Sorry, back to the subject at hand...
So I love roller derby, duh! With our family trying to conserve money, driving to Kansas City once a week for practice was NOT in the gas budget. Also, playing games wasn't going to change from Sunday's to Saturday's any time in the near future, and I couldn't justify breaking the 4th Commandment anymore (you know, the whole keep the Sabbath Day holy, and yeah, derby is not exactly holy). Plus I really wanted to spread the derby love to some women who like me, said they'd love to, but couldn't make the drive.
So at the end of last season with Dead Girl Derby and my Royal Pains, I told them all I was leaving and going to start a league in St Joseph (which is only half the drive for me). Being scared and intimidated about starting a business from the ground up, I talked with several of my derby people to figure out what I needed to do to get started. (a.k.a., I cried HELP!)
Jeff, one of the DGD BoD members (also a ref known as Don C. Nuttin), decided it would be good for DGD to help set things up so they would have other leagues, near by, to play. So he has been helping me with paperwork, while I have done a lot of foot work.
I named the Blacksnake Roller Girls. I found a place for us to practice. First practice was the beginning of November. It was just me, and another girl who (due to a car accident) wasn't able to finish recruitment with DGD, and was looking for another chance at roller derby. I was worried that's all that was going to show up, for longer than could stand. Lucky for me, that wasn't the case. The next week there were two more girls. The next week, two more. It spread slowly, some girls coming to check it out, then didn't come back. Some girls, like me, were hooked and couldn't come back soon enough.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I wasn't expecting much turn-out, but it seemed that growth had plateaued at about 12 girls. I need 15 to have a team so we can play games. I love roller derby, but part that love about it, is that it is that one part of my life, I'm not in charge of making things run smoothly. I had tried to recruit coaches so that I could get back to enjoying that part again, and not being the "in charge" person, but both attempts failed. I was running drills for the practices, two days a week, realizing we needed a bigger practice facility, didn't know where to find one, and was getting discouraged.
Then press happened. The Regular Joe printed an article about us on page 11. I was in the paper!!! Then the St Joesph News-Press printed and article in their Sunday edition. We were the front page story of their "Life" section! With a big picture at the top of me and some of my roller derby girls! They even put up a video!
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| Pictures taken by Jessica Stewart/St. Joseph News-Press |
The best part about it, was the interest it gathered. I have 6 girls who say they are going to come to practice tonight! SIX GIRLS! If they get hooked, and stay, that's my team! That means, in 2-3 months we will be paying games! Oh games how I've missed you!! (If you've read earlier posts games=bouts, but I've switched to using the word games, because it's a more widely understood word, *sigh*)
Last night, I took 7 of my girls to watch a DGD scrimmage practice (basically game practice) so they could get a better understanding of how the game works. (It's so much easier to watch it, than to try to explain it.) They were thrilled and getting more and more anxious to play. Me too ladies, me too.
So, I'm a little more excited when I put on my fishnets and skirt, and hoping that by the end of this month, I can call the Blacksnake Roller Girls, officially a team. I'm hoping come, the end of March, or beginning of April, we will get to play our inaugural game against one of the teams of Dead Girl Derby. I'm hoping I can find a coach to take over coaching, (I keep telling the girls I don't think I'm very good at it). I'm hoping I can find an affordable, bigger practice facility.
