We drove all thee way to Kalamazoo on Friday to arrive at midnight at the hotel, tired but not at all cranky. The next day we wasted our time before playing, making a visit to Target and a nearby mall, where we all rode an indoor, two tiered carousel and went to Hot Topic where we spent a bunch of money.
But on to the good stuff. We got ready and hit the venue for the game. Killamazoo Derby Darlin's were very gracious hosts, and there was a ton of food and treats waiting for us when we arrived. But we all geared up, signed waivers, and hit the track for a warm up. To be honest, the game was a blur, and I was sent out every other jam in the first half. We picked up an early lead but struggled to keep it through the first half, unable to consistently gain the critical lead jammer status. At half-time, the score was something like 46-48 for us, and it was still anybody's game. Our efforts to refocus and regain our positive mojo were only temporary, and though we scrapped it out, penalties crippled our game.
In a cluster fuck on the bench we fielded only 2 blockers on the track for a jam, and some of our greenest at that. As our bench could only look on in horror, one of those blockers took a major, leaving a first time player skating alone on the track. Comical now, it allowed Killamazoo a 25 point jam. But bad luck followed for Killamazoo shortly after, as their jammer lost her wheel in an equipment malfunction and we were able to score a heap of unanswered points. It wasn't enough, however, and at the end of the last jam, the score was 120-97 for Killamazoo.
Good times and hard lessons were had. In a game like we played, we didn't lose because we couldn't win, we lost because we lost our shit on the bench. We'll work on never allowing that to happen again. We should never lose because we can't hold it together, we should only lose because we fought, held it together, and in the end the other team was just better.
Still, we implemented some of the strategies we've been practicing lately, adjusted our style on the fly, and did some great stuff. And to start and end the game, both teams got together and skated in a friendship snake.
Oh, and I won this:
Which was overall pretty rad. The beer did not immediately come in the glass.
The next day we woke up in varying states of hangover and drove our asses up to Grand Rapids where we participated in a half hour scrimmage against their B team. This went a little better for us and we were able to implement our strategies pretty much unanswered by their mostly green team and skated our way to a 149-17 score. So we ended our weekend on a high note and began the 2 day drive back to MTL, where I am very happy to be back to sleep in my own bed.
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