Public Servants Night! Firemen/women, Policemen/women and EMTs – show your ID at the door for $3 off admission!

Happy Hour beer prices between 6-7!

Get your pre-sale tickets at The Bank of Kentucky Center’s Box Office for $12 – tickets at the door are $15. Parking is $5.

For information on season packages and purchasing tickets, please visit our ticket page.

Where: Comic Book World – 7130 Turfway Road Florence, KY
When: May 5th 11am – 2pm

More info here:

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/Home/1/1/27/992

Our very own HoneyBunny has created a Roller Derby comic to hand out! Here’s a sneak peak!

http://www.thenortherner.com/sports/2012/04/24/roller-derby-season-approaches/

From WNKU.org:

WHO: The car show & rally is open to street legal vehicles and drivers 18 and up with a valid license. Up to 100 family vehicles and street machines for the road rally. Up to 300 car show entries welcome. Meet area non-profit agencies and the Black ‘n’ Bluegrass Rollergirls.

BENEFITS: WNKU, Friends of Steely Library (FOSL), Kids Café, Action Ministries and NKU’s Baptist Student Union (who will be serving food and refreshments)

Admission: $5 at the door
We will be accepting donations for Cinderella’s Closet.

At practice on Monday one of the EDs came up to me and said I did good at practice because I was being forced to do things and said on scrimmage nights I need to be more forceful. I am going to my practices and they have changed some. Monday is like derby pre-school now and it is so much fun. Not many people come on Mondays so I get a lot of individual attention and instructions which is helping me. More importantly, it’s bringing the fun back to derby for me we goof off a little and play around. I don’t feel like I will mess everything up for my team if I do something wrong. It was also pointed out to me that I have to do things on Mondays, I can’t depend on the stronger players to do things and I just follow or hope they push me into someone; I have to do it or push someone. If they would ever let me line dance on skates at practice my dreams would come true.

I made the decision that I am going to treat this like my rookie season, the season why I just try things and if I fail I fail but I learn. I can’t worry that if I mess up I screw things up for the team. It’s practice and if they get mad at me for trying and messing up then that’s their problem not mine. Trying is what helps not hoping some magic skating fairy will visit me at night and make me a star. Derby pre-school is what is helping me with all that. So on Thursday scrimmages now I am not going to try and go out with the strongest players, I may go out with the new girls or when girls are in the box because that will make me work and do things. If I go out with A team I depend on them to tell me what to do and then just skate around and watch and don’t learn anything.

I still have the goal of most improved skater at the end of season banquet and to win that I have to get noticed and to get noticed I have to do things and derby pre-school will help me with that.

-Shaken and Stirred

We’re having a trial run, before we start our season at the Bank of Kentucky Center. Come out and watch BBRG vs BBRG – admission is free!

Visit our merch booth and order your season pass while you are there!

Another thing that we are doing to prepare for the arena is practice, practice, practice. We have upped our practice schedule to 4 times a week, now that we have the private practice space to do it. We are picking up games with teams all over in an attempt to get better. Our head coach, Coach T, is refining strategies, drilling them into our heads, and forcing us to get better. There are still some days, as a relative newbie, that I can’t keep up. I may not be an FNG anymore, but I still struggle, every day, to make my body and my skates do what I want them to. I have good days and bad. When I started back in January, I felt like I was starting all over. I was so out of practice after two months off with no skating. In February, with only one month practice under our belt, our B team was invited to play in a B team tournament, the B Cup. I figured I wouldn’t get to play much, if at all, since I was one of the newest players who was attending. At a tournament, you are allowed to turn in a roster of 20, but only 14 can play at a time, just like a regular game. Plus, I had a flu/sinus infection and felt like crap. My 5-year old, who was supposed to go with me, had developed pneumonia and had to stay home with his dad, and that too made me feel like crap, because I felt an obligation to my team to attend, but felt like the worst mom ever for leaving him. To my surprise, we had players get injured before the tournament, and others who had to drop out, leaving us with only 15 eligible players left from our roster. That meant I was going to play in at least one game, and I was pretty nervous about it.

