Week Four: Roller Derby

This Saturday I attended my first Cincinnati Roller Girls game at Cincinnati Gardens. I went with two of my old-school friends and we had an absolute blast.

For $10 we were able to see both the junior varsity team The Silent Lambs vs. The St. Lunachix and the varsity team The Black Sheep vs. the ARRG All Stars.

Roller Derby is an amateur sport, and the players are owners and operators of the their teams. While we were waiting in line to get tickets, several roller girls were mingling with the fans and signing autographs.

Before going I did some research into the rules of the game. There are basically 3 types of skaters: pivots, blockers and jammers. The helmets of the pivots have stripes, and the helmets of the jammers have stars. The jammer starts a few seconds behind the pack and must get through the blockers and pivots in order to score. It's a full contact sport and very exciting to watch. All the players have crazy names like "Hannah Ouchocinco" and "Cherry Choke."

I was made aware of this phenomenon thanks to friends I follow on Twitter and Facebook. I also participated in my first tailgate and "Tweetup" thanks to @Mojojacob.

The next home game for the Cincinnati Rollergirls is May 8th and I will most certainly be in attendance.