Practice Makes Perfect for the Queens of Pain

By Thomas Gerbasi

The Queens of Pain’s Hyper Lynx wants to talk about practice.

Fifteen years after basketball hall of famer Allen Iverson created a stir by talking about practice with reporters, the GGRD All-Star veteran wants to do the same in the lead-up to Saturday’s bout at John Jay College against the Bronx Gridlock. And that’s cool with her.

“I still think Queens is the hardest working team,” she said. “We’re the ones who started up the extra hour for land drills. (Laughs) We’re always there every single team practice and win or lose, we always practice. We really felt like we should have been up there (last year). Obviously, every team feels that way, but we felt like we worked the hardest, so we want to show it this year.”

PHOTO SEAN HALE

Forget last year. Over the previous four years since they last won a GGRD home team title in 2013, Queens may have been the best team in the league night in and night out. But at key times, wins proved elusive, surprising their fans and the team itself.

“There’s an element of luck in derby,” Lynx said. “Sometimes things just don’t go your way. Maybe we just enjoy pain. (Laughs) But losing is never fun. You can’t win everything. It’s a game and anything can happen at any time. There are no guarantees.”

Well there is one, and that’s the reality that Queens will try to outwork their peers in the Crashpad practice space, garnering a reputation as the best conditioned team in the league. If a skater gets drafted and presented with a black jersey, they know that Suzy Hotrod and company will put them through hell before it’s time to hit the track on game night. But that’s a badge of honor Lynx and company wear with pride.

PHOTO SEAN HALE

“We work our asses off and it doesn’t matter if you’re a good or bad skater, we’ll build you up to be a good skater,” she said. “There’s a lot of skater development that goes on with Queens, and that’s our biggest strength. That and the intensity of our practices have remained consistent year after year.”

And if there was a wish for the derby gods to throw some good fortune their way, it was granted before the 2017 season even started, as the team revealed that they were taking the track with a roster intact from the previous year. That’s a rarity in Gotham, and Queens have taken full advantage of it, tearing out of the gate in March with a 176-130 win over the defending GGRD champion Manhattan Mayhem.

“I think it really helps because we’re basically continuing from the previous years,” Lynx said. “In the past years when we had new skaters, we always had time in the beginning when we had to get to know each other, if they were brand new they had to build their endurance up, and we had a harder time ramping it up. Whereas with us, at our first practice we said, ‘Let’s practice our plays again.’ And that really helps. I’m not saying we’re doing awesome every time, because we do lose scrimmages too, but our teamwork is great. Everybody knows what to do and everybody is much better at playing together. And a lot of that is from the sheer amount of practices that we do.”

Is Lynx talking about practice again? You bet she is.

Tickets for Saturday May 6 available here.

Bronx More Motivated Than Ever to Break Losing Streak on Saturday

By Thomas Gerbasi

The old saying is true that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, but in the sport of roller derby, you take whatever you can to help keep you on course. So if the Bronx Gridlock needed any motivation to help break a long losing streak this Saturday at John Jay College in NYC, they found it in last month’s season opener against the Brooklyn Bombshells.

“There’s a strength in being able to come back every single time and say this is a new game, this is a new jam, and letting yourself get hungrier instead of frustrated, even if it’s hard when it’s gone on as long as it has,” said the Gridlock’s Heronymus Boss. “But in the last game, and now, I really do think this team can pull it off this season.”

PHOTO SEAN HALE

If you want to discuss roster turnover, injuries, and plain ol’ bad luck, the cabbies have had more than their share. But as they prepare to face the Queens of Pain this weekend, they are in a better place than they’ve been in a long time, and it has a lot to do with the bout against the Bombshells, who fought from behind several times before emerging with a 167-148 win that was a lot closer than that score would indicate.

“It actually speaks to the strength of our defense that we had such a tight game and were ahead as much as we were given the penalties and the amount of box time we had compared to Brooklyn,” Boss said. “So it speaks to the strength of our defense, but we definitely want to cut down on the penalties because when we have all our skaters on the track, we’re really a force and keeping everyone on the track is the number one priority for this game.”

Remarkably, Brooklyn only had three penalty box trips from their jammers, which is a low number in these closely contested GGRD home games, and while it’s a testament to the discipline of the Bombshells, without such an effort, the Gridlock may have returned to the win column for the first time since May 2014. That’s okay, though, as they’re planning on getting the job done against Queens.

