This year Keweenaw Roller Girls are participating in Bowl for Kids, an annual campaign by Big Brothers Big Sisters to support mentoring programs for youth in our local communities. Please help us to be part of something big!
Be a Bowl For Kids Sponsor
Local businesses and organizations are invited to support the children and youth in their community by becoming a Sponsor of Bowl for Kids through a monetary gift. As a Sponsor you are Making a Positive Difference by assisting Big Brothers Big Sisters in carrying out their mission. You are assisting children and youth in achieving their highest potential as they grow to become confident, competent and caring individuals.
The Friendships of Big Brothers Big Sisters are joyful, uplifting and effective and the support of our Sponsors is instrumental to the success of the relationships we support.
“Five Seconds!” All derbyist know the command, the jam timer in the center of the track raises the whistle to their lips and… 4, 3, 2, 1 {TWEET!} it’s go time! The Keweenaw Roller Girls head back to practice this week after a well deserved, yet achingly long winter break. We’ve done some cross-training, some traveling, some mending of broken bones, some reuniting with friends, and now we’re ready to hit the track. Season three brings new competition, new team skaters, and the ever reliable bad-assery that is the Keweenaw Roller Girls. We don’t always win, but we give’er hell alright, and we have fun while doing it.
So derby fans, keep your eyes and ears peeled for KRG’s game schedule, league events, news, and more as we approach the melting of the ice rinks and the beginning of another exciting season of roller derby. The first whistle is just around the corner!
Fall is here. In the great North of Upper Peninsula Michigan we find ourselves not only in the Copper Country, but also in Hockey Country. Our home arena has been iced over for more than a month now, and though there isn’t snow on the ground (yet) it’s well known that it’s time of year. We wind down by winding up with a focus on recruiting new team members, and training them post season until we take our holiday break.
This season’s Fresh Meat recruits are lookin’ better than ever. Strong, determined, and learning with such vigor and speed they’re keeping the veteran skaters on their toes. The end of this month they will graduate from the program and we will all take time off to spend with our families. KRG will return to full force training not long after the new year to prepare for another exciting season ahead for us. We’ll face off against Marquette’s Dead River Derby early at home to start us off and hope to experience tournament play this Summer along with our goal of obtaining Full Member League Status within the WFTDA.
In the meantime, in less than a week the WFTDA Championships are being held in St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN. The greatest teams in the world will battle it out for the Hydra Trophy to be recognized as number one. Seeing as this is in our backyard (so to speak) several of KRGs league members will be traveling to witness some of the greatest roller derby ever to be played. If we see you there, please give a friendly hello, and if we don’t see you and you wish to catch some of the action, the WFTDA Championships will be streamed online and the final day (Sunday) will be on ESPN3!
So until next time, we hope to see you out enjoying the Fall/Winter season here in the beautiful UP and we can’t wait for you to see how this team is shaping up with our new recruits!
Revolution is what we know. It’s in our blood and is wired into our brains. We learn it as kids when we play; riding bikes, rolling a ball down a hill, hula-hooping. It’s more or less what makes the world happen. The Earth does it’s thing around the Sun, and everything else follows suit. It only makes sense that we find ourselves so familiar with the concept, and naturally attracted to roller derby, content to orbit in it’s atmosphere.
Revolution has many meanings, and most all apply to life in roller derby.
Merriam-Webster states:
Full Definition of REVOLUTION
1
a (1):the action by a celestial body of going round in an orbit or elliptical course;also: apparent movement of such a body round the earth (2): the time taken by a celestial body to make a complete round in its orbit (3): the rotation of a celestial body on its axis
b:completion of a course (as of years); also: the period made by the regular succession of a measure of time or by a succession of similar events
c (1): a progressive motion of a body around an axis so that any line of the body parallel to the axis returns to its initial position while remaining parallel to the axis in transit and usually at a constant distance from it (2):motion of any figure about a center or axis<revolution of a right triangle about one of its legs generates a cone>(3):rotation 1b
2
a:a sudden, radical, or complete change
b: a fundamental change in political organization; especially: the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed
c:activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation
d:a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm<the Copernican revolution>
e: a changeover in use or preference especially in technology <the computer revolution><the foreign car revolution>
Certain parts of this definition stand out to me, particularly the “change” aspect, “motion,” “completion,” and “returning.” Philosophical as it may be, these aspects are very much witnessed when you’ve been around the derby culture for awhile, long enough to see a revolution. Each season bring new components, new people, new life. We being another revolution every time. New skaters move forward, progress in physical skill, overcome ideas of themselves and what they’re capable of. As they move forward and complete their own revolutions, both literally and figuratively, they return back to the beginning, having been changed in the process.
And that’s where we are now; again. We’re now going in to our fifth rendition of our training program for new skaters. Some of us are still around from the beginning, some were rookies this last year, but all of us have completed our revolutions. We’ve grown individually and together, and now get to witness and guide the beginning of new revolutions. Tonight we will have the honor or introducing these new gals to the joy of this sport, what it means to be tried, and to be examples of what it means to prevail over ourselves and our previous conceptions. When we look back from one year from now, I hope we can all see our evolution in all the revolutions.
On one of the hottest nights in the Keweenaw, 27 skater’s from 7 leagues came together in Hancock, Michigan to take on one another in the 3rd Annual Solar System Smackdown. The Smackdown was KRG’s first ever roller derby event held in August of 2013, and has since become a well known gathering for meeting up with old derby friends, and making new ones.
(from left to right) DJ Jazzy Jeff the Ref, Otto Korrect, Glock N Load, Standard Steviation, and Boba Thrett – Photo by Jim Pintar
The Venus Vixens got off to a heck of a start with a massive lead obtained by skater, Yoop #22, of Dead River Derby. Fierce and strong, she pulled off a 30-something point jam with the help of some brutal defense, leaving Uranus United working hard to catch up in the first half.
The second half was much like the first, with some glimmers of hope for Uranus United, as their blocking lines began to work more seamlessly, utilizing diamond formations to their advantage they were able to keep hold. However, the Venus Vixen’s defense was just a power house and left many of Uranus United’s jammers fighting in the pack, allowing the Vixen’s jammers to rack up the points.
Camaraderie was present from all on the track despite the point spread; fist bumps on the jam line, laughter, and playful mocking was seen throughout the night. Great gameplay and showmanship from both sides made it an exciting game to watch, causing many crowd “Ooooos” and “Ahhhhhs” as skaters collided and displayed fancy foot work.
The game ended in favor of the Vixens, with a 129 point lead over Uranus. After the game, each team huddled separately to select an MVP for the opposing team based on not only skill, but also attitude and spirit. The recipients of the very special, galactic Solar System Smackdown MVP awards: Phee Nix of the Venus Vixens and Glory Sparks of Uranus United – both members of Marquette’s Dead River Derby!
Solar System Smackdown MVPs – Phee Nix (left) and Glory Sparks (right) – Photo by Jim Pintar
Who will the Vixen’s take on next year, and can they hold on to the title? We’ll have to wait and see.
Both teams and referees on the Solar System Smackdown 2015 – Photo by Jim Pintar
For more pictures from the event, please check out Jim Pintar’s flickr gallery here.
