Defeat: Nutritious, But Not Delicious

Ah, defeat. You are not a delicious treat, but you are nutritious.

In competitive sports you want the win, period. There's no point in competing if you don't. But it is a competition, meaning that you have to work to get that win, and sometimes your best work is not enough. Enter the Port Authorities. 2008 brought us nearly flawless glory. We were undefeated in regulation play, and our record was blemished only by a loss to the Boston Massacre in a 30-minute exposition bout at Boston early in the year. Though our wins were sweet and were against teams that looked like excellent matches for us on paper, we decided 2009 was the year to test our limits. Go for the guts and the glory, play some of the toughest teams we could find in the region and likely take our lumps in the form of losses, but learn a lot in the process. Some of the best lessons come from losing and learning what you need to change to stop that losing.

And oh, how we have learned. The Port Authorities have played three of our five spring games, and are 0 - 3. Oof. Ok, yes, we expected at least part of that. Our opener against the Boston Massacre (5th in the East) in Boston, this time a full-length bout, was painful. I'm talking 128 - 24 kind of painful - a bit more of a rout than we had hoped for, but we came out smiling, licking our wounds and with our eyes wide and some plans to put in motion for our next challenge, that being the Charm City All Stars (3rd in the East) of Baltimore, MD. They were our home season opener and we were carefully optimistic that, while victory was unlikely considering the caliber of play this team has been putting out there, we could at least come up with a smaller point spread by putting into effect what we had learned from the Boston game two weeks prior and honing what we had been working on all this year. Turns out not so much - Charm City handed us another loss by exactly the same margin of 104 points (52 - 156). Hey, at least we're consistent? And we did score more points than the previous game. There's always something positive in there.

Once again, our team of warriors came out frazzled, perhaps a little flummoxed, but ready to focus on the next challenge. Ready to go into the most contested game of the season for us; a rematch against the Rhode Island Riveters. After earning a surprising upset win against the Riveters (75 - 64) in April 2008 when we were an unranked new team, both teams were extremely revved up for the rematch in Providence. This was our game to come back, to feel the glory of a win once again. The first period started out looking good and we had the lead and felt strong and cohesive. Then the tide started turning a little and the Riveters put down some big jams and we were feeling the heat, but still right in there. But things started getting shaky when just halfway into the first period one of our three jammers, Olive Spankins, took a hard hit that left her injured and unable to play for the rest of the night. A mere couple of jams later blocker Lois Blow went down with a visibly broken finger at the same time Itsy Bitsy Fighter took a scary fall and stayed down on the concrete. At this point Olive appeared out for the game, EMT's were surrounding Fighter, and several people on the bench were screaming for EMT's to come help Lois. We'd never lost a skater during a bout and now we were suddenly down two major players, maybe three, and it felt like pure, horrifying chaos had descended upon our bench. Lois was out for the game but Fighter was able to recover and continue, but we had to do some major adjusting, and fast. Despite being rattled we kept our heads in there and finished the period behind by 15 points, a spread which was easily surmountable if rather uncomfortable. Half time was spent focusing on filling in the gaps in our defense and getting our heads ready for a hard second period with new lineups. Despite our team being served heavy penalties and frequently fielding lineups short of one, two and even three blockers, we managed to stay within distant-but-conceivable striking distance for most of the second half. The teams traded a number of winning jams back and forth, but as the minutes ran off the period clock the Riveters put up several big jams in the double digits, and the lead became out of reach. The final score was 110 - 59.

So here we are, at 0 - 3. It's an interesting place. It doesn't feel sweet or pretty, but it also doesn't feel as bad as i might've thought. For one thing, it helps put things in a little bit of perspective. Oh, you just lost three games in a row? Well, winning truly isn't everything, and our next win is going to feel especially nice after all this. It's also motivating and clarifying. Our team has mad skills and plenty of heart, but the more we play the more the areas for improvement and growth stand out. Fortunately the Calamity Janes are kicking tail all over the place with a 3 - 0 record for the spring, and they definitely brought the nail-biter excitment in their last win against Jersey Shore, so Maine Roller Derby fans have still had the pleasure of seeing their local rollergirls skate some victory laps.

This Saturday, May 23rd, it's time for the Port Authorities to crack that losing streak. We're ready to do it, and we think you're ready to come watch us do it. We're at the Portland Expo at 6 pm (doors at 5 pm) as usual, with a halftime dj showcase by wepushbuttons and 5% of doors sales to benefit STRIVE U.

Get the Scoop on the Spring Bouts - Season Preview

2009 is a big year for Maine Roller Derby. The Port Authorities and the Calamity Janes are ready to kick it up a notch and take on more challenging teams than ever before. We really mean that - we're still relative newcomers to the roller derby community, and the only way our teams will grow and develop is by challenging ourselves and learning from our games no matter what the scoreboard reads at the final buzzer. Keep reading for the scoop on the top-notch and highly-ranked teams meeting us in the Expo this spring.

