Game Day Recap – KRG vs Shipwreck Alley

Keweenaw Roller Girls Score a Win

The weather was as hot as the derby action on Saturday night at the Calumet Colosseum, as the Keweenaw Roller Girls (KRG) beat worthy opponents, the Shipwreck Alley Rollers (SAR) 366 to 72.

photo: KayEnSee Photography

Although Saturday’s bout was the first away match for the newer SAR, who made the trip up from Alpena Michigan on Friday, they played hard and were respectable opponents.

Newer KRG skaters Glam Bam, Amelia HitsHart, and AfroDisiac all had the opportunity to take a turn in the jamming rotation alongside KRG veteran jammers Thimbleberry Slam, Starbuck, Wrath B. Nimble, and Black Ice. From SAR, skaters Skellawhore, Siren Sea Pearls and Punkahotness were stand outs due to their agile skating and smart derby playing. However, newer skater No Fox Given was voted game MVP by KRG for “being a real menace on the track”.

At half-time, viewers were treated to a mesmerizing and interactive belly dance performance courtesy of 47 North Belly Dance troupe from Hancock. Their gyrating hips and artistic maneuvers were truly a sight to behold!

Hosted by Shute’s historical tavern, the bout after party was memorable: tall tales shared, cold drinks consumed, new friends made, and great tunes spun by DJ Dave Brotherton. Mother Nature even treated us to some classic Keweenaw late spring weather drama in the form of heavy rain and wind. Like most weather in Michigan, we waited five minutes and it changed.

Overall, the events of Saturday night at the Colosseum served to bring communities together: both the roller derby community and the tightly knit community that are the folks of the Keweenaw.

Our opponents, Shipwreck Alley Rollers may not have won this one, but they are showing great sisu as they continue on their journey that is sure to mean great things for them in the future. As for KRG, we are proud to know the skaters of SAR, and can’t wait to meet again!

photo: KayEnSee Photography

 

Contributor: I Love Skatin’ #666

Season Beginnings and Sinking Ships

Keweenaw Roller Girls 2017 season started off with a bang as our first WFTDA sanctioned game is now in the books. It was a tough battle against Chippewa Valley Roller Girls of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They’ve been on the track several season longer than KRG and really have some superb leadership that has carried their strategies and game play over the years. Ending their season against KRG, they left with a powerful 261 to 65. Though the score visually was a huge blow out, the gameplay itself was exciting. If you never looked at the scoreboard you might not have known who had won the game. Some great skating skill was displayed by both teams, and the 1 on 1 battles in the front of the pack, usually against CVRG’s #25 Stunt Double, were so thrilling it really didn’t seem to matter to the home crowd that KRG was having their butts handed to them. With more than 500 in attendance at the Calumet Colosseum, the house “Ooohhs” and “Ahhhs” could be heard clearly on the track amongst the chaos of shouting skaters, whistles, and the house PA.

Keweenaw showcased some new talent at the first game in Calumet this season. Glam Bam #18, Amelia HitsHart #724, and AfroDisiac #88 played in their first game as rookies against a seasoned WFTDA All Star team. We are so proud of their fearlessness (okay, maybe they were a little scared, but they didn’t show it), and their great sportsmanship. Talk about a trial by fire. These new skaters are ones to keep your eyes on. As any team should know, every loss is a win if you learn something from it, and we certainly took some pointers, made adjustments, and are ready for the games ahead of us.

Next up on the schedule for June 10th, a new team on the scene, Shipwreck Alley Roller’s (SAR) of Alpena, Michigan.  They will be making their way up the peninsula this weekend, and what a great time to hit the road! This team has a lot of soul and we look forward to strengthening our connections with them. First recognized at the 2016 Mitten Kitten Tournament in Mackinaw City, SAR was in full force co-hosting and lending support to River City Renegades and the entire organizing crew. They were growing their league and supporting the growth of roller derby, and we are all about that! They have quite a presence and are hard to not notice with their iconic pirate-skull logo with pretty eyelashes.

Get ready and make some evening plans for this Saturday as KRG prepares for their opponent from below the bridge. School is out for the kids and we’re all in the mind-set for having some fun. Bring your kiddos to the game, or bring that gal who you know would just be great at roller derby (we want to recruit her).

Tickets are $5.00 for adults, and the kids 10 and under are FREE! Bevies, grub, and rolling thunder. What better way to spend a Saturday night in Calumet!?

Visiting our facebook event for more info!

The Look of Keweenaw Roller Girls 2017

We’re rolling ahead and ready to rumble into the 2017 season

It’s cliche to say “ready to rumble” but it couldn’t be more apropos. Every season brings excitement and energy that has just about every derbyist bursting at the seams. Games, fans, hits, rookies. It’s all of the things that make this experience what it is, and part of that is the “performance” and how it looks to the spectators.

Every fall KRG meets to plan for the year ahead. We look at the community calendar, events, fundraisers, recruitment and health of the league, and we also look at what sort of theme or feel we’d like to capture for the year ahead when considering print and media materials. Our first season on the flat track we focused on fun iterations of movies and film. Second season, all business athletic captures; the actual derby players. Season three, celebrated the feminine mythical “creatura” that lives inside all of us. And this year, we’re going Keweenaw Old Timey!

Have you seen our team portrait? The Quincy Mine Hoist Association granted exclusive access to the Keweenaw Roller Girls to climb and perch ourselves in the giant man-car that historically was used to move copper miners deep into the mines. Inspired by a portrait taken in Calumet & Helca mines, with the help from Adam of Brockit photography, we recreated the picture with all the league members we could get.

