Becoming A Gotham Girl: The Draft

By Violet Knockout

So you know how people like to account where they were and what they were doing during epic events in history? I believe being drafted onto a Gotham home team counts as one of these events.

I was driving (yes driving, who let me do that?) a car full of fellow fresh meaties after an intense final evaluation scrimmage. We were all still pumped full of adrenaline after being watched by every coach, team manager and captain of GGRD for the entire practice, and positively giddy, clutching our phones, waiting for our call from our new team captains. My phone rings. I announce that it's ringing and stare at the unfamiliar number. Everyone squeals a little. I answer it, like an irresponsible driver, and it's Em Dash, one of the captains of the Manhattan Mayhem welcoming me to the team and inviting me to the brunch in the city they're having for the new girls. Manhattan Mayhem: sporting the color orange and with a jailblock theme, a group of underdogs who all seem solid and tough as nails. A group of girls I'm not familiar with, have hardly skated with, didn't even think they knew my name, and they wanted me.

I scream into the phone that I'm driving and I'm very excited and I'll see her soon. As I'm talking (and driving), everyone's phone starts to ring simultaneously, and they all start to scream into their phones. Once we're all off the phone we all scream a bit at each other in excitement, some acknowledging and high-fiving their teammates (turns out three of the four girls in the car went to Queens) and then fell silent in shock. It's official. We have our teams. We are no longer the collective unit that is Gotham Fresh Meat 2012, which has felt like our "team" since November. This group of mostly transplant rollergirls in search of a new home have found refuge in each other and being able to call ourselves Gotham fresh meat. We've leaned on one another on and off the track during injuries and anxiety, and this awkward and difficult training process. Now we've made it, and we have to say goodbye to our three meat practices a week and start thinking of each other as opponents. We glare at one another at this realization. It's really exciting and unexpectedly sad at the same time.

So we're all in a state of shock and on our way to a sash-making party where we all make red sashes with our names on them for our Derbytaunt party in a few weeks. Derbytaunt is a coming-out party for new Gotham derby girls where we wear white, sport a sash and curtsy in front of an audience, while they announce which home team we've been drafted onto, only to dissolve in to a well-deserved state of inebriation all documented by a few brave photographers. This party marks the end of our training as fresh meat and is so important for this league, and we can feel the excitement and anticipation from the rest of GGRD. New recruits are the future of any league and it really feels amazing being celebrated by current and retired skaters, refs and NSOs who traditionally escort us to the stage, and fans who are excited for the 2012 season.

I arrive at the sash-making party where all the other fresh meat are, hugging their new teammates. I can see that special camaraderie is already forming, some breathing deep and excited to have that one person who beat the shit out of them on the track on their team. The rest of the new Mayhem recruits and I pile in a car soon after and head to the city for our welcome brunch, and it starts to sink in that I get to trust and protect these girls, as they're my family. I remember how it felt being on the Long Island Roller Rebels All-Star team; we went through a lot together. I didn't come into the sport of roller derby looking for sisterhood or a social club, I came because it was a sport that I wanted to play and wanted to get better at. I left them in high hopes that I would improve my life and level of athleticism, but up until now I never realized how much I've missed my team. My team on Long Island who I gave my blood sweat and tears for, who I fought for on the track, and with sometimes off the track. Who would pick me up at train stations and cart my ass around on road trips (some of the best I've ever had). We've gotten our asses kicked together, and won some incredible bouts, sometimes in the same weekend. I have tons of stories with those girls, and I wouldn't give my time up with them for anything, they were my family, still are. Before every bout I would go around and head butt every one of my teammates (with helmets on, most of the time) just to make a connection to every one of them before we took the track together. After three years they all knew it was coming and I could always get eye contact or a smile from each one and this made me want to take the track and protect them like kin.

I love those girls, that will never stop, they were my teammates and they know who I am. I look around at my new teammates at brunch, celebrating us, their new cellmates, and sharing stories of their own debauchery. I realize that while it may be a little scary to start over with a new team, these girls have something special together, just as I had with my Long Island girls. It may not be exactly what I had, and I'm not sure if I ever want anything to be, but I consider myself lucky to be able to have another team to build trust with and bump helmets with. And even though everyone just kept telling me that orange will clash with my red hair, I think I'll look damn good in it. Bright colors suit me, and fortunately, so do handcuffs.

Stay tuned and check it out as Manhattan Mayhem takes the track for the first time this season against the Bronx Gridlock on April 28th at LIU in Brooklyn, NY. Or, if you can't make it, because of a serious illness or derby injury, because that would be the only acceptable excuse, and if so, I'm sorry, you can watch it live streaming on Derby News Network. Either way, don't miss my underdogs tear it up on the road to our 2012 championship title!

What's next for me and my Gotham Girls journey? All-Star tryouts. Trust me. Stay tuned.