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So if you weren’t aware Texas Rollergirls, TXRG, hosted a tournament this past weekend in Austin. Gotham (NYC), Windy (Chicago-duh) and B.A.D. (San Francisco) played, as well as a scrimmage between TXRG’s B-Team and Centex (Killeen, TX) All Stars. I had submitted my name to ref assuming that not all leagues could bring their refs AND a lot of leagues within 5 hrs drive of Austin would be having a bout on one of the days the tournament was being held. I never considered the fact that tourneys that draw big leagues in also draw top certified refs outta the woodwork. Luckily I was still allowed to NSO, yes I said “allowed” I’m a Derby official, not just a ref. I learned a lot just from observing Sugar Daddy, Professor Murder, Curtis E. Lay, Judge Knot, and a host of other officials. Some of whom did duty as NSO as well.
I’m still blown away at the level of officials I rubbed elbows with and they aren’t as intimidating as I imagined they would, and not at all stuck up. As a matter of fact they were quite encouraging and mentory… That’s not a word but I can’t think of what I’m looking for. If I made a mistake they were quick to offer, “next time do this…” and those lessons will stick with me longer than “why the HELL did you …”
I was scheduled to ref the Centex vs TXRG Firing Squad and I got pulled into reffing the Sunday morning scrimmage I was originally set to NSO. Centex fought hard and took a few lead changes from TXRG, but in the end Firing Squad shot off some winning jams toward the end.
The Sunday scrimmage was simply an endurance skate. Every jam 10 skaters rotated in from a line about 50 deep on each side of the black n white teams, with a few skaters switching shirts sometime into the scrimmage. All for an hour and a half with 3 or 4 official time outs for jammer refs to switch bandanas, OPR to switch with IPR, a score check, and penalty board check.
One final note, I had the sexiest unofficial officials shirt that made Suzy HotRod snicker when she took a pic with me. Now back to RollerCon 2012
Unofficial Derby Official's Rantings 