Thank you. From a roller girl...

As most of you know, I play roller derby. We train, and practice, and have teams, and are part of a league. My team practices two or three nights a week for 2 or 3 hours. And we have bouts- which are kind of like our version of 'games' or 'meets'. It's actually a really fun sport :)

Here are a couple of links for some more information:
Wiki's definition of women's roller derby.
Women's Flat Track Derby Association's homepage.




Here I am playing my favorite position, Pivot.




And here I am doing one of my favorite things as a Pivot... Messing with the other team's pivot.
(She's yelling at the ref to call a foul on me but if you notice, neither of her toe-stops are on the line so she had no 'rights' as pivot- aka I was not committing a foul. Toe- stop positioning, mine and the opponent's, is one of the things I check for every time I go up to the line for this very reason.) 

And this is what a good 3-man wall looks like. Notice how I'm touching both of my teammates- this is how I 'see' where they are when I'm in front of them. The pivot often ends up in the front so this is important.
Also, Golden (the girl with short hair on my team) is looking back all the way, I'm looking to Golden, and Gypsy (the girl with longer hair on my team) is looking to me and Golden- when everyone is doing this well, this is the most effective way to keep track of everything going on ALL over the track.

It's fun and it's rough and it's like playing any other sport- sometimes I hate it and sometimes I love it. But I've stuck with it for over a year now and I've made some amazing friends and have been inspired by some of the strong women I skate with. I have also been pissed at some of the stupid stunts that have been pulled and frustrated when our governing board seems to grind to a bureaucratic hault. Overall though, it's an awesome part of my life. And I'm lucky enough to have family and friends who support this habit. Dave comes to our scrimmage every Tuesday night and has been to all of my bouts. My parents, sister, cousins (Hi Whitney!), and friends (Hi Joy!) have all seen me play in a bout. And you all give me grace when I can't hang out because I have to go to practice, bring the water cooler to the locker room at a bout when I forgot it at home, and dress up/make signs/yell loudly/show up at my bouts creating a presence so noticeable that people start calling it Cherry's Cheering Section! I can't tell you how much I appreciate everything :)

 THANK YOU! 

Thank you to all involved in my skating! You are my awesome home team that gives me the support I need to go out and skate with my Raiders!  

My team at the last bout! I'm in the center of the mob somewhere, LoL