When last we left this party last September, the Rat City Rollergirls [1] were in chaos.
The four teams that make up the flat-track roller-derby league were only getting started as the season-ending championship bout rolled around. The great Derby Liberation Front [2], a team that has won many more games than it has lost, was relegated to third place. The league's "bad girls," the Throttle Rockets [3], made the DLF work hard to get even that third-place standing by playing a tough and clean game.
The Sockit Wenches [4], a fast-skating team that had suffered a demoralizing season-opener loss to the underdogs of Grave Danger [5], came close to clinching back-to-back championship titles... but those underdogs would not be denied, and Grave Danger beat the Wenches in the championship bout to clinch the 2007 title, their first.
On March 22, those four titans will meet again in a setting fittingly inspired by Japanese monster movies. Grave Danger will try to cement its alpha-dog standing by defeating DLF -- a team they've never beaten.
The Throttle Rockets, a team that has yet to win a championship, will take on the Sockit Wenches in hopes of getting a winning streak going. The Rockets have an excellent chance of going all the way -- one of the fastest skaters in the league, Darth Skater, is returning to play. It's a good thing indeed that the Wenches are getting back two of their best players, Holley Knock-hers and Dixie Dragstrip.
It's going to be a rolling bloodbath, an eight-wheeled gladitorial extravanganza -- and you can be part of it. While advance tickets have been sold out for weeks, a limited number of tickets will be made available at the door. The drum-and-dance ensemble VamoLa [6] will do their thing at halftime, Skillet [6] will provide their killer "street food" from their swell Airstream trailer and, as always, kids of all ages are welcome. If you've never been to a Rat City bout before, now's the time.
By the way, you may want to make the scene a bit early. The Rat City girls are playing in a new Magnuson Park venue this season, Building 30, because their old venue, Building 27, is in bad need of structural and cosmetic upgrades. The city is leaning toward a controversial fix: They want to lease the building to Arena Sports [7], making them the first large-scale for-profit venture to open in a Seattle public park.
The grass-roots Hangar 27 Organization [8] will hold a photo shoot in front of the contested venue at 2 p.m. to raise awareness of the groups that will be displaced by privatizing the building -- a cross section of not-for-profit groups and events that includes not only the Rat City Rollergirls, but also the Best of the Northwest art shows [9], the VW Club “Bug In," the IWASIH Boys & Girls Club, the Salmon Homecoming Native American Pow Wow and much more.
By finding a public solution to address Building 27's problems, there can be room for indoor community sports, craft and trade shows and, of course, flat-track roller derby. I'll see you trackside.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
