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The Will to Survive - Queens and Brooklyn Look to Keep Title Hopes Alive this Saturday

by: Thomas Gerbasi

It’s the blessing and the curse of Gotham Girls Roller Derby league action – three games for each team per season guarantees that, for fans, every game is important. There are no late September ‘play out the string’ games as in Major League Baseball. 

That’s the blessing.

The curse is that for each team, the result of a single bout could determine their season.

So for the skaters of the Queens of Pain and the Brooklyn Bombshells, getting a win at this Saturday’s bout at Hunter College in Manhattan (July 10th) wouldn’t just be a nice way to end a summer night in the big city – it’s essential to keeping championship hopes alive. Not that Queens captain Suzy Hotrod is thinking about the October title game just yet.

“This next game is absolutely super crucial,” she said. “I could care less about two games from now. This game right here has a lot of weight on it, especially for the future of this season, so we’re very concentrated on the task at hand.”

When 2009’s league MVP gets fired up, it’s evident, and following a 94-84 defeat to the Manhattan Mayhem in May that wasn’t decided until the final jam, she’s even more determined to shake off that heartbreaker and get her team back in the win column.

Above: Suzy Hotrod escapes the pack with help from Ana Bollocks and Greta Turbo during the May 22nd Queens bout vs. Manhattan.  Photo: Brendan McMullen

“It’s tough because we just don’t get a lot of games, and that’s why it’s such a big deal,” she said of the loss to Manhattan. “But you have to move on and have a clean slate every time you go out and play or else it totally messes with your entire mental game. So it pretty much has to be erased immediately or you can’t get back to work.”

For both Queens and Brooklyn, work leading up to this bout has been gradually amping up to a fever pitch intensity wise, a key since neither team has played since May. Of course, each team’s array of traveling players has stayed active in bout action, and they’ve made sure to keep every member of their respective squads on point mentally and physically.

“We’ve been working really hard in the practices,” said Brooklyn blocker Double Clutch. “We have five All-Stars on Brooklyn, so I think they’re trying to trickle down what they’ve been learning at the All-Stars practices to help us strategize better.”

“We’re really adamant about keeping to the practice schedule and always making sure we work together as a team and get a real good organic feel for each other so that the rookies can meld together with the veterans and we become one team,” added rookie Queens blocker Pippi Strongsocking. “So we never miss team practice and we’ve been working on a lot of strategy together to try to make that happen.”

At this level of the sport, strategy becomes crucial, and with so few games, practice sessions become the proving ground for each skater, so everything becomes one hundred percent live once the whistle blows at the Crash Pad.

“We have to replicate gamelike scenarios and replicate more chaotic situations as best as we can because that’s the hardest thing to prepare for, the actual heat of the moment situation where decisions have to be made fast,” said Suzy. “And in order to have the practice be successful, it has to be one hundred percent, and I think you have to practice that way. If things are done correctly, it’s not unsafe in any way. It’s just another day at the rink. And just as in any sport, the practices should be harder than the game.”

Last week, the two teams even got a little preview of what to expect from each other as they scrimmaged, and in that little segment of the practice, it was clear what’s at stake on July 10^th.

“They were probably sizing us up, as were we, and you can see that both teams are out for blood,” said Double Clutch.

That attitude is just fine with another member of the Brooklyn squad, blocker Megahurtz.

“If there’s one thing that’s changed in the last month with our team is that we became focused and a lot more intense,” she said. “I even mentioned it to my captains that I appreciated that we were running practices like that, because that’s something I respond well to and I think the rest of the team does also.”

And while Queens is looking to rebound from their loss to Manhattan, Brooklyn is in the same pair of skates as they try to bounce back from their 145-52 defeat against the defending champion Bronx Gridlock on May 1^st.

“After the Bronx game, I couldn’t watch the footage for about a month,” admits Megahurtz. “I just could not bring myself to watch it because I felt like I failed in my performance in that game. I really felt like I had let my team down. And when I finally watched the footage, I didn’t do as badly as I thought I did.”

After going into the locker room at halftime with a 72-19 deficit, the Bombshells bounced back in the second half and showed the type of mental toughness that will serve them well this weekend and beyond.

“We have gelled in this second season with all the new players that came in last year, we have a couple of very strong jammers, and our captain and co-captain (Hela Skelter and Papierschnitt) are rock solid,” said Double Clutch. “Papierschnitt was voted our MVP last year; she can jam, block, and pivot, and as far as the team goes, I think we have to take each jam one jam at a time, not lose our heads at half time if it’s close or if we’re down and we have to come back strong and have to just stay focused.”

Above: Brooklyn blockers Bitch Cassidy, Papierschnitt, Double Clutch, and Carmen Monoxide make a sailorette wall to impede Luna Impact during the Bombshells' May 1 battle vs. the Bronx.  Photo: Brendan McMullen

More importantly, Megahurtz insists that this week’s bout is where her team shakes off the “lovable underdog” tag.

“I think we’ve come to realize our strengths and our weaknesses a lot more, so by knowing your teammates better, you are able to react with an expectation of what’s going to happen in the game,” she said. “And now that we know each other better, we can play a few steps ahead based on what we’re expecting from our teammates. I think that at times we’re our own worst enemy in a way because we’ve always been known as the lovable underdogs. And in a lot of ways we kinda bought into that image. And the only thing holding us back this season is ourselves, and I think we’ve realized that and are really trying to adopt the winner’s mindset. We have the talent, we have the experience, we have a deep bench, and a lot of workhorses on our team who are very consistent and very reliable who can get the job done. So it just becomes a matter of believing in ourselves. We’re ready to play this game and not be known as the underdogs.”