I played in the first game against Naptown’s Third Alarm, the top seed in the tournament, at 8am (not the best time for derby girls). We were seeded 8th out of 8, because at the time we weren’t a WFTDA team like the others (although we are now!). I didn’t go in much, by my own request, because I was frankly getting the crap knocked out of me every time I went in. I was slow, off balance, and every hit felt much worse than it usually would. Naptown made me a goat every jam I was in and fighting your way out of being a goat is exhausting and tough (a goat is a blocker that gets trapped behind the wall of the opposing team, so that they can control where the pack is). It gives me more respect for jammers than you can possibly imagine. But we made an awesome showing, becoming the talk of the tournament by coming back from a huge deficit at the half to losing by only a few points difference. I was so proud of my team. Because we lost, we weren’t expected to play again until the next day’s losing bracket, and I took advantage of it by drinking NyQuil and spending the entire rest of the day in bed. The next day, I bench coached, instead of playing, and although it was my first time bench coaching, it was worth it. To me, having me play would have just brought my team down, since I couldn’t perform at all. We won both games we played on Sunday and ended up 5th in the tournament, which was amazing!

So I had made it through my first tournament, but my contribution was small. On top of that, assessment time was looming again in February, and I wondered if I could make it through. My biggest weakness (and I’m the first to admit I have many) is my lack of speed and endurance. So the biggest challenge looming over my head each year is the 25 laps in 5 minutes requirement. I started practicing for it a week before the assessments. At the end of last season, I had made it with 5 seconds to spare, which was amazing enough for me, considering I hadn’t been able to do it previously. So, imagine my absolute horror when I tried twice over two days and couldn’t do it. Not only did I fail, but I failed miserably—a whole lap down from 25. I was heartbroken and dispirited. It was all I could think about. I called my derby wife, Splintercat, crying. In desperation, the night before assessments, I changed some of my wheels from grippier Poisons to my slicker Lowboys. And I stayed awake all night with my stomach cramping from anxiety. Would I pass?

The day of assessments, I actually went and got a massage, trying to lessen some of my tension. I ate lightly and drank more water than I usually do. I was hoping to be put in the group that did the laps first, wanting to get it out of the way, but was randomly chosen to start with hitting skills. Then my group did basic skating skills, meaning my laps were last. Usually we do laps in groups of 3, to avoid overcrowding on the track while you’re skating full throttle. I skated up to Coach T and said, “If you never do me another favor, please let me go first and get this out of the way.” To my relief he agreed, and I lined up with two of my fellow FNGs from last season. The timer started and we took off. My nose began running 3 laps in. I did my best to keep up with the girl in front of me, knowing that if I could do that, I’d at least have the same number of laps as someone else. My stride was sloppy. I looked like Phoebe from Friends running through the park, and I didn’t care. I was gasping, trying in vain to control my breathing, periodically wiping my nose with my wrist guard, my legs burning while I quickly lost my own count. I could hear other skaters yelling encouragement in the background, but it was barely sinking in. I felt myself slowing down, losing my initial burst of speed. The girl in front of me was slowly pulling away. Lap by lap, she got further and further from me, and as much as I pushed, I couldn’t keep up. I began to despair as sweat rolled down my face, and it felt like I had been on the track for 20 minutes. Finally, I heard Splinter, who was keeping time, yell, “STOP!!” I made it to the inside of the track and collapsed, exhausted and barely able to move my legs for a minute. And then my sweet wife dropped down next to me and said, “27!” I looked at her, eyes open in shock, “Are you serious?” She nodded, and for the first time that day, I felt like jumping up and down. For veteran skaters, the 25 in 5 may be easy and may be you can’t understand why it was so hard for me. But for me, it was a mountain to climb and reaching the summit was absolutely amazing! Not only did I pass, I went 2 laps over, which I have never, never managed to do before. As some of the other skaters congratulated me, it made me realize how far I’d come in a year. Now, I have to use this season to get even better!

Next time: I Declare a Thumb War

-Kung FU Hussy

Round 2

When: May 12 8am – 2pm
Where: The Yard – 8171 Dixie Highway, Florence

Something for everyone! We have kids toys, shoes and clothes. Adult shoes and clothes. TV’s, bar stools, recliners, golf clubs, knick knacks, movies and books! Bathroom and kitchenware and something for all cooks!

Please stop by, we would love to meet you!

Roller Derby is more than a sport, it is women athletes giving everything they have on and off the track for their heart, soul and team! The Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls wanted to capture how much more this team is – a family of individuals with big hearts that never give up and always look for a way to give back. Justin has captured the women behind the players in his roller derby project “Everyday Derby”. We are proud to announce that the first installation of this collection is currently being featured at The Melt Eclectic Deli in Cincinnati thru the end of April. Come see this sneak preview of beautiful and edgy photography by Justin Caridi and stay tuned for more locations and photos from this collection to follow.

Fine art prints provided by POPrevolutionGallery.com

Justin Caridi Photography: For more information, email JustinCaridiPhotography@gmail.com

View the Everyday Derby Photoshoot Collection