2011-2012 Season Schedule
Get ready for a season eight with the Minnesota RollerGirls - Minnesota’s original roller derby league.The fall bouts will feature your favorite four home teams and the winter/spring months will feature the All-Star bouts.
Saturday, October 15
Saturday, November 19
Saturday, December 17
Saturday, January 21 (home team championship)
Saturday, February 4
Saturday, February 18 with Minnesota Swarm
Saturday, March 3
Saturday, March 31
News
Tournament Recap: Derby never quits: the 2011 MNRG All-Star Season - part 3
Saturday, December 31, 2011
On Thursday, November 8th, the team and entourage (including other members of the league, John Maddening, our photographer Head Shot, and a bare-chested cadre of male fans, known as “The Brosephs”) flew to Denver. The Mile-High City took hosting privileges this year for the biggest moment in roller derby.
‘Sota would play first in the tournament. The first eight games of the Championships’ twelve-bout structure are elimination bouts. If you lost, your team was done. The league did not want to be there for just one game this year. As before, Minnesota went to bed early for the big day.
This particular bout had an expectation regarding it from those that follow roller derby outside of Minnesota. Over the last several years, the East and West coast have been considered to be overwhelmingly strong…so strong that it was believed that any of the top three or four teams from either coast could defeat any team from the NC or the South Central. Charm City came into the tournament ranked #3 in the East (as opposed to Minnesota’s #2), and most considered Baltimore’s famed roller derby team to be the heavy favorites.
MNRG (#2 NC) v Charm City (#3 E):
Following a scoreless opening jam, MEDUSA revved the MNRG machine with a lead jam coupled with a major forearm from opposing jammer IM Pain. Minnesota’s defense screeched Charm’s pace to a crawl, and MEDUSA dropped 25 points of pain on Charm.
With the big jam came immediate problems for Charm City; several of their defense had already gone to the box, so Charm City resorted to using consecutive passes of the jammer star to get out of the pack as quickly as possible. While Minnesota’s jammer would inevitably get the lead jam, the MNRG scorer would then need to call off the jam immediately.
Seven minutes into the bout, IM Pain finally scored Charm’s first lead jam and took five (29-5). Minnesota continued to advance as MEDUSA and Harmony Killerbruise scored on a short-pack of Charm City players bitten by penalties. What’s more, the MNRG’s exhaustive training paid off. The “Great Wall of Saint Paul” – once just a great phrase that John Maddening thought up – took form as Minnesota coalesced four-walls that Charm players could not pass. However, perennial point threat IM Pain found her feet and kept the threat going for Charm City. Minnesota up 50-17 at the fifteenth minute.
For the rest of the first half, Minnesota had Charm’s number. Between Minnesota’s walls controlling the pack, MEDUSA’s phenomenal sprinting on the power jam – taking yet another power jam late in the half – and Charm’s penalty troubles…things were looking up for an upset against a coastal team. They entered the second half ahead, 94-42.
Everything I’ve seen from MNRG thus far has been smart, smart, smart. –… - Hymen Heaven, announcer for Charm City v MNRG
The second started out well as Harmony sliced through Charm like so much cake, bringing the score to 107-47. Minnesota continued to make good decisions as a pack, but Charm had modified their rotation. Like Windy City with Jackie Daniels, Charm brought in their own legend – Joy Collision – to bear on Saint Paul’s wall. Joy’s first jam of the half scored 21 as L’exi-Cuter was thrown around the back by Holden Grudges and Dolly Rocket.
Minnesota’s Dip had begun again; accumulated minors and outright fouls took their toll on the defense (particularly on Juke Boxx, Vuedoo Prodigy, and rookie enforcer Hurtrude Stein); Charm City’s veteran team used the pack advantage to at last take the lead with fifteen minutes remaining in the game (109-107)
Minnesota regrouped and rebuilt The Wall as the minutes ticked down. Joy Collision had the MNRG defense’s number, but she also got hit with several near-consecutive penalties. Charm City could not keep back the rush of MEDUSA and Second Hand Smoke, and Minnesota retook the lead and scored the victory. FINAL: 160-121.
Always bet on the aqua and army. - John Maddening
With that win, Minnesota defeated an Eastern powerhouse and now was part of the tournament’s final eight teams. The MNRG All-Stars now had the opportunity to look ahead to the quarterfinals. The next opponent? Texas.
