Well Arizona derby fans, let me tell you, this is a great time to be a fan of roller derby here in Arizona!! There's a lot of good stuff happening and it's only going to get better. Let's do our periodic slide through the leagues and subjects and let's see where this goes..
TUCSON ROLLER DERBY
I am going to start this time with TRD. I was just down in Tucson on Sunday on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base where both TUCSON ROLLER DERBY and the TUCSON DERBY BRATS held a STARS AND STRIPES EXPO BOUT. It consisted of two mini-bouts. For TRD, it was the STARS in blue against the STRIPES in a white on red configuration. Honestly, it was good to see HELEN WHEELS back in red and white one more time. Actually, she will soon be wearing red and yellow as she will be moving to the IRON CURTAIN starting with the 2009 season. Other skaters will be making some moves. For example, ex-Copper Queen BLUE MAULI is now going to be on the FTW. Speaking of FTW, let's talk about their rookie jammer SKELETOR. You heard me right, Skeletor. Now, when I first heard that name, thoughts of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe went through my head but throw the jokes about the name to the side, this girl can jam. She's small, fast and agile. She is exactly what the FTW needs in light of the retirement of SLOPPY FLO. While not trying to sound like a conflict of interest here but, a big hat goes off to FTW rookie JACKRABBIT SLAMS whom some of you know as BOTGIRL. You know, the really tall skater they have. Anyway, second jam of the bout and they put her to the jammer line. She did the best she could despite a couple of major spills. She would eventually pass the star to Helen Wheels but it was too late for Helen to do much with it. I have respect for anyone who gears up and goes out there let alone someone who jams for the first time. Helen Wheels eventually gets injured (ACL) during the game and is taken out but the stripes had SAMI AUTOMATIC who definitely helped out. Now on the Stars team, their powerhouse jammer was DIRTY TERI. There were a lot of good moments from this bout. Video captures are in my personal MySpace and there will be video on the next edition of Michi-chan's REAL Derby.
TRD did announce at the bout that their season will begin on Saturday, February 7 at Bladeworld. With the exception of some major roster shuffling, there are no changes to the team names or themes. TRD will have a lot of young new skaters and a different outlook in 2009. I hope to get there as much as I can.
TUCSON DERBY BRATS
At the same Stars and Stripes bout, we saw the DERBY BRATS also play. It was their normal teams, the NATURAL DISASTERS vs The INJUSTICE LEAGUE. It was interesting seeing the kids playing out there. Injustice League jammer and TRD ref PIXIE was injured during the game and we hope she's doing alright.
Derby Brats will be bouting on Sunday, November 23 at 6PM at Bladeworld. Tickets are $5. We are going to do our best to be there.
DRY HEAT DERBY
It was good to see a few of the guys out at the DMAFB bout to help out with setup and teardown and to provide support to TRD and the Brats. The men were just recently up in Phoenix at the recent AZRD co-ed picnic scrimmage and had fun skating with FRED NUTZ and the AZRD skaters. Our men are traveling to Baltimore to participate in the MEN'S DERBY CONFERENCE 2. Hopefully, they will come back with some new ideas on how to grow man-derby in our state.
ARIZONA ROLLER DERBY
Don't know how it went, but hopefully their recruitment party at COOPERSTOWN was a success and we will hopefully see some fresh new skaters on the AZRD oval pretty soon.
Coming up in November, someone will walk away with a "W". We have the 0-1 Brawlarinas skating against the 0-1 Surly Gurlies. The Brawlies are beating the Surlys in the rankings by point spread. In 2007, when these teams went up against each other, the Brawlies won 77-65. Just to be fair, I did not go to the October bout where the Surly Gurlies played against the Beaters so I have not had a chance to look at this year's Surlys. So, I will abstain from giving a prediction. For the Brawlies, what they did in September was very reminicent to what they did last year back when AZRD had three periods. They would do really good in the first period, have a major slump in the second and then try to charge back at the end. I hope they can work on that. As a fan and not an analyst, I stand behind my purple power.
AZRD has disclosed details of the December scrimmage bout. It will be a charity bout featuring the "HOSE DRAGGERS" playing the "STREET BEATERS". Proceeds from this bout will benefit THE ARIZONA LAW ENFORCEMENT EMERALD SOCIETY which supports Irish-Americans in law enforcement. This scrimmage will be on Decemeber 13 at the Castle Sports Club.
RENEGADE ROLLERGIRLS
Yes, we are getting better as we go along. The big event that the entire Arizona derby world is buzzing about is this Friday night when the Renegade Rollergirls play a squad from ARIZONA DERBY DAMES in a short-track no-rules game. This bout will be held at the Renegades' home, the 5th & Madison Event Center. This is going to be a historic bout because it is believed to be the first time that two Phoenix area leagues have ever played against each other. This is going to be an interesting challenge for the Dames but I think that they will be up to it. I just feel though that the Renegades will have some advantages as they know their track and are more familiar with their game. The Dames will have a major desire to take the gloves off and try no-rules, then it's adrenaline from there.
Derby fans, my advice is if you are showing up for this bout, ARRIVE EARLY. This is a small venue and I have a feeling a lot of people will be turned away. This bout did get a full page ad in last week's NEW TIMES so I think there's going to be a huge turnout.
I really think that this bout is exactly what the Renegades need to boost their fan base by tapping into the AZDD fanbase. This is a true sign of derby love and I praise the Dames for being a part of it.
ARIZONA DERBY DAMES
Dames are going to do another mini-tournament in January at their new home, the Veterans' Memorial Coliseum! If they do it like last year, the RUNAWAY BRIDES will play the BRUTAL BEAUTIES, then the winner will play the SCHOOLYARD SCRAPPERS and then the COFFIN DRAGGERS and then the BOMBSHELLS.
Now some of the Dames recently traveled to Los Angeles to check out the banked track at the LOS ANGELES DERBY DOLLS. For those who know the history of the Dames, the Dames were aspiring to build a banked track. They actually owned a banked track for awhile and it remained in storage as the Dames continued to bout at the Castle Sports Club which could not hold the track. That track was sold. Now, the Dames have a beautiful venue but now no banked track. I have no insides here but I would not be surprised if the Dames are aggressively going to pursue banked track.
Remember... THE FIRST IN ARIZONA WITH BANKED TRACK, WINS.
Recovered from MCRSP records, December 4, 2025.
