Calling all derby girls!

Rocktown canceled the August 29th bout with Star City so players could attend the funeral for Kitten Vicious in Lynchburg. It was a beautiful service, and we appreciate the support and understanding of the derby community and our fans.

It was important for us to be with Kitten's family last Sunday, but what we really need now is to play some derby.

SO, we're hosting an impromptu public scrimmage on Sunday, and we need players. Girls from RVA, Cville and other teams have signed up to play. RTR will split up and mingle with the players from other teams. We also need referees, NSO and spectators.

The bout will start at 4 p.m. Sunday at Funky's Skate Center, 100 Miller Circle, Harrisonburg. The event will be free and open to the public. (If you'd like a refund for last week's bout, bring your ticket. Funds from un-redeemed tickets will go toward a memorial for Kitten Vicious. More on that later.)

Tell your teammates, neighbors, babysitters, mothers-in-law. Get pumped, and we'll see you Sunday!

Kitten Vicious (1984 - 2010)

Jennifer "Kitten Vicious" Moreland gave the Rocktown Rollers everything she had in the month since she joined the team. Her speed, her sweat and her energy.

She was an enthusiastic, knowlegeable and diligent jammer. She was always full of good ideas (i.e. The Kitten Pounce) and encouraging words for her teammates and earnest Fresh Meat. She did the same for the Blackwater Rollers and the Richmond Derby Demons.

It was a devastating blow to learn that kitten was killed in a car accident on Wednesday morning.

The RTR team and Blackwater ref Starecrow spent much of the day tearfully remembering her cheerful personality and love of team and sport. It helped that we were there together.

It also helped that Kitten's last few days were happy ones, filled with hopeful conversations with good friends and lots of skating. Tuesday's scrimmage practice was amazing; the team says they've never had it so together. That night, Kitten played the Zombies board games at the Artful Dodger.

Another thing that made the day more bearable was the support we received from the wider derby community around the country. Kind words flooded in from Harrisburg, Richmond, Jersey, California, Colorado and beyond.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, everyone. You've proven that derby builds strong families, even without blood relations.

The latest news is that Kitten's wake will be in Lynchburg, VA 6-8:30 p.m. on Saturday, and the funeral will be at 3 p.m. Sunday. (Stay tuned for locations.)

In solidarity with Kitten's family, RTR and the Star City Roller Girls have agreed to postpone this Sunday's bout, perhaps to the following week.

RockTown Rollers Get WFTDA Apprenticeship!

We are one of sixteen leagues that qualified for the WFTDA apprentice program for July 2010. We now join 52 other leagues who are working on full WFTDA membership by apprenticing with an established league and learning what it takes to go to the next level. So, what is a WFTDA apprenticeship and why are we so freaking excited about it?

Let's start at the beginning...what the heck is WFTDA? The Women's Flat Track Derby Association is the group that oversees the sport of women's flat track roller derby. Duh! But that is a really big job when your sport is one of the fastest growing women's sport in the country. They basically set all of the rules for nationally competitive roller derby...from what we can and can't do on the track, to how leagues are ranked, to the boring stuff like insurance and paperwork. So, you can play roller derby, but unless you play WFTDA-sanctioned roller derby you cannot legally call yourself the best of the best. And that is what we want to do!

It took a lot of time and paperwork to get accepted into the apprentice program including hours of work from our current board of directors creating policies, writing a mission statement, and describing our league history. It also included an essay about why being a WFTDA league is so important to us that was written by our own Grim Nemesis.

Hopefully around this time next year we will be celebrating our full WFTDA membership, but in the meantime we have a lot more work to do and we are geared up and ready to do it!

Don't forget about our next home bout: Yankee Brutal Dandy on July 18th!