MNRG (#2 NC) v Texas (#1 SC):
If you’re a fan of roller derby, it’s hard to not love Texas. Austin’s Texecutioners are the best players of the original league that started the flat-track roller derby revolution. They’ve got great fans, they play hard and smart, and their jammer rotation (Vicious VanGoGo, Olivia Shootin’ John, and Bloody Mary) is one of the best in the nation.
Put another way…Texas is the most talented team Minnesota had ever faced.
We came close.
Minnesota charged out early as L’exi-Cuter sopped up a Bloody Mary penalty trip and scored eleven unanswered points. MEDUSA followed up with another nine. 20-0 after two jams…Minnesota up.
From the outset, Texas appeared more collected than Charm City; while their hits were not so hard, they would sidle up to a blocker, engage them with precision and push them out. Texas’ defense did not go person-on-person when MNRG would try to wall up, but would hold the center and explode…keeping Minnesota from coalescing the solid wall when moving forward. Their defensive style allowed Olivia Shootin’ John and GoGo to slot through our packs and grab leads. 24-17 after eleven minutes.
Minnesota came right back. While L’exi-Cuter had been battered several times by Charm City, Texas’ method of jammer defense was a total mismatch for L’exi’s predictive play. L’exi scored fifteen points (thirty in the half), and MEDUSA followed up with another twelve as Diamond Rough cleared the way past Texas’ Barbara Ambush. Texas responded in kind, but Minnesota nonetheless extended their lead to 55-35.
On a reversal of power jams late in the first half, Minnesota’s Second Hand Smoke scored on Bloody Mary’s penalty, but Texas’ Polly Gone forced a track cut, giving Bloody Mary the chance to return the power jam. Mary came up big…but as the teams went to the back in the half, Minnesota still had a small lead 67-56.
Texas slowly established control in the second half. Vicious Van Gogo and Olivia Shootin’ John took the sharp hits from Hurtrude, Tiki, Scarmen, and Diamond…but recycled, re-engaged, and took the lead jam, culminating with Olivia at last bringing her team ahead with 22 minutes left, 71-69 Texas up.
Van Gogo extended the lead to 86-69 as the MNRG All-Stars were beginning to feel the effects of too many illegal hits on their pack. Consistently short on defense, Minnesota had trouble keeping enough players on the opposing jammer to be a real threat against Texas.
Minnesota rallied on two power jams. That brought them back into the lead with eleven minutes left to play (92-91 Minnesota up). One jam later, Texas’ Olivia retook that lead, and several jams with Minnesota short on defense extended that lead to 118-92 with only a few jams left to play.
Minnesota’s Great Wall regenerated for the last jams, but the MNRG could not recover their holding defense in time. MEDUSA pulled the last lead jam out; Texas won. FINAL: 141-108. Texas went on to take 3rd in the tournament.
Final thoughts:
As the tournament drew to a close, an exhausted MNRG All-Star team headed to Denver International Airport for one last flight. My final memory of the tournament is there on that plane sitting next to L’exi-Cuter and Ova Achieva. Ova had her head down over a textbook for the start of the flight, but she then pulled out a piece of paper and began hurriedly writing names on it. We asked Ova what she was doing…Ova grinned and showed us the lines that she was working on for the Dolls’ November bout against the Garda Belts.
Derby never quits.
This article would not have been possible with the assistance of members of the Minnesota RollerGirls, flattrackstats.com, the amazing people behind this year’s Big 5 coverage, the Derby News Network, and my wonderful wife, Myrna Ploy.
More News
Seeing Double Recaplet: Rockits beat Dagger Dolls
February 19, 2012
Rockits 106 - Dagger Dolls 45
Seeing Double: the Preview
February 13, 2012
The MNRG return to the Xcel Energy Centre…this time for a remix of the Dolls/Rockits season finale.
Hook, Line, and Sink Her: Minnesota All-Stars rush past Old Capitol City, 362-58
February 07, 2012
In the Minnesota All-Stars’ opening bout of 2012, Iowa City’s best take on the #2-ranked league in the North. Minnesota welcomes Iowa City with a resounding win.
Hook Line and Sink Her: Miss Quitos nose ahead of Loon-a-Ticks, 96-67
February 06, 2012
The Rockit/Garda Belt superteam come back from a 14-point deficit at the half, takes advantage of penalty trouble by the Atomic Bombshell/Dagger Doll skaters and charges ahead for the win.
Hook Line and Sink Her Recaplet: MNRG takes out Old Capitol, Miss Quitos overcome the Loon-a-Ticks
February 04, 2012
MNRG All-Stars 362 - 58 OCCRG, Miss Quitos 96 - 67 Loon-a-Ticks
