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!

Yankee Brutal Dandy

That's the theme of our upcoming bout, "Yankee Brutal Dandy." Cute, right? Shut up. Just kidding. Happy Fourth of July!

We'll be playing H.A.R.D. Fallout Femmes from 4-7 p.m. on Sunday, July 18 at Funky's Skate Center (100 Miller Circle, H-Burg). They're a solid team from Harrisburg, PA, and last year's bout on their home turf was intense, so you won't want to miss this.

Another show that would have been a shame to miss was the bout against the C-ville Derby Dames at Expoland on June 5. But you were there, weren't you? You caught all the heavy hitting, neck-and-neck score climbing, fire dancers, and swelling cheers form a crowd standing on its seats as Killnitzki rounded the track in a glorious last-ditch jam that won the game by three points, right? (We'll recount the bout in detail in an upcoming blog post.) Seriously, we were all screaming. I think Bam Bam may have had a heart attack on the sidelines, but she's too tough to admit it. Killz was named Rockville's MVP for the bout. Great job, everybody!


So that's why you don't want to miss the H.A.R.D. bout. You want to be there early to get a spot in the suicide seats, maybe hazard the occasional derby girl in your lap. Pre-sale tickets are $5 (E-mail marketing@rocktownrollers.com to work that out.), or pay $8 at the door. It's good fun for good causes; 15% of all ticket sales will be donated to the Shenandoah Valley Gay and Lesbian Association and 5% will be donated to the Reading Road Show — The Gus Bus.

In other news, thanks to everybody who came out to our car was at the Exxon at the corners of Reservoir St. and University Blvd. on June 19th. We scrubbed dozens of cars, some of them gorgeous — thanks for letting us near them! 105.1 Bob Rocks came out to keep us company as well. They say they have pictures. I guess you'll have to hassle them at their Facebook page if you want to see them. Your donations will really help keep the team going. A portion of the proceeds also went to the Friendly City Food Coop, so thanks for helping them get going, too!


Like I said, Happy Fourth of July! The Rocktown Rollers marched/skated in Harrisonburg's Independence Day Parade on the 3rd with a sweet rock bank playing patriotic songs from the bed of Danja Russ's pick-up. Thanks for waving back at us. I believe our "float" won the prize for "Best Twirlers." Obviously. Like I said, undefeated. (Check back for updates.)

Thank you for your ongoing support. It's great to see that while roller derby continues to grow in America, we're seeing the sports acceptance and fan base growing with it. In Russ's words, "Freedom, Eagle, Flag." Thanks.