Gonna hit ya with several short items of happenings in the world of Flat Track. Several items from June with some big bouts prior to the WFTDA 2nd Quarter rankings, which are used to set the teams for the Regionals.

WFTDA Hires 2 Positions
The WFTDA hired Juliana Gonzales as the first Executive Director, a full time paid position. You may recognize her as Bloody Mary, and there are very few that could be considered as good a choice. BM will be awesome. Clearly a sign of WFTDA growth. Also, Shelli Wiggins was hired as the WFTDA Insurance Administrator. A key task in coordinating the insurance policy to keep all those wonderful roller gals protected. Congrats to the WFTDA on a very big step.

Insurance Reciprocity Established With USARS
Title sounds boring, but this is a VERY big deal and will help out oodles in keeping costs down. Basically, skaters can insure through USA Roller Sports (USARS) or WFTDA. This agreement means that USARS covered players can play at WFTDA insured events and vice versa without special single event passes. It’s a wonky thing, but very important to the coordination and setting up tournaments and special events.

Texas Texas Kill Kill Kill
The Mutha’s went on a East Coast road trip with 3 bouts in two days in June and resulting in one of the most exciting bouts of the WFTDA season to date. On Friday night, 19 June, Texas took on the 2008 WFTDA Champion Gotham Girls Roller Derby. Gotham has not lost in a looooong time, and did not this night. However, TXRG was very impressive in a incredibly exciting bout with low scoring and several lead changes. When the dust settled, Gotham had come back from a 68-51 deficit with 13 minutes left to win it, 84-76. I watched it on DNN with the Live video feed and the bout cast. It was a Wowsy McWowserton bout. I thought Texas could do it, but they did get closer to GGRD than anyone in a very looooooooooong time.

Then Saturday, TXRG played Boston in the morning and won, 118-84. That evening, it was Charm City and another win, 112-104. A tough east coast swing, but Texas did themselves proud. Check out DNN for all the info and you can read the boutcasts.

East Cost Extravaganza
So many bouts (21 sanctioned). So many rankings implications. The ECE kicked off Friday night, 26 June, with Charm City defeating Rat City, 122-119. Key results from Saturday include Kansas City 152 v. Madison 108, Carolina 82 v. Boston 81 (another tough loss by Boston to Carolina), and Philly crushing Rat City, 123-35. Then Sunday, Madison gets a win over Tampa Bay, 167-116, Boston loses to Windy City, 117-81, and Detroit beats Carolina, 137-102. To wrap up, Philly played Kansas City and the Philly hosts owned it, 145-44. Philly showing they deserve to be considered one of the best of WFTDA at this time.

DNN July Rankings
DNN published their July rankings this week and as expected GGRD stayed at #1. Texas moves up to #2 on the strength of their GGRD bout and wins against Boston and Charm City. Philly is in the 3 spot followed by Windy City, Charm City, Oly Rollers, Denver, Rat City, Detroit, and Carolina round out the top 10. Tucson Roller Derby drops out of the top DNN 25 mainly due to inter-league inactivity. Now it’s time for the WFTDA regional rankings to determine the teams going to the 4 2009 Regionals.

Tucson Roller Derby Wheelies
Friday night, 10 June, are the 2009 Wheelie awards. The Bombshelters will be there and I believe will get to present. Next post will tell ya all ‘bout it.

‘Ta,
Don Bombshelter