Atlanta Rollergirls Newsletter

Do you look longingly at the Yaarab Shrine Center every time you drive past, wishing there was a bout on to watch? We do. If you're anything like us, you still can't believe that the 2012 Atlanta roller derby season is over. Our skate bags are ready to go, and our jerseys are squeaky clean, hanging in our closets. We want to skate! But wait! Before you longingly look at a calendar and lament that you won't see derby again until 2013, remember that Atlanta is hosting the WFTDA Championships this year. Did you get that? And your very own Dirty South Derby Girls will be skating in said Championships. So -- ROLLER DERBY IS ON, folks! Atlanta is about to host the best skaters in the world next month, and some of your very own Atlanta Rollergirls will be there among them. We are proud; we are excited. We hope you'll be there with us! Read on for more details, and get your tickets soon!

What's In This Issue:

In the first game of the night, the Shocks took the track against the Stix. An injury-plagued season for the Stix saw one more member sitting out - Daft Spunk with a broken leg. However, this final bout did mark the return of veteran Aimzz 2 Kill. The Shocks were down Jackie O'Sassin (dislocated shoulder), but had the rest of the team on the track ready to claim their spot at #3. In the beginning of the game, the Shocks took an early lead, but then a power jam for Nora Gretz got the Stix right back in there at 21-15. However, several jams later, Jean-Juke Picard capitalized on a power jam to extend the Shocks lead to 59-15. The Stix rallied their defense behind Aimzz 2 Kill and Belle of the Brawl, and brought the score slightly closer. At the half, the Shocks were up 91-63. The Stix continued their rally in the beginning of the second period...getting as close as 8 points on two separate occasions. Shocks blockers Rebel Yellow and Evil Olive held the walls steady and fended off the Stix jammers. The Stix fell short of the win, but they gave the Shocks a run for their money, and kept the crowd on the edge of their seats the entire game. Final score, 148-131, Shocks win.

The 2010 Champion Denim Demons took the track against the 2011 Champion Sake Tuyas. This was a brutal battle right from the start - very low scoring and very hard hitting. The Demons took an early lead...but barely. It was a ridiculously low-scoring first half, speaking to the amount of defense that both teams were able to play. The jam before the half, the Sakes evened it up at 35-35. Cancer Candy took the star for the first time that night, and powered through for a 15-point jam and a 15-point lead for the Demons at the half. The second half was more of the same, with Sake jammers Edna Vendetta and Wheelin Jennings giving it their all trying to fight through the strong Demon walls containing Sissy Splaysek, Wild Cherri, and Tagher Lily. The Demon defense wore down the Sake offense, while jammers Shovely Rita and Cancer Candy gradually built up the Demon lead. As the clock ticked down, Demon jammer Choke Cherry put the finishing touches on a nearly-perfect season for the Demons, calling off the final jam for a 131-69 win! Congratulations to your 2012 Atlanta Rollergirls Champions, the Denim Demons!

Atlanta derby fans were treated to two special scrimmages during half-times of the Champ Bout and Grudge Match by our own Atlanta Derby Brats. In a debut public appearance after their first full season of training, the Brats knocked everyone’s socks off. Wow, these girls have come a long way! With scrum starts, strategic jam call-offs, and full-contact blocks, the Brats have seriously honed their game. In both of their half-time bouts, the Red team narrowly defeated the Black team, but the close scores suggested some mad skills broadly distributed throughout the junior league. We can’t wait to see them united against an outside opponent! If you missed them last month, keep your eye out for a special expo junior derby scrimmage at the WFTDA Championships in November!

Last weekend your Dirty South Derby Girls, Atlanta's all-star team, traveled to chilly Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Landlocked Laceup South Central Regional Tournament to battle against the top 10 teams across the southern and central United States for a ticket to WFTDA Championships. Atlanta entered the tournament seeded 6th, with three uphill games to battle in order to upset all the bracket predictions and earn the chance to play against the very best in Women's Flat Track Derby (association) right here in Atlanta at the Grits & Glory WFTDA Championship Tournament - November 2-4, 2012 at the Georgia World Congress Center.

First up was the Houston Rollergirls, entering in 3rd place and looking to reprise their 2009 trip to Champs by eliminating Atlanta early in the games. DSDG took an early lead, however, putting up a solid jammer diet of The Merchant of Menace, Hollicidal, and transfer Jammunition. Atlanta's refocus on extremely tight defensive play and hive-mind communication successfully shut down jammers Mistilla the Killa and Death By Chocolate in the first half, jammers that are no strangers to championship play. Houston came out swinging in the second half with a new strategy and a new jammer: blocker Freight Train took the star for the black and pink and was extremely successful barreling through the Queen Looseyateefa, Alassin Sane, and Switchblade Siouxsie Atlanta wall and chipping away at Atlanta's lead. DSDG began showing some signs of wear during the second half but managed to play clean and send an unprecedented few players to the penalty box. Well-timed offensive blocks from Agent Maulder, Scout SnipeHer, and Rebel Yellow gave the DSDG jammers enough steam to finish the game strong, never losing their lead over Houston, and securing the first upset for Atlanta for the weekend.

