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
Saturday, June 16
News
Season Preview: MNRG: The Season Begins
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Before we get to Saturday’s bout, one little, tiny piece of business:
We’re going to the Championships!
That’s right. Your MNRG All-Stars are heading to Denver next month to compete for the world championship trophy. We went to Indianapolis’ North Central playoffs on October 6th as the third-seed with the 2011 WFTDA Championships in our sights…and we nailed it. We knocked out Madison (#6) in the quarterfinals, delivered a definitive upset to the Detroit Derby Girls (#2) in the semifinals, and were narrowly defeated by the mighty Windy City Rollers in the NC final. Now, there are a lot of stories to tell from that weekend, but for now…let’s leave at this: we’re #2 in the Midwest! And we now have bigger leagues to defeat than even our friends from Chicago. More on that in a moment.
The season is on! It’s October, and that means that one team becomes four. It’s fitting that the tournament season happens just as our own home bouts begin. It meant that our league came together – festooned in MNRG blue - to watch the All-Stars play for the NC championship at Saint Paul’s Camp Bar (one of our many new sponsors). Two days later, they hit the track in red, pink, green, and orange, only days away from Bout #1!
Introducing… - In years past, we have asked the captains to talk about their teams and introduce their rookies. This year, we’ll be introducing the new players and referees in their own words. Watch the MNRG official fan page on Facebook and @mnrg on Twitter for quotes from the newest faces in our league.
New Season – new game: Roller derby is changing rapidly. In fact, the strategies that ‘worked’ in April’s closer against Naptown have already been honed and refined. You are about to see something quite new as the All-Stars, league veterans, and rookies introduce to you the next level of our new sport. You’ll see faster hits, more clever jammers, the new (and controversial) scrum defense, new takes on passing the star, multi-skater blocks, face-to-face blocking…the game has gotten intense. It’s also gotten more fun as teams continue to work out how to defeat some delay tactics of years past.
Grudge matches: this weekend, the teams of MNRG will play rematches from the Season 7 championship. Each bout is worth one win. As always, the highest number of wins will determine who goes to the home team finals in January. The Bombshells, led by Diamond Rough and longtime veteran Lizzy the Axe, will take on Anita Spankston and Rita Rawkus’ Garda Belts. As for the Rockits and Dagger Dolls, they will also rematch. This year, the hometeam champion Rockits are being run by Frau Scientits and Honeydew Felon, while Doll captains Shiver Me Kimbers and Ova Achieva will push the women in pink towards their illusive 2nd championship. The first win is incredibly important in our season. Don’t expect the action to let up.
Oh, and about those Championships! We took second at Northerns. At each WFTDA playoff, the top three places get an invite to the Championships. Windy City will of course join us at the tournament, as will the 3rd-place Tornado Sirens of Indianapolis, IN (last seen almost stealing a win from us in April). The path to the finals is a difficult one, but we are excited that our first opponent in Denver will be Baltimore’s own Charm City Rollergirls. We have a long history against Charm and we look forward to renewing that rivalry. Upon the defeat of Charm City, we must defeat a regional winner to advance. Our opponent in that next match? The queen of Southerns. Grandma Derby herself. We play…Texas!
What you need to know about Saturday: Doors open at 6:30pm. If you’d like one of the 200 free t-shirts we’ll give out to our early fans, get there early! Omar Ansari, owner of Surly Brewing (yes, that Surly Brewing – one of our newest sponsors!), will be our honorary countdown timer for Saturday. The Bratwurst Brothers join us again this year for occasional halftime polka, and our afterparty will take place right down the street from the Roy at Camp Bar.
So. One tournament done, one to go, and a season at the Legendary Roy Wilkins Auditorium filled with MNRG roller derby. New faces and new styles of play. Fantastic new sponsors. We have more surprises still to come. We also have some extremely challenging teams being lined up for the All-Star part of the season after our four teams again become one. Get ready, Minnesota. Our eighth season is going to be our best so far.
More News
The 2012 Wheelies
May 08, 2012
A season of surprises, kickass rookies, skaters going above and beyond…and the results are in!
Minnesota shotguns Brewskis, 173-104
April 11, 2012
The All-Stars go 10-0 on the Roy track, defeating Milwaukee’s best and finishing the MNRG’s 8th season on top.
New school defeats old in league-wide battle, 116-80
April 10, 2012
The Minnesota RollerGirls took to the track in a familiar bout on March 31st as the league’s veterans (playing as the “Mayo Clinicians”) attempted to go 2-0 against those newest to roller derby (the “State Fair Foodies”). After falling behind in the first half, the Foodies outscored the veterans 85 to 12 in the second to win the match 116-80.
The Northern Fights final scores
March 31, 2012
The younger skaters take one back on the Vets…and Minnesota makes it ten in a row on the Roy track.
The Northern Fights: the preview
March 29, 2012
The end of the season, the final mixer, and a match against the brilliant Brewcity Bruisers.
