On Saturday, February 11, 2012, NEO Roller Derby’s “Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls” started their morning traveling through the worst snow storm of the season, on treacherous roads to bout the Little Steel Derby Girls (from Youngstown, Ohio) “Lawless Rollers” in Little Steel’s first WFTDA (Women’s Flat Track Derby Association) mock sanctioned bout. The Little Steel Derby Girls are a WFTDA apprentice league. The apprentice program is designed to take WFTDA inspired leagues through the process of joining the association by completing several tasks, which includes hosting mock sanctioned bouts with WFTDA member leagues. NEO Roller Derby was proud to help their little sisters complete one of their tasks.
The Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls (RnR) were facing multiple challenges with several veteran skaters, such as Carmella the Crusher (CC), Monty PipeBomb, Rosa Mariposa, Truly Outrageous, and Twin Pistol unable to skate. Their short roster of 9 skaters consisted of both veteran and rookie RnR skaters. As they stood in their sisterly circle before the game started, they knew that regardless of all that was working against them, they were there to show their little sisters how RnR rolls as a team.
From the impressive jamming of Holley Car Brader and Elektra Magneto, to the hard hitting pack action of Taking Names, Wes Cravin Brainz, Sicilian Slicer, CrossBone Cutie and Kitty Black, to the booty blocking of Olive Pain and Teeny Houdini, the Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls pulled together as a team and played one of their most impressive offensive and defensive games to date. The final score was NEO 243, Little Steel 65. The teams got to pick an opposing jammer and blocker Most Valuable Player for the bout. Little Steel chose Holley Car Brader as Jammer MVP and Taking Names for the Blocker MVP, however NEO felt every skater on the team was an MVP that evening. The Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls awarded Little Steel’s MVP Jammer to Leannibal Lecter and the MVP Blocker to Ground Zero.
RnR wasn’t expecting such a big gap in the score, as the Lawless Rollers consists of many talented skaters and derby players. This bout proved to everyone on NEO that the hard work of their coaches, Alchemist Prime and Rich Ratcliff, and the captains of both teams, is continuing to pay off. Anyone witnessing this bout wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between the veteran or rookie Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls.
Next up, the Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls will be taking on the Burning River All-Stars in a WFTDA Sanctioned Bout, and Audio Assault will be taking on the Burning River HazMat Team on February 26, 2012 at 10:15 at the Pla-Mor Roller Rink in Euclid.
Saturday, January 21st found NEO Roller Derby in Fort Wayne, IN at our very first bout of the season, against the Fort Wayne Derby Girls. Audio Assault (AA) and the Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls (RnR) made the trek to the beautiful Allen County War Memorial Coliseum for a double header.
The first bout of the night was Audio Assault taking on the girls of S.W.A.T. AA looked great in their purple jerseys and fought tooth and nail, unfortunately is wasn’t enough to forge off S.W.A.T. who has several veteran skaters on their team. Final score AA 60 – S.W.A.T. 193.
The second match up between the Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls and FWDG’s Bomb Squad was a long anticipated one by the girls of RnR. We’ve skated against S.W.A.T., before we were members of the WFTDA (Women’s Flat Track Derby Association), but this was our first sanctioned game against the Bomb Squad. We were super excited to skate against them. However, we found ourselves outmatched, final score NEO 80 – Bomb Squad 204.
This may sound like a pretty big loss, but we actually did pretty well. Coming into the night, Flat Track Stats www.flattrackstats.com had RnR losing at a margin of 8 points to every 33 scored by the Bomb Squad. Fort Wayne scored a ratio of 20:8. This is 126 game points short of the expected ratio of 33:8. Even though we lost the bout, we did better than what was anticipated, actually moving up 11.5 points taking us from 99th place to 94th. Fort Wayne ranked 48th before the bout, dropped to 51st. Considering we were playing with a very short roster and against a very tough competitor who is ranked significantly higher than us, we are very proud of ourselves and had a great time in Fort Wayne.
The next bout for Audio Assault is February 4th & 5th in Bloomington, IN, where they will participate in their first tournament, The B-Cup. It’s sure to be an exciting weekend with lots of thrills and spills. Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls will be taking on sister league, Little Steel Derby Girls in a closed bout on February 11th.
The NEO Roller Derby League will host their 3rd Annual Chili Cook-off at The Lounge at 370 Paul Williams St. in Akron, Ohio on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The league has limited space available for entrants with a $20 fee. Forms to participate must be turned in by Jan. 5.
