One of the odd things that comes up occasionally are team "names". The Carolina Rollergirls are just that... the Carolina Rollergirls. There's been talk of adopting some sort of mascot or team name but for the most part I think the league is content with the "Carolina Rollergirls". One of the things that gets confusing sometimes is trying to figure out in what city an interleague team belongs. The Tent City Terrors? Rose City? Mad Rolling Dolls? Sure, once you've had it explained you can remember where Tent City is and that the "Mad" in Mad Rolling Dolls stands for Madison, Wisconsin. Once you know that, it kinda makes sense.

The PRD team is known as the "Rhode Island Riveters"... that's at least one that I think most people figure out pretty easily.

Putting the Hospital in "Southern Hospitality"

The weekend started with the PRD crew driving down on Friday. They had planned on arriving by 9 PM and the CRG folks put out a spread hosted at Shirley Temper's house. For a variety of reasons, the Providence team's arrival was delayed until the wee hours in the morning so they missed out on the sweet tea and ham biscuits... :-(

Pre-Bout

Around noon on the day of the bout the teams, refs, other officials, etc. gather on the floor. The set-up crew is still working, but it is their opportunity to skate a bit and discuss the upcoming game. We run through introductions w/ the announcers to make sure everything is ready for the evening and then the skaters are dismissed to go rest. The refs, captains and bench-coaches stay around to discuss any issues that may be warranted. There didn't seem to be any major issues brought up and after the captains/coaches left we discussed how we'd split duties between the home ref crew and the three guys from Providence. We've got new refs, a new scoring system, a relatively new scoreboard operator and a new set of penalty staff/trackers.

After that, it's off for some egg drop soup and rice and then back to the arena for the game. Penelope Bruz can have her spaghetti with red sauce and peanut butter, I'll stick to my rice and egg drop soup.

I don't have the stats for the game and I'm going off memory for points, etc.

Period One

The first thing I notice is the gaggle of folks standing in the middle. We have some new penalty stats crew folks and a couple extra refs. It's like a little crowd in the infield. I'm starting as the rear pack ref (we rotate positions every period). We're also trying to all report penalties to the crew as they occur - I'm more a fan of reporting them at the end of the jam, but we'll see how this new system works out.

There seems to be a lot of hitting... pure hitting. On the whole, the teams appear to be pretty evenly matched. One key is that neither jammer is making it through the pack cleanly during this period. The other seems to be that the team that controls the front of the pack controls the jam. Providence is very fast off the line and takes the first jam 4-0. The Carolina team comes back hitting hard.

There are a lot of people going down in groups. The refs aren't seeing much intentional-pulling-down-of-others but there do seem to be plenty of arms and legs flailing.

From the ref's perspective it's hard to see the numbers on the Providence skater's backs. We require our teams to have a number on the left shoulder (many girls write this on in marker) so we can identify skaters easily. Nothing is more annoying as a ref to say "Minor - Blocking out of Bounds - White number... eh... um... I can't see her number... that one...". I think we'll request all teams do that in the future.

• Key Play: Dolly Rocket sits as a jammer for a major penalty and Roxy Rockett for Carolina jams for an 8 or 9 point advance in her absence.

Carolina 52, Providence 32

Period Two

Prior to the period we have a discussion w/ the captains from each team. Providence felt like there were a lot of hands/forearms not being called. Carolina felt like there was a lot of grabbing from the floor, tripping and hits to the head that weren't being called.

The teams have changed their line-ups a bit. In the first period it looked like Carolina had more balanced lines but in this period it seems to be more drastically swinging one way or the other. The Carolina girls are hitting more than the Providence girls but that's putting them out of position and Providence is commanding the front of the pack. Providence is also a bit larger than Carolina so it looks like the Carolina players are having to expend more energy.

There's a one-jam delay or so between when the scorekeepers track the score and the board itself gets updated and this is causing some confusion. There's also a wall of people between where the skaters line up and the penalty area so teams are having a hard time figuring out if they have someone in the box and that they need to drop a skater.

The game was getting pretty messy... most of the jams went without a lead jammer during this period. There is also at least one jam where neither jammer makes it through the pack.

Carolina 88, Providence 70

Period Three

Carolina started the period with five or six skaters sitting on three minors. They are changing their line-ups on the fly to minimize the chance of getting the fourth minor while a jammer.

Teams and refs are not seeing the penalty box easily and we have a couple jams start with too many skaters or are halted because of it. I don't like official time-outs, but we're having to call a few to get things straight. On one jam Providence started with one too many skaters, then two skaters left - leaving them short for a few laps.

The game is also messy on the track. People are falling, we're hearing complaints from both teams about un-called penalties. Tempers are flaring. There are three Carolina skaters with icepacks on their faces.

One thing that's odd if you've not experienced it before is the crowd's involvement in the game. In our arena the house lights are dimmed and we've got light towers shining down on the track. This creates a veil between the track and most of the audience - you just don't see them. Yeah, you can see the folks sitting on the floor but the general crowd you don't notice. Until, at least, you're hit with the "wall of sound". In the third period whenever a Carolina jammer gets lead and does a fist-pump or some such there's a huge roar from the crowd. It can be a bit of a jolt if you're not expecting it.

Whatever Carolina is doing is working a tad better for parts of the third period. They seemed to have the upper hand in the first and were losing a bit of ground in the second to Providence.

• Key Plays: When the Carolina jammer is sitting in the box, Providence failed to pile on the points. They score some points, but nothing so much as what Carolina scores when the Providence jammer is in the box.

Carolina 131, Providence 102

Summary

• Providence had the size advantage. Some of the smaller Carolina girls were bouncing off the larger Providence team.
• There were plenty of hits, but most of them didn't seem to be "strategic" hits... the bulk of them seemed to either be away from the play or took a the hitter further away from the play. Neither team seemed to focus on strategic blocking as much as out-right hitting.
• Carolina effectively shut-down one of the Providence jammers, Hysterica. I'm not sure if they matched line-ups or played the woman instead of positionally, but they greatly reduced her impact on the game.
• There were several single-jammer jams with one team having a jammer in the penalty box. This is the derby-equivalent of a "special teams" situation... and if you win the special-teams battle it can often be the deciding factor in the game. When the Providence jammers were in the box, Carolina scored big. When the Carolina jammers were in the box the Providence jammers were not as brutally effective in piling up a large point differential.

This, I think, was the game. If I look through the mess and distraction came down to execution on the special team situations. Carolina won that battle and I think that carried the overall war.

Until next time...

voodoo

Discuss this on our message boards: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/NCrollergirls/

Don't miss the next bout!