 

Living in the Keweenaw Peninsula, there’s so much old history that it’s hard not to be influenced by it. There are many historical sites here, great native histories, and geological tales that are silently told if you just look about you.

As we move into our forth season and simultaneously celebrate five years since our inception, we grab firmly onto the old stories of this place and celebrate it for it’s genuine uniqueness. If the Keweenaw Roller Girls existed in 1913, then this is what we think it would look like. 

WFTDA Adds 17 Member Leagues

On December 23rd, the Keweenaw Roller Girls were given a fabulous gift. We were announced as one of the 17 additional leagues to be accepted into the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association following successful completion of the WFTDA Apprentice Program.

As new members we can now enjoy the benefits of full WFTDA membership, including competing in sanctioned games, attending the WFTDA Annual Meeting and becoming eligible for rankings. This group of new members includes leagues from Europe, North America, South America, and New Zealand.

The WFTDA now has 397 member leagues and 48 apprentice leagues world wide.

  • Kingston Derby Girls – Kingston, Ontario, Canada
  • Traverse City Roller Derby – Traverse City, Michigan, USA
  • Bogotá Bone Breakers – Bogotá, Colombia
  • Dunedin Derby – Dunedin, New Zealand
  • Keweenaw Roller Girls – Hancock, Michigan, USA
  • Free State Roller Derby – Rockville, Maryland, USA
  • Rocky View Roller Derby Association – Airdrie, Alberta, Canada
  • Roller Derby Caen – Caen, France
  • Cape Girardeau Roller Derby – Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA
  • High Altitude Roller Derby – Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
  • York City Derby Dames – York, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Orlando Psycho City Derby Girls – Orlando, Florida, USA
  • Sitka Sound Slayers – Sitka, Alaska, USA
  • South Shore Roller Girls – Hammond, Indiana, USA
  • Twin State Derby – White River Junction, Vermont, USA
  • Dom City Dolls – Utrecht, Netherlands
  • Maui Roller Girls – Kahului, Hawaii, USA

The Keweenaw Roller Girls are absolutely ecstatic to be recognized as a full member league and are eager for the year ahead. We are so proud to be amongst those who have paved the way for the successes of this great sport.

Congratulations to our fellow graduates and especially to Traverse City Roller Derby! Roller derby in the state of Michigan is stronger than ever!

May all of our New Years be fruitful and bright!

Mitten Kitten 2016 Recap

Pheww! What a weekend!

What a beautiful and amazing weekend! The Mitten Kitten Mash Up state tournament was better than we could have imagined. Mackinaw City is a great location to enjoy the fall and celebrate Michigan roller derby. The evening sunsets on Lake Huron that could be seen from our hotel bid us a good night’s rest each evening, and the spectacular sunrises sent us off into battle each morning.

The team arrived in Mackinaw City Friday with an opportunity to settle in before our first scheduled game Saturday morning against the #2 seed, Killamazoo Derby Darlin’s Kill Squad. They turned out to be a very equally matched team for us. KRG #7, took the upset win by a mere 13 points, 206 to 219. It was a back and forth point battle the entire length of the game which made for an exciting morning for fans and skaters alike. Taking the win, KRG was given an entire day to rest up before moving on to play East Lansing’s Mitten Mavens, the #3 seed.

The Mitten Mavens game was tough. KRG played the Mavens earlier this summer, it was the only team in the bracket we had any experience with. We knew they were hard hitters with skilled offensive strategy but we thought we could take them since we nabbed a win against the Mavens earlier in the season. We came out strong in the first half, our defensive walls were reforming quickly and we had some pretty stellar jams. We went into halftime ahead with 68 points to Mavens’ 49.

The second half started out same as the first, and then it began to run away from us quickly. Mavens turned up the heat and the hits, and so did their cheering section. East Lansing’s and Flint City’s fans combined as one and brought the house down with their fandom. It was nearly impossible to hear anything without shouting at the top of your lungs, but boy did it make everything else so much more exciting. East Lansing rallied through the second half and conquered KRG with a final score of  179 to 100. What a comeback!

Having lost the game against the Mavens, we were slated to play for 3rd and 4th place against either #4 seed, Ann Arbor Derby Dimes’ Ypsilanti Vigilantes, or the #1 seed, Toxic Cherries from Traverse City, who were playing each other during our 2 hour recess. This meant whoever won that game would only have about 20 minutes before having to play us. Woof!

During our short break we stretched, watched the teams play, and took a look at some stats between us and who we were expecting to play. It looked good, we looked well matched and we were so excited to play this final game of the weekend. The game between the Vigilantes and the Toxic Cherries ended as predicted; KRG to play the Vigilantes!

Ann Arbor is made up of some classy skaters with lots of patience and skill. They had some skaters with fresh legs coming into this final game, but most had just that 20 minute rest period before coming back to the track. We were feeling a mix of soreness after the physically brutal game with the Mavens, and also an intense energy of a second-wind that was making us feel light on our feet. We were feelin’ good!  

The game against the Vigis was great and full of camaraderie and fancy skill, the point spread never got too far away from either of us, but in the end the #4 Vigilantes took 3rd in Michigan D2 with a 168 to 116 win over #7 Keweenaw.

We are so very thankful for the Michigan roller derby community who is made up of hundreds, if not thousand of people. Skaters, organizers, game crew officials, vendors, folks that do the dirty work, family, and fans… it has been amazing because of every bit we’ve all individually contributed to the larger whole. Thank you River City Renegades for being incredible hosts, and to all of the Mitten Kittens out there! We can not wait until next year!

 

For pictures from the weekend check our Deford Designs on facebook.