PHOTO DAVID DYTE

“They’re a smart and talented team and it’s an interesting matchup because Gridlock is a tall team and Queens is a short team,” Boss said. “There are obvious advantages to both, so we have to use what we have to our best advantage and we have to think about how to play with that shorter team. They can get through cracks easily, they’re fast, but we have big blockers and we just have to stick together. So we’re looking to come in really fired up and cohesive and we’re working really hard on staying together. That’s our path to victory in this game. We don’t want to give them any holes to get through.”

And despite making a quick turnaround from the last bout, Boss and her teammates are looking at that not as a negative, but a positive, as they get to keep the good vibes from the April bout going into what they hope will be a victorious May.

“We knew we had the two in a row, so we were prepared,” she said. “It’s been a really busy month. The Traitors had a game, Termies had a game, All-Stars had a game, so we’ve all been very busy, but we’ve also had this in our sights and we’ve been focused. I think it’s always nice to have a little extra time to keep working on strategy, especially since it was such a busy month. But that was such a close game with Brooklyn and everyone came out really wanting to clinch the win, so we do have that momentum coming out of the last game.”

Tickets for Saturday May 6 available here.

The New Look Bombshells Won't Get Caught Napping by the Gridlock

By Thomas Gerbasi

Roster turnover is an inevitable part of every Gotham Girls Roller Derby season. But few have been turned over like last year’s runners-up, the Bombshells from Brooklyn.

“I feel like this is the most turnover that we’ve had in a really, really long time,” said co-captain Raggedy Animal, who will begin her 12th year on the track when her squad faces the Bronx Gridlock this Saturday at John Jay College in NYC.

PHOTO DAVID DYTE

So how different will the Bombshells look in 2017? Well, there will be five new skaters representing the team this year, the most of any GGRD home team. But that’s not why this is such a league-shattering news item. What makes this such a big story is that joining Girl Friday among the “newbies” will be former Bronx star Sweets McBacon, GGRD junior league phenom Bellatricks, current All-Star V-Diva, and another skater Gotham fans might remember, Donna Matrix.

Put those five on the track and it’s an all-star lineup in itself. Add them to a team that has won two championships in the last five years, and that’s a frightening prospect for the rest of the league. But as Animal points out, it takes more than talent to win in this league.

“We are super grateful and tickled that our turnover resulted in drafting huge, huge individual talent, and we have that excitement going into it,” she said. “But the challenge is knowing that individual talent can’t win games. It’s really been about making sure that we’re not just showing up with individual talent, but that all the draftees are enmeshed in the team culture and we’re on the same page with playing roller derby.”

Given this reality, Animal and the blue crew were very happy that their season opener was scheduled for this weekend and not on March 25.

“I’m so glad we didn’t play first,” she said. “The turnaround from a draft to the first game is tight. You’re basically dusting off the cobwebs from the off-season and it’s really intense. And while you always want more time, I definitely feel like we had the time that we needed. Because we drafted a lot of talent, our focus wasn’t necessarily on individual skill building. So Day One, we got right into how we play and our strategies and making sure that we were on the same page and had the same language and were doing the same things. So we’ve spent our time making sure that we’re skating together as a team.”

PHOTO MANISH GOSALIA

And if this group of skaters has come together as a team, it’s going to be quite a show this weekend. Yet regardless of the final score on Saturday, anticipation is at an all-time high to see what this group offers to the league.

“Because they come from such amazing backgrounds, to get to see them skate for the Bombshells is a whole new world of excitement, with Diva and Donna and Sweets, and even Bella coming from the junior league,” Animal said. “She (Bella) is incredible and did amazing things in the junior league. She’s unassuming and quietly effective, but she’s always in the right place at the right time. So it’s not that we drafted new skaters that have experience. We drafted some serious skaters with major accolades from what they were doing previous to becoming a Bombshell.”

Yet even though all eyes will be on Brooklyn in this opening matchup, the Gridlock aren’t showing up to make up the numbers. They’re coming to win, and with no victories on their ledger since May of 2014, the Bronx are hungrier than ever and more dangerous than they’ve been. But they won’t sneak up on Brooklyn, whose veteran skaters know just what it’s like to be in that position.