Atlanta's next and most important game was against longtime track rivals, the Kanas City Roller Warriors, who came into the tournament in second place and were looking to keep their 6-year streak playing in Championships alive by defeating Atlanta. The last time DSDG had beaten KCRW was in 2010 on their home turf, and DSDG was ready to take this action to the streets of Atlanta once again. Kansas City blockers Annie Maul and Bruz-Her came out hitting (and hard) looking to shake Atlanta's confidence early in the game. DSDG looked a bit looser than the day before and were having trouble keeping all four blockers out of the penalty box for long when KC's jammer, Enigma, pulled a major back block giving Bruze Orman just the chance she needed to rack up the power-jam points. Wild Cherri and Alassin Sane showed KC that playing with only two blockers on the track didn't have to be a bad thing by constantly recycling the Kansas City jammers until the box was free. Unfortunately, a hugely successful power jam at the end of the first half from Bruze Orman-lookalike, Track Rat, brought KC within two points of the Dirty South Derby Girls at halftime. Once again Atlanta proved that they truly are a second half team, splitting open the point spread within the first 10 minutes of the second period, and never letting KC creep that close again. Kansas City fought until the very last jam but just couldn't spread the Atlanta defense apart enough to put up the points. Atlanta successfully took out Kansas City and earned their ticket to WFTDA Champs.

The final matchup of the tournament was against the founders of modern flat track roller derby, the Texas Rollergirls. Atlanta came out of the locker room ready to mess with Texas and wasn't going to settle with just making it to Championships, they wanted to take it all. Putting up an unanswered 20 points in the first jam, The Merchant of Menace proved that not everything is bigger in Texas. TXRG may not have expected such a fight from Atlanta, the last time they met on the track left them with a point spread of over 200. Fierce blocking and brutal hits from Wild Cherri, Belle of the Brawl, and Queen Looseyateefa certainly caught their attention, especially in jams where veteran MVP jammer Olivia Shootin John couldn't break the pack. One block in particular in the first half had Queen ejected from the game, causing many to speculate that Atlanta couldn't hold on without her. First-year all-stars Agent Maulder and Desi Scarnez stepped up to fill her formidable skates, however, and keep the renowned Atlanta defense intact and new jammer Boss Hoss at bay. At the close of the first half, Texas jammer (and Michigan transplant) Killbox tried to widen the point gap, but Alassin Sane wouldn't budge, successfully stalling her power jam. The second half started much as the first with Nora Gretz pulling out a pivotal power jam, racking up 23 points to bring Atlanta back on top. Texas matched Atlanta point for point for much of the second half, until a key power jam for them tied the game with 1:40 left on the clock. Atlanta's Dirty South Derby Girls did their best to hold Vicious Van Go Go back but a second trip to the penalty box by Atlanta gave Texas just the window they needed to pull ahead in the final seconds.

The Dirty South Derby Girls may have lost the final game of the tournament, but they unseated 4 teams to move up in the rankings, earned a spot to Champs, and the respect of the entire derby world. The icing on the skate cake came at the awarding of the MVP medals. Our very own Wild Cherri was voted MVP Blocker of the tournament, and our hometown sweetheart The Merchant of Menace was voted MVP Jammer. Atlanta's Dirty South Derby Girls flew to Lincoln, Nebraska, ranked 6th in the region, and came home in 2nd place, with two MVP medals, and a ticket to the WFTDA's Championship Tournament, Grits and Glory, hosted right here in Atlanta by your Atlanta Rollergirls.

Atlanta, ARE YOU READY FOR SOME CHAMPIONSHIP ROLLER DERBY!!?? Not only are your One and Only Atlanta Rollergirls hosting the 2012 Women's Flat Track Derby Association Championships, our All-Stars, the Dirty South Derby Girls, will be competing in the Championships! Yep, you heard it right. DSDG IS GOING TO CHAMPS!! For the first time ever. Can you tell we're excited?

OK. Here are the deets. The revolution continues in Atlanta, Nov 2-4, 2012. Watch fiercely talented skaters compete for women’s flat track roller derby’s greatest glory in the 2012 WFTDA Championships. The 12 best flat track roller derby teams in the world (including DSDG!) will all congregate here in Atlanta for a chance to take home the Stanley Cup of roller derby, the Hydra. Join us at the Georgia World Congress Center for some of the best roller derby you will ever see. Get your tickets here. Get them before Oct 25 when the advance-sale prices end.

Look for your Atlanta Rollergirls this month in Atlanta's favorite Halloween parade! The Little 5 Points parade is famous for its fiercely competitive float competition, and the zany antics of the various groups who participate. As for us, we'll show up -- you guessed it -- on skates! Make sure to give us a cheer as we pass by, and maybe we'll give you some candy. The parade kicks off at 4pm, after which you can check out an artists' market, live music, and Atlanta's best food trucks. See you there!

What’s better than a Halloween parade? Two Halloween Parades! This year, look for us in a second spooky holiday celebration organized by HomeGrown Decatur. In their second annual Halloween event, HomeGrown, an artists’ co-op in Decatur, has come back bigger and better – with bands, muscle cars, the Krewe of Grateful Gluttons, the 13 Hearses of Dead End’s Hearse Club, and your one and only Atlanta Rollergirls. Events begin with a story time for little goblins at Little Shop of Stories at 3 pm, followed by a parade through downtown Decatur.

Fresh Meat

ARG welcomes our new class of Fresh Meat to the family. Fresh Meat  undergo a rigorous training program that teaches them the skills they  need to be real rollergirls someday! The meat learn advanced skating  and derby technique, blocking and contact, and finally rules and  gameplay. Because roller derby is a rough sport and injuries do  happen, our Fresh Meat program emphasizes safety as the top priority.  To advance to the next level, each must pass an assessment that shows  they've learned the skills they need to be safe and effective. As a  league, we make a huge investment in our Fresh Meat, in both time and  resources. After all, the fresh meat we train today might be the  all-stars of tomorrow! Looking forward to introducing our new rookies  in January!

We honored two long-time sponsors this season with the gift that keeps on...whistling. Brad Hennecy of Workhorse Printery and Jen and Andy Pierce of Spoiled Rotten Pet Sitting have been fervent ARG supporters for years. We invited these derby lovers onto the track as honorary first whistle blowers, and they got to keep the whistle! Thank you to Brad, Jen, and Andy for all of their ARG love over the years. ARG loves you back!