1. That sounds like fun!
2. That’s so cute!
3. What’s that? (Let’s just continue on and not even address this. My ignorance tolerance is low right now.)

While roller derby is a lot of fun, and I may use an adjective like “cute” when describing an interesting shaped bruise, I seldom hear responses that convey an understanding of the true athleticism behind this sport. Allow me to remedy this ghastly oversight.

When you become a Windy City Roller, you start on the Haymarket Rioters, also referred to as the farm team or simply "The Rioters", until you get drafted onto one of the four home teams. Being a Haymarket Rioter is no walk (skate?) in the park.

We have a two-hour official practice one day a week that consists of solidifying the basics of roller-skating and beginning derby drills, as well as off-skates training to build the muscles unique to derby. We are strongly encouraged to keep going to speed skating classes – we even have attendance sheets that get turned in to our coaches to show that we are going. One of the trainers holds an off-skates strength-training session to work the little muscles that are key to injury prevention. I do yoga. I lift weights. I do classes at my gym. I do wall sits, squats, and ankle exercises at random. All and all, I find myself working out hard 4-5 times a week.

While Rioters is excellent because you get to build a solid base of fitness and skating abilities so you aren’t just coming off the street and trying to take on a 6 year veteran, the ultimate goal is to get drafted. Drafts happen as skaters are needed for home teams. To get drafted and play, you need to get cleared for practices.

In addition to home team practices and scrimmage, WCR holds weekly league practices that focus on specific skills – blocking, pivoting, jamming, etc. The first practice you get cleared for is agility. This involves a speed trial and doing a number of skating skills within a certain time. Next is blocking, which requires the ability to execute and take a series of different blocks with a trainer. After that, you take the rules test to show you have an idea of how this whole roller derby thing works (hint: there is no ball). Finally, you are cleared for all practices and scrimmage! I made this sound all very bing, bang, boom, but truthfully, this whole process can take months, especially if you don’t pass the first time around, which is not uncommon. It took me about 4-5 months. Just in case you wanted to know. Which I figured you did. Since you’re reading this and all. Anyway…

Once you’re cleared for everything, a magical yet frightening thing happens: you can now practice with The Big Girls. And what’s that like? Good things come to those who wait…for the next blog!

photo by Gil Leora

Chicago’s Windy City Rollers home league put a bow on the 2010 season Saturday night at the UIC Pavilion.  The Fury, unbeaten since a season-opening loss to the Manic Attackers, met expectations with a 130-71 blowout win over the injury-ridden Double Crossers in the Ivy King Cup Championship. 

 With six Windy City All-Stars and three Second Wind (B-Team) players on their sixteen-woman roster, the Fury cut through the league like butter on the way to a 5-1 record.  In this one, Kola Loka, the league’s leading scorer, rang up six points on the opening jam, and the Fury never looked back.  Up by 33 at the start of the thirteenth jam, Loka lined up against Crosser Captain Julia Rosenwinkel, who came into the game with an injured leg.  After a series of hits from The Fury,  the Crossers' leading scorer would not return and finished the game scoreless. 

 The Crossers played with a short bench all season, and with Nina Millimeter and Sassy Squash both off skates for this game, the Crossers had too little muscle inside and too little speed on the jam line.  Indy Cent led the Crossers with 41, and Karmageddon, who skated in 91% of the jams, played over her head, registering 42 offensive and defensive actions in the loss.  The Crossers held the Fury to four points for a five-jam stint in the second half, while Indy Cent put up 10 points in the ninth jam which would be the Crossers' second biggest jam of the night.  Even as the Fury began to rack up penalties midway through the second half, leaving the Crossers with scoring advantages, Fury play in the pack was dominant.  Indy Cent had 27 of her 41 points in the second half, but Tori Adore and HOWCOOL.COM Player of the Game Sargentina held all other Crosser jammers to 16 points total after intermission.

Full recap coming soon...

Fans were treated to a benefit game to open the night; line-ups made from the Hell’s Belles, Manic Attackers, and Haymarket Rioters (the WCR farm team) were punctuated by some veterans who now play only on the travel squad.  Athena DeCrime, Ying O’Fire, Varla Vendetta, and Hoosier Mama gave fans a peek of what to look for when Boston comes calling on July 31.

photo by Gil Leora

photo by Gil Leora

The Windy City Rollers All-Stars kicked off their 2010 season on Sunday morning in a closed bout against the North Star Roller Girls’ Supernovas. Windy City shut out North Star 15-0 in the first 5 jams, but the window of opportunity opened for the Supernovas with a 9-0 power jam for Jawbreaker in the sixth jam. WCR’s Varla Vendetta jammed next, putting 14 points unanswered on the board as her pack (All-Star rookies Di Richmond and Sargentina, along with vet Hoosier Mama) kept Supernova jammer Katarina Hit tied up for two minutes, taking Windy City to 29-9 10 minutes in.

North Star and Windy City would trade lead jammer status for the next nine jams, with Windy City only growing their lead a point to 48-27. A 7-0 run by Katarina Hit in jam 17 put the Supernovas in striking distance at 48-34. However, 14 points would be the closest North Star would get for the rest of the game, as WCR put 20 more on the board in the next three jams to close the half 68-37.

The Supernovas started off the second half strong, with Medusa and Jawbreaker getting lead jam back-to-back. Windy City transfer Jackie Daniels changed the momentum in jam 3, securing lead and a quick 5-0. WCR would get lead in the next 8 jams, shutting out NSRG in the process.

During that 44-0 run, WCR rookie Ska Face jammed for the first time against veteran Jawbreaker. Jawbreaker’s aggressive defense racked up enough minors to earn her a trip to the box and Ska got 9-0 on that power jam. Varla Vendetta had the game’s biggest score in the next jam at 18-0.

North Star ended WCR’s run in jam 12 with a quick 4-0 by Roller Vixen, but that still left North Star on the wrong side of 114-47 with under 15 minutes to go. At that point, the Supernova jammers shifted their focus to play defense outside the engagement zone to prevent multiple Windy City passes. Even with this more defensive play, in the last 4 jams of the game, WCR was able to go 27-3 (17 of those points by Shocka Conduit) to a score of 159-59 as time expired.

The WCR All-Stars are in action next weekend, as they face regional rival Madison’s Dairyland Dolls at the BrewHaha. North Star’s Supernovas will be in action next against Carolina and Nashville at June’s ECE.

Check out Fox Searchlight's website to see how Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It, is helping spread the word about roller derby and the WCR. Thanks to Allied Advertising for making much of this possible! Our gallery full of pics taken by Gil Leora can be seen here »

Last week, the WCR All-Stars, along with a legion of leaguemates and fans, traveled up to the Twin Cities to assert their regional dominance. This week, they returned-- job done.

The WCR All-Stars had three games at the Brawl of America and booked three big wins: first a quarterfinal against host Minnesota Rollergirls (155-25), second a semifinal against Cincinnati (163-36), and a championship win over Madison (150-56).

Read more about the winning weekend at our blog.