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by Tripsy Daisy

Alignment Was Out Of Whack

We hit a bump. It had to happen. Granted it was not a big, huge, snow storm, black ice, skid into a tree, flat tire, no cell phone service, car won’t start accident, but it was a big bump and we had to get an alignment.

Our First Bout Invitation

We got invited to our first bout. That is exciting. That gives us a goal. That makes us skate that much harder in practice. It’ll give us exposure. This will show the community what we’ve been doing for the last year. This is a great opportunity. But, (screech), the bout was 6 weeks away.

Because we had such a short time frame to become bout ready, the Board and the Coaching and Practice Committee (CPC) made a few executive decisions. At the time, what little time there was, it seemed like we needed the most straight forward, direct, concise way to deal with this last minute opportunity. The board said yes to the invitation and the CPC decided that the league coach would select 20 or so of the strongest scrimmage ready skaters. Then the CPC would review and approve those selected. This group would skate together, apart from the rest of the league, during practices to prepare for the bout. Eventually 16 would be chosen from the group for the bout roster by the board and the league coach.

Us Versus Them

“Team X”, as the potential bouting team became known, started to separate from the others. For a league that has still not broken up into teams and continues to build the connection and camaraderie as a league, this separation in practice and in conversation created a “Star Bellied Sneetches” or us vs. them situation.

On one side you would hear, “We are not Team X. We are Tilted Thunder Rail Birds. We are playing on behalf of our league. We are stepping up to represent who we are and what we want to accomplish as a league.” On the other side you would hear, “We didn’t get a say. We didn’t get a vote. What happened to ‘By the skaters, for the skaters’? Why didn’t the rest of us get the opportunity to try out? Why are we being set aside?”

Although the Board and the CPC took into consideration the fact that there might be some grumblings at the selection process, they underestimated the degree of discontent that arose from a few, and spread like a virus through the rest of the league. The Board and CPC thought that although the bouting team selection process was not the best way, the rest of the league would understand that this was a one time only team, we were on a very limited time frame, and they would rally behind those chosen to represent the league. Unfortunately, feelings were hurt and noses were out of joint.

Taking TTRB To The Shop

The rumblings grew to a point that a league meeting was necessary. The Board explained why they made the decisions that they did. We discussed that even if there were try outs, there would still be 50 women who wouldn’t have made Team X. We discussed that team sports involves skill levels, sportsmanship and support. We discussed better ways to have handled the situation. We determined it wasn’t necessarily the selection vs. tryout process, but more the lack of communication between the Board and CPC and the league members during the process. We acknowledged the hurt feelings and agreed that as beneficial as saying yes to the bout was, it was not worth the fracture that was happening within the league. We acknowledged that if the time crunch wasn’t what it was, the bouting team’s creating wouldn’t have been handled in the manner in which we proceeded.

As a league, we decided that we would continue on, as we were, until the bout was over. The TTRB bouting team would continue to practice separately so as to learn to work together. The rest of the league would find ways to support and encourage their representative team. Once the bout was over “Team X” would dissolve and we would go back to our regular practices. We also decided that if another invitation to bout was offered, we would hold tryouts so everyone had a chance. If we did not have the time to hold tryouts and get a team up to speed, then we would not accept the bout invitation. We learned the importance of taking the time to make the right decision and to keep all of our skaters included.

Repairing the Alignment

From that point on, we had 99% support from the rest of the league for our TTRB bouting team. You can’t please all the people all the time. Oh, and the results from the bout? We lost. Hula Honeys-184, Tilted Thunder-89, but man was it a blast. It was our first bout and we played hard. We skated against some amazing girls who have 3 years experience on us. We had a louder presence from our fans as the away team than the home team did. We had fun. We learned a lot. And I don’t know about the rest of the team, but at the after party I got drunk and made out with one of my derby sisters and a boy with a blue mohawk. Good times. I love my league more than ever, especially with the new alignment.

Tripsy Daisy is a Yo, Roller Derby Contributor and a member of Tilted Thunder Rail Birds in Seattle.

Tripsy Daisy