Cookie Rumble, captain of the Pistoffs, lets us in on what she's thinking:
Detroit Area Dork: What are you thinking about this bout?
Cookie Rumble: Our boat was actually really intense. Considering our loss against the Grand Prix Madonnas, we saw the footage, we saw what we needed to work on, and the team got together and said, "We're gonna work hard, we're gonna give it everything we've got, keep the intensity up", and I think it really showed in our second bout. We started to play like we normally play. We played together as a team, we played hard the whole bout. So we took that loss and we learned from it.
D: What conclusions did you draw from watching the footage?
C: That we need to play as a team. There was a whole lot of GPM together in walls, and us all over the tracks. Not seeing our teammates, and getting with our teammates, so we definitely worked on that. We have a really great team with a really strong defense, and we needed to use that to create better offense.
D: How do you think the rookies did?
C: I'm so proud of them. Every single one of them, from our newest rookie Magpie, all the way up to the girls that have been on the team for a couple years. Every single one of them stepped it up, and we're just going to keep going up from here.
D: What do you think the team still has to work on after playing this bout?
C: We're just going to keep working on our endurance, our defense, our hits, playing clean, playing legally, and hopefully we can bring it even harder for the next bout.
D: What gave your team the edge tonight?
C: It's hard to say. There's so many factors that go into it. We didn't get a lot of penalties like we did the first bout. We really tried to clean it up. We played together more so than we did against the Prix Madonnas. I think it's the fact that we tried to keep it cool on the bench, even though we might have had a jam that didn't go our way, we just say "Alright, that jam didn't go our way, let's just concentrate on the next one".
I always love the back and forth between Captain Fatal Femme, and Co-captain Mad Hatcher of the D-Funk Allstars:
Detroit Area Dork: What are your initial thoughts on the bout?
Mad Hatcher: I'm disappointed that we lost, but I felt really good about our team, and how've we've been training, and how've we've been building a lot of trust with each other. We'll get a chance to watch the footage, and see where we messed up, and what we can keep building. It's our first game, so I feel we're going to head into our next one even stronger.
Fatal Femme: I'm really proud of the girls that don't usually get a chance to play that much. They really stepped it up this game. All the way from Smack Morris, a brand new girl, to the ones that have been around for a while, but haven't had that much playing time. I think we worked very well as a team, and I don't think the score reflects how much of a hard-fought game it was.
D: How do you think your rookies did today?
M: I think Smack was awesome. I mean, we only have one new player, so she's on her own, taking in all this new information all the time. She continues to stay positive and strong, and she absorbs like a sponge. I feel like she did a great job. I wish we could have played her more. I wish the score hadn't been so tight, so that you could have seen her on the floor more, but when she was out there, she did great.
F: I agree. Our newer girls, even from just last year, and this year...
M: Phenomenal...
F: They stepped it up...
M: Absolutely...
F: We have some internal team...things...we need to work on for the next bout, but I think every one did a really good job.
D: Has it been hard to adjust to losing so many veterans?
M: Yeah, it changes the composition of our team, right?
F: It not only loses vets, it's losing friends, and people you've counted on for five plus years. It's really hard. Ima [Wrecker] was a founder member of the league. She was a staple, across the board, of this league, and to not have her presence around, leaves a hole. I've been doing it for five years, and having her not here...I came in with Polly Fester, and Polly Fester wasn't there, we have Mama Jamma, who is actually my sister-inlaw, who was only there for half a season, she's not there. We lost Rock'em. She was a really good player, she's on the GPM's now. Bitch Ryder...
M: It's a lot
F:...she's been around forever. To lose all those people in one year; not only is the dynamic different; you have to fill different holes, it's also a sorrow to have lost that many girls. It's never happened to D-Funk, we've always retained our skaters. It was just time for people to move on, and we'll move forward. We have to.
D: What do you think the Pistoffs got right in order to pull ahead?
F: They were Pist.
(Editorial note: it's always spelled "pist" when referring to the Pistoffs)
M: They were Pist. They had their first game, they lost to GPM. They had time to ascertain what their weakness were, and this new rule-set, and they really worked towards fixing them. They got the back line a lot. They fought hard for it. They figured out how to push their jammers more. They figured out how to manage their penalties. They had that experience that we got tonight. We'll try to capitalize on it the same we they did.
D: This is your first time playing under the new rules. What do you think of them?
M: It's good in some ways because we don't have to track minor penalties.
F: You don't have to wonder where your next jammer is. They're just there, so that's nice. I think it's an adjustment for the skaters and the refs what really was a minor and is a major now. It's going to take a while for the refs to figure out, and a while for the skaters to figure out. It's not going to just be this season. The rules are going to be tweaked and changed, so we're going to just have to ride it out and see where everything falls.
M: It's good, we have a games committee set up to review all the footage, and the refs are working really hard to figure it out. I do feel like there's a lot of teamwork to getting it figured out.
F: Everything is moving in the right direction.
D: What do you think you have to work on for the next bout?
