WCR Defeats Rose City in Front of Record Crowd, 113-73

By Mike Ondolences

Portland’s Rose City Rollers visited Chicago on Saturday night to take on the Windy City Rollers All-Stars, the 2009 North Central Region champs. Rose City, eliminated in the Quarterfinals of the Western Regionals, may have hoped to slip in under the radar and catch the All-Stars focused forward on WFTDA Nationals next month. Three quarters of the way through the bout, the teams were knotted at 70, but a group of four-year starters took over the pack late in the game and WCR outlasted their now-chronic penalty trouble to win big, 113-73 in front of a full house.

Unquestionably stimulated by the hype surrounding “Whip It,” Fox Searchlight’s coming-of-age-on-wheels fantasy, fans filled UIC Pavilion’s lower level and by all appearances spilled well outside derby’s conventional demographic. Like leagues around the country, WCR pulled out all the stops during the "Whip It" run—upstaging Drew Barrymore while singing the seventh-inning stretch at a Cubs game and using its farm team, the Haymarket Rioters, like army mules in a massive street-teaming campaign.

As this intriguing sub-culture spectacle of flat-track derby struggles to morph into a legitimate sport, it will need more paying customers that look less like the fiercely loyal, tattooed fan base and more like Bliss Cavendar’s father, who at the end of “Whip It” literally stakes out territory for roller derby right next to football. Of course, at the after party one can still find some of the “crazy” behavior simulated in the movie by Barrymore. But the WCR bouts themselves have increasingly little in common with Derby Interrupted, the police-dispersed championship rave in the movie.

Under the television-ready lights of UIC Pavilion, all that is missing now are tv cameras and beer company advertising money. At the top of the derby food chain, the fishnets have been replaced by uni-form uniforms, the music is, well, more accessible, and the play is intense and wickedly fast. Here, laughing through a chant of “We’re Number Two,” as Smashly Simpson’s team does in the movie, is unthinkable.

More than one old-timer who remembers sweating it out in the old second-floor gym in Cicero could be seen looking up at the crowd with mouths agape, but when Varla Vendetta ripped off 19 points with 12 minutes to go in the second half and put Windy City in control, nostalgia seemed to be on no one’s mind. Many, perhaps most, of those in the crowd were new, but they did not have to be coached to yell. Megan Formor and Malice with Chains, declared joint "Players of the Game" and skating for the last time at home, opened huge holes for Vendetta on that jam and gave newbie fans a chance to say they saw two women who are waiting for someone to start a flat-track hall of fame.

On the seventh jam of the bout, Vendetta scored 10 points to open up a 21-11 lead, but by the end of the jam, WCR had just two skaters on the track. Both teams found themselves in penalty trouble at different times in the first half, giving away leads in the process. Rose City, with less depth than WCR, paid dearly for the miscues, allowing Eva Dead to chalk up 20 on a depleted pack in the half’s thirteenth jam. While the ladies in purple looked out of sync, the All-Stars racked up a 60-31 lead.

With six minutes left in the half, Chicago succumbed to its own recurring penalty trouble. Four All-Stars were sent off the track within seconds of each other in jam 15, and Windy City began the sixteenth with no jammer. Consecutive power jams allowed Rose City to cruise back into the thick of things. Scratcher in the Eye and Blood Clottia picked up 26 points in the last couple of minutes, and the half ended with Windy City up just 60-57.

The two teams traded the lead five times in the first 15 minutes of the second half with the aptly named MegaHurtz and Mobi-Wan Kenobi controlling the pack for Rose City. WCR’s speed shifted the momentum in the eleventh jam; down 3-5, the All-Stars sped up the pack, preventing Clottia from catching them. On the next jam, Blossom Bruiso and Hoosier Mama made a space for Shocka Conduit to slip through, despite a 3-4 disadvantage. With the Rose City jammer in the box, WCR finally came to full strength and got the blocking mismatch it needed on the next jam; Yvette YourMaker, Malice with Chains, Megan Formor, and Amy Nonamey punished Mick U Cry, JK Rolling, and Hurricane Skatrina while Vendetta racked up 19 points.

Windy City slammed the door at that point; Portland would score just two points over the game’s last 14 minutes. Chicago’s extraordinary conditioning seems to ensure that they are at least positioned to win at the end of bouts if they are not already dominating them. Rose City settled into this reality, and despite the insistence of Sully Skullkicker and White Flight, who skated hard under the star to the end, the game never seemed in doubt over the last five jams. Eva Dead, one of the All-Stars' most prolific jammers over the last two years, who also announced her retirement at the end of the 2009 travel season, fittingly scored the bout’s last 10 points.

As one astute observer said at halftime, “Whip It” has brought out a crowd, and it is now up to the skaters to keep them coming back. Nothing could have helped more than a solid win over a team ranked 9th nationally in the Derby News Network’s Power Rankings. The Windy City All-Stars head to the WFTDA Championships in Philadelphia next month with a first-round bye, undefeated save a heartbreaking one-point loss to Philly’s Liberty Belles this past summer.

Brew City Bruisers Outlast WCR’s Second Wind 62-53

By Mike Ondolences

Second Wind, Windy City Rollers' B-Team, entertained the Brew City Bruisers in a happy hour bout on Saturday at UIC Pavilion. Stand-in Athena DeCrime, usually rostered with the Windy City Rollers All-Stars, racked up 23 of Second Wind’s 27 first-half points, but Brew City’s Carrie A. Hacksaw and High D. Voltage proved to be too tough and too consistent, and Milwaukee’s Best rolled to a 62-53 win.

Second Wind’s first two bouts at home have been marked by the use of select A-list players on the jam line. DeCrime’s fast-forward style compensated for hesitant blocking by Second Wind, which has chosen to match itself against nationally-ranked travel teams to gain valuable experience at the expense of being thoroughly dominated at times. DeCrime reeled off nine points on the first jam, and 14 more on the thirteenth jam of the first half, bringing Second Wind back to a 27-26 lead at the half.

Brew City came out for the second half hopped up. High D. Voltage erased Second Wind’s lead on the first jam, and Hacksaw raced through Second Wind blockers to take lead in 11 seconds on the second jam. The Bruisers held Second Wind scoreless for the first five second-half jams on the way to a 20-point lead. An impressive assist by Karmageddon and smart blocking by Wreck N’Shrew, another WCR All-Star, catapulted Deb Autry to lead jammer in the sixth to get Second Wind back on the board. Riley Coyote did some strong jamming in the second half as well, and DeCrime, taking advantage of Brew City penalties with five minutes left, cut the Milwaukee lead to 12 points. Second Wind scored nine points in the last two minutes, but Hacksaw and High D. Voltage sustained the Bruisers’ lead for the win.

Fans filing in for the All-Stars’ game with Portland may not have realized the implications of B-Team play for the Windy City Rollers' home league. But with several of WCR's most experienced All-Stars retiring, this summer’s Second Wind bouts showcased the future of the 2010 season.

Deb Autry, with both speed and size, will be a force for Hell's Belles. Coyote, who may well have been the most improved WCR jammer in 2009, will continue to produce points for the Double Crossers. Amy Nonamey and Di Richmond, both Manic Attackers, look to be among the league’s more fearsome blockers along with the Fury’s Sargentina. The fun begins in January!

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