“I’ve been on the losing side and I’ve been on the winning side,” Animal said. “In 2014, we lost every single game and in 2015 we won every single game. They are very different motivating factors. Even in the early years of the Bombshells, when I first joined, we couldn’t win a game to save our lives. We kept being called the lovable underdogs, the Gotham darlings, and we couldn’t beat anybody. So I know how bonding it is to go into a season and be like, ‘Damn it, we want to win.’ And they have so much individual talent and they’re big and strong, so they’re absolutely a threat.”

The Comeback Begins for the Gridlock This Saturday

By Thomas Gerbasi

It’s been a rough couple years for the Bronx Gridlock, but if there’s an omen for getting back into the win column for the first time in nearly three years, it may be that they will be lining up this Saturday against the team they beat in that May 2014 bout, the Brooklyn Bombshells. But the cabbies aren’t superstitious or thinking of the past. They’re simply approaching the season opener at John Jay College as a fresh start.

“I think we’re all really positive,” said Lucky Scars. “It’s a brand new team, a brand new year, so we’re all very excited to be able to go out there and show everybody what we’ve got. People are pumped.”

Home to four new skaters (Scars, Annie Mergency, Gwen Animals Attack, Heronymous Bosch), the Gridlock still retains much of its veteran core, a unit that has weathered the bad times and still show up on bout night ready to leave it all on the track. In this league, that’s the M.O. for every team, but with so much talent on display across all four Gotham Girls Roller Derby league home teams, it becomes a game of inches where one key injury or one penalty at an inopportune time can spell the difference between victory and defeat. For fans, that’s a blessing. When you’re on the wrong side of that injury or penalty, it’s a curse, and one the Gridlock hope to break in 2017.

“That says something about the draft process and how close games have gotten in the past few years,” said Scars. “It’s really anybody’s game, and over the last few years, the Bronx has put up a really good fight, but it’s just come down to a few points. So it’s really anybody’s game on any given day. Bronx is a really hard working team, we love each other just like any other team, and we have just as much of a chance as anybody. So I’m really looking forward to bringing back those wins for the Bronx.”

PHOTO TYLER SHAW

With league parity making virtually every game a fight to the finish, it’s the intangibles that often set the squads apart, and even early on this season, team personalities are starting to take shape. So far, the Mayhem are the defending champs looking for a repeat and Queens is the team that returns fully intact from 2016. But what are the Brooklyn Bombshells bringing to the track this year? The two-time GGRD champs got hit hard with turnover in the off-season, but their draftees are some of the most experienced and highly-regarded skaters in the league. So are they the derby version of Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates?

“We don’t know what we’re gonna get,” laughs Scars. “But I think as a league there are some things that we can expect, some things that the Bombshells do that never change. We’re all familiar with each other’s little tricks and twists and we try to prepare for that, but then you never know what’s going to come out of left field. But we try to adapt and that’s part of the game and I think we’ll be able to do that.”

As for the Gridlock, they’ve gone through various personalities as a team over the years. The near-dynasty years from 2007-2010 saw the team skating like a well-oiled machine, technically sound with few mistakes. Then they became the cardiac kids of Gotham, pulling off miracle late bout runs that kept fans on the edge of their seats. And in recent years, they’ve been the squad that has stared adversity in the face and just kept moving forward, refusing to give in on and off the track. So what does the 2017 version of the Bronx look like?

“The personality of the 2017 team is very hardworking, very close knit,” Scars said. “We’re funky, we’re a mixed bag, but it just works. We all meld together in this funky fresh kind of way. Every jam’s a new jam, every game’s a new game and every year’s a new year. You just have to keep working hard, and it’s like a restart. Every game is anybody’s game, so we can absolutely take it.”

PHOTO DAVID DYTE

On Saturday, the road back begins. And while it is a fresh start, Scars and her teammates realize that there is also a history there for the Gridlock, and it’s something they take seriously as they attempt to recapture the glory days.

“Whenever I put on that jersey, it’s a very proud moment,” she said. “There is the history. You have Bonnie Thunders and Vicious Van GoGo, who have been on the team before, and it gives you confidence.”

The Fight for the Golden Skate begins with Manhattan and Queens

By Thomas Gerbasi

No home team in the Gotham Girls Roller Derby league has repeated as champion since the Bronx Gridlock pulled the feat off in 2010. On Saturday at John Jay College in New York City, the Manhattan Mayhem begin the defense of their title against the Queens of Pain, and the champs are most certainly hoping to end the six-year repeat drought.