F: It's funny you say that, because as captains we both talked about that in the locker room right afterwards, and I wish it was just one thing, because sometimes it's that easy. Sometimes it's one thing. I think we have to improve on everything. All the way down from our jammers not going to the box, to our blockers not being aware of the where the jammer is. I think we have a very good team. It's truly a team...
M: There's a lot of heart...
F: We love each other. It's a very close-knit team. So now we just have to figure out where everyone's role is, and where to move next.
Captain Yo-yo of the Devil's Night Dames eluded me, but I was able to catch up with Co-captain Feta Sleaze:
Detroit Area Dork: So what are you initial thoughts on the bout?
Feta Sleaze: I feel like my team played super hard...I can't even put into words what I felt like for the bout. We've been working so hard in trying to play fair and equally, and give everyone an equal chance at getting out on the track and showing what they've got and stuff like that. It feels like all the hard work, for real, paid off.
D: How do you think your rookies did?
F: Awesome! Actually we only have one rookie this year, Catch [La Fever], and I think that she played great.
D: What do you think about these new rules?
F: I guess we were kind of in the box a lot for this game. Maybe a little bit more than least season for majors, but on average our team was very minor [penalty] heavy, as opposed to major heavy. I think it's something for us to get used to, but it didn't really affect our style of play. I guess it didn't affect us too much because we weren't really used to getting majors.
D: What did the team get right tonight?
F: The team played together, they kept it cool, they listened to all of our critiques. When we had a timeout, and we said "Keep focused, stay positive", they did that. They listened to each other, they encouraged each other. I feel like they did everything right.
I also cornered the Dames' manager, Dr. Rocktopus:
Detroit Area Dork: What do you think the team got right tonight?
Dr. Rockopus: Everything we've been working on. We stressed so much on walls, walls, walls, and we've been doing a lot of recycling drills. I think it really showed with how when they got a jammer locked down, they really got her down. I think just staying calm throughout the whole thing. Keeping a cool head, and keeping perspective on what you're doing out there goes a lot in to it. We've really been working on all those things. I think it showed that we kept it through the whole game, everything we've been working on
D: Your team was behind for most of the bout. Was there something that happened in the locker-room that caused you to reset?
R: I think that there were several resets throughout the night. We had to take a few critical timeouts, just to reel everybody in, and just play our game. The 'Whippers are really strong at controlling packs, and getting their jammers through. We just had to get it back, and play the game we've been practicing to play.
D: What do you think about these new rules?
R: I love them. I think it's great for the game. I think it makes it a faster pace. There's no chance to do the stalled start. I think it gives the girls a little bit more leeway to play on hits, or move in a pack, and I think it's good for the game all around.
After a brief huddle, Captain Lazer Beam and Co-captain Boo D. Livers of the Pistolwhippers let me know how they were feeling:
Detroit Area Dork: What are your first thoughts on this bout?
Lazer Beam: I think that the game was skated very well. They skated very hard all summer long. They skated on A [level travel] team and B team, and the girls that weren't playing on the A or B team were skating on the Wreckers [, the C team]. Our roles have kind of reversed. The last two years [the Dames] have been primarily rookie teams, and this year we have a lot of second years skaters, and two rookies. I think they earned it. I think they skated better than us today, and our penalties didn't help.
Boo D. Livers: They fought really hard, and it was a really fun game.
D: How do you think your rookies did?
L: I think my rookies did very well. I think that when they were able to get out there and skate, they held their position. I think they are going to be huge assets to our team in the future.
B: Ditto...
D: What do you think about these new rules now that you've played under them?
L: It is a lot more scrappier out there. If I come up a little bit with my elbow, it's not a penalty anymore. It's just going to take a little getting used to. It was our first bout with them, and just like anything else, you have to learn them. We've been really working on learning them, skating with them, but you're only going to get experience with them by playing in the game. You never have a full crew of refs at practice, so everything doesn't get called. We had to get an official review because there was miscommunication on what a rule meant. It'll just take some getting used to.
D: Your team was leading for most of the bout, what do you think happened to change the course of momentum?
L: I feel we can work a lot on our cardio and our endurance. I think that...
B: They're a strong team, physically strong.
L: They are very physically strong, and hope is a very powerful thing mentally. I think that derby is a lot of the time a 90% mental game. If you let a team get in your head...like at one point they were on the jammer line, looking at me, going "peuw, peuw, peuw". They had better cardio, they out-skated us.
D: What do you think your team will have to work on for the next bout?
L: Cardio...
B: Jammer training.
L: We lost three of our primary jammers. Tara To Pieces retired, Meli Ali is off until mid-season, and Honey Suckit wasn't able to play this bout. I was the only returning jammer from last season. Our girls stepped up, and filled some really big shoes tonight. We're really proud of them, we just have to train them more, because some of them have never even jammed in a bout before.
D: Any last thoughts Boo?
B: No. Congratulations to the Dames.
L: They earned it.
B: Well earned.
I think the biggest upset was the minimal input from Boo D. Livers. Who would have guessed that she'd be so tight-lipped?
All photos by Dan Bachorik
This post written by:
I'm a dork, I live in the Detroit area, and sometimes I take blurry photos on an outdated camera