Get in the Box

Everyone finds their own unique path through life.  Some people plan out each and every choice they make to reach a long term goal.  Others take life day by day, seeking their path through accidental meetings and serendipitous events.  My path most certainly follows the latter.

This particular path towards Roller Derby started in the spring of '08 when I picked up a Phoenix New Times to read during my lunch break.  I had gotten hooked on reading the New Times over lunch every Thursday due to their entertaining 'pull no punches' columnists.  This particular issue featured an article about Roller Derby in Phoenix with Arizona Derby Dames.  Since I'm always looking for that new experience, this sounded like a whole lot of fun.  I dutifully marked this event down in my mental calendar and promptly forgot about it when Real Life™ reasserted itself on me.
Now fast forward to October of 2009.  This is one of those seminal moments that brings together past and current events that forges a new path into the future.  The trigger event this time was the movie Whip It.  Although I never got a chance to see it in the theatres, it was high on my list of films to watch at home with the kids.  I thought it would be a fun Friday night movie and that would be the end of it.  Boy was I wrong.

My kids latched on to this movie like a 4 year old's death grip on a giant bag of cotton candy.  We ended up watching it every single night for a solid week.  With this much enthusiasm from my kids, I again started looking into what Roller Derby was available in Phoenix.  I found the flat track leagues, which we probably all would have had a blast at.  But my kids wanted to see banked track derby like in the movie Whip It.  Then I came across the announcement that sealed my fate, the Arizona Derby Dames would debut their 5th Season in March on a their brand new banked track.

We all arrived early to a record setting crowd for the season opener.  The two bouts were lopsided blowouts that we could barely see sitting high up in the stands of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.  But the time spent with my boys learning the rules, eating junk food, and yelling at the top of our lungs created memories that could not be beat.  It would only get better from here.

Never let it be said that I do not learn from my mistakes.  The next month we arrived even earlier and this time opted for the floor tickets.  The floor tickets are limited to just 200 people and there is no seating.  In my opinion, this is how Roller Derby must be experienced.

What was just a seemingly complicated but interesting game before, takes on a gripping and thrilling new meaning when the girls are crashing into the track 6 feet in front of you.  My boys, and now my nephews as well, were amazed that they could get so close to the action.  They held their hands out with wonder when the winning teams came by on their victory lap.  The Coup de Grace for them was when the Dames came off the track and actually talked with them.  I must admit, that night I felt as if I was the same age as my boys.

On our way home that night, we all chose our teams to root for.  I guess I'm a sucker for a girl in uniform and had to go with the Bombshells.  One of my sons seems to be destined to become a Marine some day and joined me.

My oldest son however is a brainiac though and through.  He was completely taken by the Schoolyard Scrappers.  I don't know what he saw in them those first two games, but they dominated Season 5 taking home the Championship.  For the next two years we didn't miss a single bout.

At the beginning of Season 7, I finally gave into my youngest daughter's pestering and brought her to her first bout just after Thanksgiving.  All we heard about for the next month was 'I want roller skates for Christmas'.  At that bout, another Roller Girl was born.

Just when I thought we had found the pinnacle of this particular path, new opportunities presented themselves at the January bout.  We weren't surprised by the announcement of Freshmeat tryouts for new Derby Girls.  In fact I had been looking forward to it, so I could once again bug my sister-in-law about giving it a go.  What surprised us were the tryouts for Banked Track Brats and the Regulators.

As soon as my daughter saw the Banked Track Brats on the scoreboard, she got that look in her eyes.  You know that look that every 8 year old daughter can use to wrap her Dad around her little finger.  The same look that Veruca Salt used to convince her Dad to buy truckloads of chocolate bars to find the golden ticket for a tour of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.  I didn't stand a chance.  Within just a few minutes I found myself sending an e-mail from my phone right there next to the track to get her signed up.

Even before I had put my phone away, my arms were being twisted again.  My boys saw the tryout announcement for the Regulators, the derby referee team.  Even with the roaring crowd cheering the bout, all I could hear for the next 10 minutes was "You have to try out Dad!!"  Now I knew how my sister-in-law felt when I bugged her about becoming Freshmeat.  Karma has a strange way of biting you in the a** when you're not looking.

Not one to disappoint my kids, I bought my first pair of roller skates in 30 years.  I spent the next 3 weeks getting my balance back, reading through the flat track rules I found online, and generally making a fool of myself at the park.  I was having a blast so far.

When the day came for the tryouts, I showed up and used absolutely none of my preparations.  No skating.  No rules test.  No skills demonstrations.  It turns out they were most interested in finding people who had attitude, commitment and that general "I'm not a creepy stalker looking to get lucky with a Roller Girl" vibe.

At the time I was thrown a bit off balance.  None of my preparations really made a huge difference.  This was all going to be based on who I was and would I fit in with the rest of the team.  I came away feeling pretty good about the interview, but the three day wait for that decisive phone call was absolute torture.  This was a feeling I hadn't had for over a decade, when I last had a real job interview.

In the end, I got the call.  I had made the cut.  This path that I had started with an interesting article over lunch had been a real roller coaster of a ride.  What I didn't realize at the time was that this path I have been traveling on for the last 2 years was just the beginning.