July Skater of the Month and Another Bout!

It’s time again to honor one of our most devoted and admired skaters – congrats this month go to RaqHell!

RaqHell, or Rocky as we call her most of the time, was nominated for her ferocity, good attitude, and hard work.  After coming back from breaking her ankle, she’s been full of non-stop determination.  She does it all:  jam, block, pivot…and when she’s not skating, she’s helping out as one of the Widow Makers’ team captains and helping the league earn WFTDA (Women’s Flat Track Derby Association) certification, which is no simple task.

You’d never know it to watch her in action, but this is actually Rocky’s first season as a jammer.  In the Widow Makers’ most recent bout against the Coos County Roller Girls, Rocky scored an amazing 102 points in a single game, with sometimes as many as 30 points in a single jam!  This girl is one fabulous athlete, and is described by her fellow skaters as a solid and stellar teammate – with good reason.

During her free hours, Rocky can still be found on skates much of the time – she says one of her favorite ways to spend a sunny afternoon is outdoor skating with her teammates.

Watch for RaqHell and your other favorite HRD skaters at our next bout on Saturday, August 20!  The Widow Makers will be taking on the Redding Roller Girls, and the Redwood Rollers will play the San Diego Derby Dolls’ Hard Corps.  Tickets just went on sale today, so get ‘em while you still can!

Derby Summer is Upon Us!

Wondering what your favorite Humboldt Roller Derby skaters have been up to?  Derby is a busy time for HRD – we may not have had any bouts in June, but practices have been brutal and we’ve been involved in all kinds of fun community happenings.  We skated with the “Gloryopolis” sculpture in the Kinetic Grand Championship, we watched the Saplings (our junior league) bout against each other and travel to their first out-of-town scrimmage…we even staffed an entire week of all-day bathroom cleaning shifts at the Redwood Acres Fair!

Our next bout is right around the corner, with tickets going on sale first thing tomorrow morning.  Get yours locally at The Works in Eureka or People’s Records in Arcata, or online through humboldtrollerderby.com!  We can’t wait to take on the ladies of Coos County and Silicon Valley.

And please forgive us for being a day late, but we would like to take this opportunity to honor our June Skater of the Month!  A huge congrats goes out to Li’l Scarlet Disonya, a long-time HRD skater who has continuously made the Redwood Rollers proud.  She is described by her teammates as “tenacious,” with superior agility, speed, aggression, awareness, and teamwork.  Scarlet can knock a skater twice her weight flat out if she wants to, and she never gives up.  Not surprisingly, she won “Best Triple Threat” at our end-of-season party last year – which means she’s an amazing jammer, pivot, and blocker!  She also devotes a lot of her spare time to coaching the Saplings, not to mention planning and coordinating that end-of-season party.

Off the track, our “Scar” is known as Sonya Ross, a world-traveling jeweler and all-around fun person.  She just got back from Peru, where she hiked 28 miles on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, to celebrate the solstice at the Temple of the Sun.  She has lived up and down the west coast between California and Oregon for the last 13 years, but grew up performing in an avant garde political activist puppet circus  with the theater company “Bread and Puppet” in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.  Now she spends her days with her three “gremlins” (chihuahuas) – Miss T., Mogwai, and Diego, traveling, going to festivals, and of course almost non-stop derby.

Congrats, Scar!  And thanks for everything you do for HRD.