“It’s always the year for a repeat,” said Mayhem newcomer Brawleen Lidz. “We have a lot of amazing new talent on our team that I think has been meshing very well at scrimmages and at practice and the vibe has been very welcoming. I felt accepted onto Manhattan Mayhem as soon as I got the phone call that I was drafted, so I’m really excited to try and make this a repeat for us this year.”

Lidz is one of four skaters donning the orange and black for the first time, and with a 16-skater roster, that’s a quarter of the team that needs to get acclimated not only to the Gotham way of derby, but to the reality of playing at the highest level of the sport every night. Luckily, after winning three of the last five league titles, Mayhem deals with the yearly turnover better than most, and as Lidz points out, that unity among the team was evident from the first time she saw her future squad on the track.

PHOTO DAVID DYTE

“The first Gotham game I ever saw that wasn’t on television was a Manhattan versus Brooklyn game and I didn’t know any back story about the two teams or that they had this chemistry off the track as well, but when I was watching Manhattan play, there was something there that I couldn’t quite figure out because I was just getting into derby, but something was happening that I ultimately wanted to be a part of,” she said. “And it’s this chemistry, this magical thing that happens. And now I’m here, and it’s still like a dream almost. I’m waiting to wake up from.”

It is still largely a crap shoot until the first whistle blows, though, because when the games are for real, anything can happen, and it’s in the heat of battle that teams with new skaters sink or swim. So if we’re breaking this weekend’s season opener down on paper, the edge would have to go to Queens, a team whose roster is untouched heading into 2017. And with that being the case, the usual desire to not be in the first game of the season is gone. In short, Queens wanted to play yesterday.

“I think because we didn’t get any new skaters this year that we’ve been ready,” said Beauty Andie Beast. “Honestly, when the season first started, I was like, ‘Let’s just play.’ (Laughs) I forgot that other teams were still drafting people. So that’s really given us an advantage as far as having the camaraderie already there and knowing who skates well with each other, so we are definitely ready.”

And how important of an edge is that to have?

“It’s really important,” Beast said. “Even more so than physically being able to skate together and understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses, because you can pick that up pretty easily. But just the mentality and the bond that you have with your team, everyone’s already comfortable, everyone’s already to work hard and knows the expectations, so you can hit the ground running and work on strategy at a higher level. So we’ve been able to try a lot of new things this year and it’s made practice really fun.”

PHOTO DAVID DYTE

This all sets the stage for an epic showdown, the type of bout Manhattan and Queens are accustomed to. Last year’s bout was a thriller, Mayhem squeaking by the ladies in black by a 192-187 score, and Queens winning by just seven points in their 2015 meeting. Add in a host of stars on both sides, from Manhattan’s Bonita Apple Bomb, Em Dash, Roxy Dallas and Violet Knockout to Queens’ Hyper Lynx, Puss ‘n Glutes, Short Stop and Suzy Hotrod, and it’s a must see for local derby fans. As for the skaters, it’s a must win, because in a three-bout home season, every match matters. So it’s no surprise that neither team is taking the other for granted.

“I know Manhattan is going to be working their hardest out there,” said Beast. “They’re hungry for it just as much as we are. So this game won’t be an easy win just because of how much both teams want it and how much we’re both going to be working hard for it. I know it’s going to be a good competition.”

“I see a very, very dedicated team ahead of us that really wants to go a hundred percent at us and get a hold of another championship,” said Lidz when asked her thoughts on Queens. But when it comes to that whole Queens winning the championship thing, that’s not something her squad will allow. “No, absolutely not,” she laughs. “That’s not how it works.”

But Queens getting back to the top and winning their first Golden Skate trophy since 2013 is an interesting subplot to the 2017 season. Some would argue that the ladies in black have been the most talented team in the league over the last several years, but there is only the one title to show for it. What will it take to change that?

“Keeping our physical endurance and our strength up, because we are a smaller team in comparison to other teams,” Beast said. “So we have to be stronger than them to be able to hold and block, and when our penalties are low, we really see an impact on our game. So if we stick to our game and to what we know we can do, I think we do that very well. It’s keeping ourselves focused and not worrying about what anyone else is doing but remembering what we can do better.”

PHOTO DAVID DYTE

On Saturday, the breakdowns and predictions are over. At 7pm, the 2017 season – or more accurately the fight for a title – begins. And it will be a fight.

“When it comes down to it, you’re playing jam by jam,” said Lidz. “Like my co-captain Roxy says, it’s a game of inches and you always have to keep that in mind. You’re going inch by inch and not foot by foot."