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.