Of course, just being the favorite doesn’t guarantee a victory, and by the way Suzy Hotrod and co-captain Ana Bollocks have been putting their charges through practices, there has been no attention paid to the odds.

Above: Rookies Pippi Strongsocking (lower left) and Pittstop (upper right) get ready for a jam in their first bout this season (May 22 vs. Manhattan), with Queens veterans Ana Bollocks (upper left) and Greta Turbo (lower right). Photo: Asa Frye

“Suzy pushes her team really hard, and you can see it with their rookies, because they come up really fast,” said Megahurtz. One of those rookies is Pippi Strongsocking, who, along with fellow first year GGRD players Bunny McBones, Pittstop, Puss ‘N' Glutes and Beirut Bombshell, are ready to step up and make themselves heard this weekend.

“We know what to do, we’re gonna do it, and we’re gonna practice as much as we can,” said Pippi. “It’s not like they [the captains] put pressure on you – it’s more like, ‘here, we’re gonna teach you what needs to be done, and then we’re all gonna go out and do it.’ It’s a very positive atmosphere. We always want to win, and there’s always a lot of pressure that we put on ourselves because we don’t want to let our team down. We practice hundreds and hundreds of hours, so it’s gonna be awesome when we win. At the end of the day, it’s about the team and the effort you put in together.”

And Queens has plenty of big guns to bring into battle. In addition to the aforementioned Suzy Hotrod and Ana Bollocks and the hungry rookies, Brooklyn will definitely be on the lookout for stalwarts like Donna Matrix, Hyper Lynx, Haulin’ Cass, and Steel Magnolia.

“Suzy Hotrod is a powerful jammer as well as a blocker,” said Megahurtz. “She’s quick on her feet, very maneuverable, and can’t be stopped by one person. She requires teamwork and multiple blockers to work together to keep her from passing and scoring. Donna Matrix is a powerful blocker as well. She’s one of those people that always tends to be where she needs to be, and she’ll persist in blocking you. Once she’s got you in her sights and she’s locked in on you, it’s hard to get away. Ana Bollocks is one of those people you’d call a triple threat. She’s a great blocker, one of their strongest pivots, and I’ve seen her get some jam time in a game and she’s done pretty well. She’s smart, she’s fast, and she’s strong. They’ve also got some younger all-stars in Steel Magnolia and Haulin’ Cass. Their rookies have come up fast, and one in particular who I’ve seen good things out of is Pippi Strongsocking. She’s improved by leaps and bounds, and so has Bunny McBones. Both of those girls have come a long way.”

Above: Megahurtz blocks Hyper Lynx during the 2009 Queens/Brooklyn bout.  Photo: Asa Frye

There is a healthy respect for Queens from the Brooklyn squad, but don’t mistake that respect for fear. Brooklyn has plenty of standouts in their own right, and this weekend’s bout isn’t just an opportunity to get a win and stay in the championship hunt; it’s a chance to make a statement and show just how far this team has come in the two months since their last bout. Megahurtz breaks down the Bombshells:

“Carmen Monoxide is our star jammer and she’s shown herself to be an increasing force on the All-Star team,” she said. “I think that experience is only increasing her confidence and her ability. It’s really helped her advance this season, and we’re really counting on her to lead the offensive charge. Papierschnitt is one of our old reliables, and she’s a triple threat – she blocks, she pivots, and she jams. She’s one of our regular rotation jammers - she’s strong, she’s sturdy, and she sees no limitations and she really leads our energy on our team and leads the charge in terms of a ‘come and take it’ type of attitude. She’s like a little fireball. Hela (Skelter) is one of our All-Stars. She’s a pivot and a blocker, she’s a smart player, always knows where she needs to be, and just makes that play right when we need it. OMG (WTF) is one of our up and coming All-Stars. She’s one of the best pivots on our team, and she’s great in the pack at controlling what’s going on in the game. She’s also very strategic and brings a lot of experience from other team sports. And then there’s Hard Anya, who’s also an All-Star player and another very tenacious person who plays a lot like Donna Matrix in the sense that when she’s locked in on you, it’s really tough to get away from her.”

Above: Papierschnitt and OMG WTF work together to block Steel Magnolia in last season's Brooklyn/Queens battle.  Photo: Jon Tannen.

When it comes down to it, though, this Saturday’s final result won’t be determined by individual performances, but by which team performs the best as a unit once the whistle blows. And both teams know it.

“Between the captains and the management, we have goals we want to attain no matter who the other team is,” said Suzy Hotrod. “It’s usually about getting the time together and the chemistry and working as a team. It’s a team sport and has nothing to do with individual players at all. It has to do how we execute things as a group.”

“This game is really important to us,” adds Double Clutch. “If we don’t win, we may not be a contender for the championship, and we’d really like to be there. They (Queens) have so many wonderful veteran players, but I don’t think they’ve gelled like Brooklyn has and they struggled last season as well. I know Suzy’s out for blood; she wants to win, but she can’t do it alone.”

Above: Hela Skelter eyes up Knockturn Ali during the 2009 Queens/Brooklyn battle.  Photo: Chris Chin

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Tickets for Saturday's bout are available at www.ggrdtix.com.

The bout will be streamed live at 8:30pm Eastern Time at www.derbynewsnetwork.com/live

The bout will be aired along with skater profiles on NYC life television (Channel 25, 22 on Cablevision) on Wednesday night, July 21, at 11:30pm, and Saturday night, July 24, at 12:30am.