Saturday, April 20th 2013, the Greenville Derby Dames Allstars hit
the road and headed to Raleigh, NC, to bout Carolina Roller Girls Allstars. The day started early, rolling out of Greenville at 8:30am, with cars packed with derby girls and gear. After arriving safely at Dorton Arena, we were greeted with a lovely stroll through the Fair Grounds and a wonderful display of flea market tables. If you didn’t know, a flea market can be a derby girl kryptonite, but it was time for skater check-in, so we will come back to that a bit later.

If you have never been to Raleigh or are unfamiliar with the CRG bout facility, allow me to sidetrack for a little information on that. According to Wikipedia, “Dorton Arena is a 7,610-seat multi-purpose arena in Raleigh, NC”. This arena once was home to several sports teams including basketball teams and hockey teams. It is a fantastic structure that is architecturally pleasing to the eye, with its sloping roof and panoramic glass panes. The floor is a nice smooth polished concrete, a small adjustment from the sport court our ladies are used to skating on.

Upon checking in, we were ushered to our locker room, and greeted by a
welcome basket of goodies from CRG team sponsors. It is always so nice to have a nicely stocked welcome basket. There is nothing more frustrating than forgetting a small item that you may find yourself in need of; pain reliever,wetwipes, and sunglasses for the setting sun in the panoramic window panes I mentioned earlier. Scheduled to play at 5pm, we decided to venture out into the fair grounds for a little team bonding and perusing of secondhand treasures.

While we were on our treasure hunt, we happened upon an airbrush face paint booth. This is where the battle preparation begins. One after another our Allstars were painted. Kiira sat down but stood up as
Conway Hitty, ready to skate fast, turn left, juke, jam, and block. Many cultures use war paint as a clear method of intent. This was a clear message, but with fun undertones. We are here to chew gum and rollerskate, and we are all out of gum. It is time, the battle has begun.

5pm, first whistle. Going into this bout, we were the underdogs, projected to lose by nearly 200 points. Jam after jam, we walled up and held our ground. Penalties were a mild concern in the first half, but we were determined to stick together and keep fighting. By halftime we were behind, but only by 71 points at a score of 136-65. Coach Josh spoke about our areas for improvement during our halftime pep talk.  We collected ourselves mentally and were ready
to apply his leadership in the second half.

Shortly after the second half started, the sun had reached its setting point parallel to the rows of large pane glass windows. GDD allstars donned sunglasses for a team first, to aid in vision. Even with the
slight impairment of vision we were able to keep our game play clean, keeping our trips to the box lower than past game play average, but closely equal to first half. Our endurance held strong for the duration of game play, with most of our skaters playing 2 and 3 jams consecutive. We tried a few new things. Veraaah C. Raptor and HercuLisa toed the jammer line, and the ones I
lovingly refer to as baby A’s made some serious plays on the CRG jammers.

GDD allstars lost to CRG, 259-133, with our heads held high. As a team, we were so thankful for the opportunity to have been invited to play a team as great as the Carolina Roller Girls Allstar team. Notes
from Coach Josh include a 55GDD-5CRG point run at the end of the half and beginning of the second, which is a swinging comeback from 131-31 to 136-86. Also, being behind by 71 points the first half and only by 50 with a second half adjustment. Even though we may not have come home with a “W” for our season schedule board, we do consider this weekend a huge team win. We gained experience, we challenged
ourselves, and with every bout we get stronger, closer, and better. I believe I can speak for all the Allstars when I say that we cannot wait for our next bout with Carolina Roller Girls.

Here are a few pictures from the recent volunteer day at the Generous Garden Project.  (Photos courtesy of Polly Sackherhide.)

Some of the Dames headed out to the Generous Garden Project on a beautiful Saturday recently to help out at their Seedling Sale fundraiser.  Here are some photos courtesy of Conway Hitty.  (Want to help the Generous Garden fight hunger in the upstate?  Check out their website for information on volunteering and other opportunities to help.  They also have a 5k coming up in June.  Check it out!)