NEO Roller Derby invites the public to attend the Chili Cook-off and sample the entries. Tickets are $5 in advance from a team member of $8 at the door.
For more information, e-mail Anita Target at business@NEORollerDerby.com or download rules and entry form by visiting http://neorollerderby.com/file/2012chilicookoffrulesandform.pdf.
All proceeds raised from the event will be donated to NEO Roller Derby.
What a year it has been; a year of firsts. First year for NEO as a full member of WFTDA. First WFTDA sanctioned bout in February, in Appleton, Wisconsin against Paper Valley Roller Girls. First time NEO played in a tournament (Brewhaha) also in Wisconsin; but in Madison. Which also happens to be the first two sanctioned bout wins. NEO officially getting ranked for the first time.
We had a great home season, that saw rematches against Grand Raggidy, Little Steel, Burning River and Gem City. Our season ended with a Rock ‘n’ Roller Girls (RnR) victory over Gem City and a very climatic come from behind win for Audio Assault (AA) over Blue Water.
Lastly, for the first time ever, NEO has our very own practice space, located in downtown Akron, on the 6th floor of Canal Place.
2011 was a year of firsts and growth for NEO.
2012 is slowly upon us and NEO is proud to announce our 2012 travel season:
January 21, 2012 - RnR vs Ft. Wayne’s BOMB Squad (Ft Wayne, IN)
January 21, 2012 - AA vs Ft. Wayne’s SWAT Team
February 4 & 5, 2012 - AA @ B-Cup Tournament
hosted by Bleeding Heartland (Bloomington, IN)
February 11, 2012 - RnR vs Little Steel Derby Girls (Youngstown, OH)
February 26, 2012 - RnR vs Burning River Roller Girls Allstars
March 3, 2012 - RnR vs Killamazoo Derby Darlins (Kalamazoo, MI )
March 3, 2012 - AA vs Killamazoo Derby Darlins
March 24, 2012 - RnR vs Gem City Rollergirls (Dayton, OH)
March 24, 2012 - AA vs Eerie Roller Girls (Eerie, PA)
April 28, 2012 - RnR vs Flint City Derby Girls (Flint, MI)
April 28, 2012 - AA vs Flint Michigan
June 2 & 3, 2011 - RnR @Midwest Brewhaha (Madison, WI)
If you feel up to a road-trip and want to cheer on your favorite roller derby team, contact us at info@neorollerderby.com for more information on any of these bouts.
That’s right, we took a giant leap and landed ourselves a brand new practice space which we’ve dubbed the ‘Penthouse’. It’s on the top floor of one of the Canal Place buildings in Akron, and what a dream come true to have our own practice space!
The adventure we’ve endured getting it ready to skate on has certainly led to some gray hairs. From the minute we signed on the dotted line, the lack of electricity and lighting and a floor that was anything but skate ready have required literally hundreds of hours just to get to skate. We’ve degreased, power washed, sanded, scraped and asphalt, laid concrete- you name it, we’ve probably done it! And it was all worth it. Not only have members of our league taken on this huge undertaking, but several generous folks have donated their time, energy and resources to helping get our home ready. And we are forever grateful each and every one of them. A HUGE THANK YOU to Joe Gibbs from Gibbs Flooring and his friend Steve for all the work on the floor, Greg Ray from Ray’s Electric for the electrical work, Tony, Pappy, Griz, Captain Celtlick, Iconoclast and several more of our Mr’s for all their hard work and dedication. And to our beloved Coach Hector who has gone above and beyond what we could have ever imagined, Thank You isn’t enough to express our gratitude towards you. You are so selfless and giving of yourself and time. NEO is honored to have you and call you Coach.
It is our hopes that having our own practice space will enable NEO to significantly improve our game and bring all that many more thrills and spills to our fans. To increase in WFTDA rankings and become eligible for tournament play is our ultimate goal. The Penthouse is where we will be working our tails off in hopes of making our dreams a reality. After three months of hard work on the floor we are finally getting to practice regularly in our new home. The floor does the trick for the time being, but our ultimate goal is to be able to afford to purchase a Skate Court (the surface that the majority of tournaments are played on.) We feel practicing on the same surface we’d be competing on would be a huge help in preparing us for the future. Skate Court is very expensive and a luxury we can’t possibly afford at this time. We are hopeful with fundraisers, donations and lots of hard work that we will someday be able to adorn our new home with the coveted skate surface. If you, or anyone you know would like to sponsor NEO Roller Derby or has kick ass fundraiser ideas, please contact us at Business@NEORollerDerby.com.
