So last night we bouted against CNY (Central New York)'s B team, the Blue Collar Betties. I was a bit apprehensive because a look at their roster showed us that we had played against eight of the Betties when we went to Utica to play their A team, the Utica Clubbers. I was not looking forward to getting slaughtered again (the previous score was 161-68).
But bout day arrived, and I had my usual eight thousand heart attacks (including one where I realized I left my flash drive at work, which held the only copy of the lineups. I called my boss frantically, going OMFG I NEED TO COME TO YOUR HOUSE TO GET THE KEY TO THE BUILDING (well, I didn't say the "OMFG" part) but then I found a printout of the lineups so that crisis was averted). Then our bout production manager had to go to the hospital 'cause she tripped on the track and cut her eyebrow open. Then it was eleventy billion degrees and the parking situation at the venue which is usually horrible was made even worse because the pool was open and completely packed.
So yeah, the bout.
I have kind of realized that you can pretty much tell how a bout is going to go after the first few jams. If it's going to be a runaway train of an annihilation, it's fairly obvious early on.
This was realized after the second jam, and it was something like 17-0, US IN THE LEAD.
WAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LAST NIGHT MY TEAM WAS AWESOME SERVED WITH A SIDE OF SUPER AWESOME SAUCE. Skaters who had trouble with endurance in the past became walls on the track that no jammer could pass. Our one jammer who gets so nervous in front of an audience was a lightning-fast streak who dipped and swerved and sped her way to lead jammer so many times. We had human wrecking balls who just slammed into people and threw them off the track.
Apparently I had one move where I pulled a sheriff* on someone and they just fell completely backwards, skates in the air. Hopefully someone got that on tape.
(My personal favorite move of the night was when our smallest skater on the league was jamming, stuck behind two blockers. The pivot in that jam just PUSHED HER though this little tiny gap between the blockers, it was SO FUCKING AMAZING TO WATCH.)
We had communcation. We had teamwork. We were fucking awesome.
The final score? 147-37. It was glorious.
(edited to add: I am looking through people's pictures of the bout and giggling over the scores that I'm seeing - 61 to 6? hee)
(edited again to add: the first time I fell, my kneepad slipped and I landed on the edge of the hard plastic part. I have a nice bruise on my kneecap now, and my knee is all stiff and ow-wy. Then, when we were having a post-bout meeting with the refs and the other team's captains, I realized my arm was stinging, and apparently I managed to get rink rash on my forearm.)
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*this move has different names, but this is what we call it. It's when you're skating in front of someone and you just throw your shoulder back into their chest to knock them down. It's perfectly legal and if you do it right, they can get a penalty for backblocking. I love doing it.
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