY) vs. PrissKilla Prezleys

APR 4 - Playoff, Seed 3 vs. Seed 2, Seed 1 vs. TBA

*APR 18 - Atlanta Rollergirls, Atlanta, GA

MAY 9 - Intra-league Championship

*MAY 17 - Green Country Roller Girls, Tulsa, OK

*JUN 13 - Big Easy Rollergirls, Home

*JUL 11 - Assassination City Roller Derby, Home

*AUG 8-9 - Nashville Rollergirls, Hard Knox Roller Girls, Home

*SEP 12 - Hard Knox Roller Girls, Home

*OCT 3 - Dixie Derby Girls, Home

*OCT 24 - Blue Ridge Rollergirls, Home

*NOV 14 - Dallas Derby Devils, Dallas, TX

*Hustlin' Rollers, Memphis Roller Derby All-Stars vs out of town league.

House of Bruise, Saturday, November 22, 2008

This Saturday, November 22nd, is the final bout of a yet undetermined season for the Memphis Hustlin' Rollers.
What's at stake? An undefeated, 12-0 record! Can your Memphis Hustlin' Rollers take it through 2008 with a full "W" column?



Come cheer for your hometown Hustlin' Rollers as they host the Dixie Derby Girls of Huntsville, AL.


You think you've seen roller derby in Memphis.
You ain't seen nothin' yet!

Saturday night, November 22nd... Come join the Memphis Hustlin' Rollers as they reach for great heights.
An undefeated, 13-0 2008 season!

Memphis Roller Derby needs all of your support. MRD needs you in the house... The House of Bruise—at the Mid-South Fairgrounds... Making as much noise as you can for your favorite team!

This is your last chance to come see the Memphis Hustlin' Rollers before spring 2009. Get your $10 ready, and come out to the biggest event in the city—this Saturday.


PLEASE—HELP US HELP! Donate a new, unwrapped toy to Toys for Tots and be entered into a drawing for an awesome Memphis Roller Derby gift basket, including MRD league merchandise and a Sekisui gift card.
Mmmmmm, sushi!

Saturday, November 22nd
Doors at 6PM / $10
Mid-South Fairgrounds
940 Early Maxwell Blvd
Memphis, TN

PrissKillas to Paducah & MRD video shoot

We woke up at 7:45 on Sunday morning (which I never do), trained for 30 minutes from 8:00 to 8:30, then went on to the venue and the Prisskillas walked away with a win against Paducah, Kentucky's Radioactive Roller Girls, The Atomics, http://www.myspace.com/pcrg.

They are a fresh league. Our coaches organized it to give us some more experience and also to give a sister league some practice. Their league only has 18 skaters and don't have enough girls to scrimmage each other most of the time. We did it for us both to gain some practice time, and for fun!   It was ALOT of fun.  All the girls were really nice. 

Other fun stuff that happened, but I couldn't attend :( was a video shoot for an MRD commercial with our girls and Al Kapone!  :) lol.  The pictures are great.  Jim Duong still photographed the shoot.  It was paid for by the City of Memphis, in collaboration with Live from Memphis and will air on MTV's web next to the 5$ cover.

Thanks to our great marketing Brad Brains & Shawty PR director for throwing it together in a wink of an eye. :)  Props!  I'm only sad lil T's mug and my own aren't in it somewhere!  I seem to miss out on pics and stuff.  It always happens, but I'm used to it!  In CARD game, I was off getting water at the benches while the 2 teams were taking pics together, then yesterday in Paducah, I was off at the bench talking to Lil T when the 2 teams pics were taken!  lol!  It goes all the way back to high school.  I was on yearbook staff, and I created the art, and wrote a good majority of the section me and my team were working on, but when it came time for picture day - my car broke down and I lived in Reseda, but my high school was in Canyon Country (45 minutes away) :( 

There was some redemption, when I saw the yearbook, and in the yearbook staff section, even though I wasn't in the group picture, a self-portrait I did for photo class was hanging on the wall in the background of another picture!  ahahahaha.

It's like I'm there....in the background :)  It is what it is.

When I get pics from Paducah, I'll share.  These are from the video shoot, that Jim Duong took:

I love seeing Al Kapeezy sportin' MRD gear! :) holding the MRD playbook!  So awesome!

Two of my favorite people:  Chica Bandita & Bloody Elle

More favorite people, MRDeviants mixed with some notable skaters, the shoot was such a last minute thing, It's good we also had some fans there too:

Chica, Juju & Robin n' Stealin'

My absolute favorite!  KOACH KAPONE!  hell yeah.

It's been a dream for a long time with the league that the city supports us, and I see it happening now, thanks to some really great hard working people on our board staff and directors and some notable influential Memphians, such as the Turley family & Al Kapone attending our games, functions and supporting the new league.

It's taken 3 years almost.  That's actually, not so bad for a bunch of girls at Skateland Raleigh when we started :)  Proud of us.

 

Memphis Roller Derby achieves WFTDA status!

After years of hard work by so many, we've accomplished our goal from day 1! WFTDA official new members Memphis Roller Derby!

What this means for our league, is national ranking. It's the equivalent of going from the minor league to the major league. It's a great accomplishment and now, our undefeated travel team, will officially begin to rank nationally.

This will give us the opportunity to go up against teams with more experience. What a wonderful week this has been for Memphis Roller Derby.

Fundraisers - A Necessary Evil for the Love of Quad

Having fundraisers is absolutely necessary being a non-profit. Especially if you have not gained a substantial sponsor for your league. Organizing them is a quite a feat and a lot goes into the preparation in hopes for great rewards.

Secure venue, secure MC's, bands, d.j.s, create a theme, come up a name for the event i.e.

"White Trash Beach Bash"



or

"Ho Ho Ho Burlesque Show"

and perhaps a catchy tag line, i.e. "Put a Girl on your Grill"; a tag line we use for our car washes.


Guesstimating our figures, I believe we raised about five thousand as a combined total from all three of these events, and I may be generous.

The volunteers, including the bands do not get paid a lot if anything and all the money we raise is filtered back into producing our bouts, paying rental costs of our venue, practice space, printing costs and if we can afford it, travel expenses to bout out of town leagues.

We feature our own skaters on almost all of our print advertising as a way to familiarize the public with its new home town derby girl athletes. I feel its exciting to see someone in person that you've become familiar with in print ads. Its good for marketing your league to your town.

All of these things contribute to getting the word out and making it something fun and different for someone to want to say "Okay, I'll give you my money." In most cases, it takes months of preparation and the rewards are not always pleasing and its mostly always stressful.

There is one thing that does me feel rewarded for the effort and that is when I see children smile or gawk in amazement at these large amazon women on 8 tiny wheels, plowing into each other at speeds upwards of 20 mph, falling down, jumping up and keep on skating.

And if children's smiles don't please you, then you'll certainly gleam from the goofy pictures that are born, whether you remember them being snapped, or not!