Roller Derby in “The Fort”

Last week Tobey saw an ad in the paper for a roller derby match and he decided we should go. We had seen the movie, Whip It, with Drew Barrymore, but it did nothing to prepares us for what roller derby in Fort Collins would be.

We arrived early at the Qdoba Events Center in Fort Collins because we had been told it would be a packed house. Not so much … Unlike the raised track with rails around it as seen in the movie, this track was a flat track marked with fluorescent pink tape on the floor. PVH arrived with an ambulance and two paramedics – just in case.

At 7pm we were treated to a junior division exhibition match. These little girls were somewhere between 7 and 10 years old and were quite the skaters! Like the movie, all of the skaters had their special monikers which they went by. Mega Drama, pictured above, was a “jammer,” or one of the skaters who could score points. She had her entire family there to cheer her on – Drama Mama, Drama Daddy, Drama Sista, Drama Grammy, (all wearing tee shirts with their names on them. The other team had better blockers, so Mega Drama’s team ended up losing. The main event, the competition between the Fort Collins’ nationally ranked travel team, the Micro Bruisers (in blue) , facing off against the Castle Rock ‘N Rollers Greatest Hits began shortly after the Juniors.  With “jammers” like “Slim Skatey” and “98 Pounds of Steel",  and blockers, “Inner Demon” and “Battle C Portman”, the Micro Bruisers were off to a fast start which never let up. Try as they might, the Castle Rock ‘n Rollers could not get past the Micro Bruisers and lost 212 to 49!

Following a competition of high school aged skaters, the second official matchup was between the Fort Collins Punchy Brewsters and the Boulder County Bombers. The Bombers had the clear advantage at the beginning of the match with their awesome jammer, “Faelust” finding her way through the Brewsters blockers. At 10pm, we decided we could officially cross “attend a roller derby” off our bucket list and headed home.

Watch the trailer of “Whip It”  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172233/