The Port Authorities kick off their home season on Sunday, March 22nd with an East Coast matchup against Baltimore's Charm City All-Stars. Charm City's all-star team is ranked 4th in the WFTDA Eastern Region, right ahead of the Port Authorities at 5th in the East. Though the rankings reflect Maine's undefeated record in sanctioned play as of the end of 2008 (the Boston Massacre recently took a bite out of that record), Charm City has been skating for a year longer than Maine and has nineteen ranked games under their helmets, as opposed to the Authorities' four. The all-stars from Baltimore are making a big run at the rankings this year and are bouting heavily with multiple double-headers, and will be playing the Boston Massacre on March 21st before they head up the coast to play your hometown all-stars the next day. Will the Port Authorities, a team with big aspirations and the desire to grow at any cost, be able to prove their muster against an experienced team that's clearly aiming for the stars? No matter what happens, this will be a game not to miss.

The next two home games belong to the inimitable Calamity Janes, who are taking on competitors from near and far. After an away bout in New Jersey on March 28th against the Morristown Madams, the Janes will be ready to show some derby-style New England hospitality to the Northeast Ohio Rock'n'Roller Girls on Saturday, April 11th. They're coming a long way to test their chops against the feisty and focused Janes in a Midwest/East Coast showdown, so don't forget to grab a seat and support the Janes in their plan to send them back to Ohio with a mark in the "loss" column. Then on Saturday, May 2nd the Janes will once again grace the Expo floor with some heavy derby action against the Jersey Shore All Stars. Which shore will reign supreme? If you want anything to say about it, you better be in the seats!

The Port Authorities will be taking a quick trip south to Providence to meet up with the Rhode Island Riveters on May 9th. You may recall April 2008's nail-biter at the Expo when the then un-ranked Authorities delivered a narrow upset to the then 14th-ranked Riveters. This will be the re-match on the Riveter's home turf, and it's a game both teams are anxiously awaiting.

Saturday, May 23rd brings the Authorities back to the Expo when they take on WFTDA newcomers the Dutchland Derby Rollers. This team has yet to be tested in WFTDA-sanctioned play, but we do know they recently defeated two B-teams from highly-ranked leagues (Charm City and Carolina). The Port Authorities are never ones to underestimate anyone they meet, so you better believe they will be bringing their A+ game to this bout.

The Spring home series will be righteously capped off on Saturday, June 13th with the Port Authorities facing their biggest challenge yet, the Philly Liberty Belles, ranked #2 in the East. The Belles took 3rd place at the national championship tournament in November over the Texas Rollergirls and have more than 20 sanctioned bouts under their belts. With a string of games against highly-competitive and impressively-ranked teams behind them, the Authorities hope to be ready for the Philly challenge.

Clear your schedules for MRD's toughest season yet, and find out if the Port Authorities can defeat their experienced opponents and if the Calamity Janes will deliver more nail-biting bouts with over-time intensity.

Roller Derby is Coming

It's finally that time again. That's right, bout season approaches. The time of year when my life is more than just mostly dominated by roller derby, it's entirely subsumed by eat, sleep, work, practice, cross-train, promote, blog, Twitter, press release, invite, plan, flier, design…and on, not necessarily in that order. We're bringing people more derby than ever before this year, with five, yes five home games this spring, and we hope at least three more home games in the fall as well. The series at the Portland Expo kicks off on Sunday, March 22nd with the Port Authorities facing off against the Charm City All-Stars, who are currently ranked 4th in the Women's Flat Track Derby Association's (WFTDA) Eastern Region. After that you get two bouts with those renegade sweethearts the Calamity Janes, who will be taking on teams from Ohio and New Jersey and showing them how we roll up here in northern New England. Then the season rounds out with two more Port Authorities match-ups against un-ranked and new WFTDA members the Dutchland Derby Rollers, and 2nd-in-the-East (3rd nationally - yowza!) Philly Liberty Belles. Stay tuned here for more details on all the teams we're bringing to the Expo this year, and as always go to mainerollerderby.com for tickets.

The season has actually arrived for the Port Authorities, because we're taking on the Boston Massacre this Saturday, February 28th. It's an away bout, so we'll be skating at Boston's fantastic venue in Wilmington, MA - the Shriner's Auditorium. It's a stellar place to both watch and play derby, and the on-site afterparty in the Fez Room beats any afterparty we've attended yet. The digital photobooth there can attest to that!

The Boston league is kind of like our big sisters. They've fostered the growth of our league since day one with advice, support, scrimmages, an exhibition bout last year, and now by inviting us to play them in their season opener and our first ever WFTDA-sanctioned all-star game against the Massacre. Did I mention the Massacre are currently third in the Eastern Region? Yeeeaaa, they are. The Port Authorities are 5th in the East right now, but keep in mind we are 27th nationally - nothing to sneeze at by any means, but the Massacre, a much more experienced team who missed making it to the WFTDA National tournament by a mere two points, is ranked 10th nationally. Suffice it to say this game is going to be tough, and we're ready for it. We have trained and focused on teamwork and smart play on the track. We know we have a hard game ahead of us, and we know we will skate our hardest for every second, have a blast doing it, and come out stronger than we went in. If there's one thing Maine is known for, it's that we take both our losses and our successes in stride and turn them quickly into a better game on the track. Whatever happens this Saturday, we will be grinning at the afterparty and all the way home.

Poke this for Boston's preview of the big game, and this for tickets (it's only 75 minutes from Portland, and well worth the trip).