Season 6 Wrap-Up
Here's a quick recap of how last season ended. GNR went into the Season 6 Championships ranked #4, which pitted them against the Heartless Heathers for the #3 spot. And holy crap, you guys, GNR played amazing! Our ladies played smart, played together, and managed to put into practice all the awesome things they've been working on throughout the season (but hadn't been able to use). They didn't just hang in there, they managed to shut down the Heathers for the entire first half. Sadly though, they seemed to use up all their rock'n'roll juju in the first 30 minutes and were unable to put up the fight to beat the Heathers. But let me tell you, that first half was pure magic. Very tricky, GNR, to give us just a little taste of what you're capable of, then make us wait until next season (which is, of course, this season) to see more.
The Off-Season
So here's what usually happens around the Rose City Rollers come summertime: skaters usually take a little time off, team practices are infrequent and much less demanding, basically everyone disappears for the summer until it's time to re-emerge for pre-season training. But apparently GNR couldn't wait to start buckling down and getting serious about winning in their next season. While other teams took advantage of the "optional team practice time", GNR was back in the hangar and on a weekly schedule before you could say "sweet child of mine". They gritted their teeth and dug in with renewed determination.
Pre-Season
On December 3 the most recent seven draftees of the Guns N Rollers joined hard-rocking forces with the rookies from the Break Neck Betties to take on the visiting Southern Oregon Rollergirls from Medford. Ironically, this "rookie bout" featured some of last season's most influential skaters like the lovely Supa Sixpack and the incomparable Untamed Shrew. Roller Eclipse, Tyger Bomb, Squid Vicious, Artemis Foulmouth, and newest draftee Va Va BOOM also took the track. And what a fun game it was! Although Sixpack was a constant in the jammer rotation, everybody got some time wearing the jammer cap. Tyger even put up some serious points amid a sea of cheering and horn-throwing. We were treated to multiple all-GNR line-ups (LOVED IT!), wherein we got to witness more of the smart pack play and strategy that our ladies in fishnets have been working on in their practices. The more I see GNR play together the more I see consistency in their awesomeness. It's not just hit-and-miss anymore. During last season's time of rebuilding I saw brief glimmers of what could be a kick-ass, amazing team. This season, GNR is ready. And it's on like Donkey Kong.
Retirements (GNR 4 Life)
New Captains
New Drafts
In Other News...
Scald Eagle was voted MVP of Western Regionals! She has also been nominated for Derby News Network's Rookie of the Year. Voting runs Dec 19-23.
GNR is in fundraising mode for their world tour (i.e. Season 7). Show them some love and they'll show you some in return. I'll be talking more about this later. In the meantime, check out GNR's
Stay tuned for more news and posts from the Jungle via your humble blogger. Rock on! \m/
Awesome blog Amanda! Love hearing what the amazing women of GNR have been up to & I'm super excited to see all their hard work & commitment pay off on the track with some epic derby action this season!! \m/
ReplyDeleteMy favorite moment of last year had to be the bout against the High Rollers.
ReplyDeleteGuns N Rollers pulled together a deadly serious second-half comeback that TOTALLY wiped the smirks off Gang Green's collective face.
SO great.
It was the first time in the season that GnR actually SCARED another team, and if there had been two more minutes in the bout, I have NO DOUBT they would have won.
The Jungle was amazing that night, too - loud as hell. Can't wait to leave my vocal chords trackside again THIS year!
\m/ >.< \m/