Rowdy Unrostered.

To be honest, I feel really bad for other teams who have skaters who don't fight and struggle to be great, because the true courage and strength it takes for some people is incredibly inspiring, and they don't have the chance in having people like the Rowdy Unrostered.

When I realized that roller derby was NOT going to be easy (and let me be real, i thought before that i was a big girl, have been in sports, and I can hit and be mean reallyyyyy bad, so of course it would be natural), i found the support system of a life time for some of the best people i have ever met.

After not making my 25 in 5 (the second time), there were were several of us girls who would not be rosterable.

Let me interject something here.
We were asked to try to do the 25 in 5 on the night of drafts. We had to come early, skate our 25 in 5, and if we made it, had to go threw things to see if we should be placed on a team.

Also, before we knew if we even passed, we had to decide if we were going to make it or not, and then be put on teams to draft in.

I know it sounds self doubting and non-confident, but I did not put my name on the list to draft. Maybe it was a pity party, but it was realistic: it was a week and a half after my first attempt, and I had not been at speed practice.

As I've said, my second attempt was HORRIBLE. for one, my best gal pals were the people who were on the floor, the person who was taking my time and "cheering" for me kept calling me karlie, so I was totally confused because karlie was ACTUALLY skating.

I just didn't have the mojo to do it, and somehow did worse than the first time. My body felt a lot different, tighter, more scared maybe? After the first initial time, it was all pure excitement, but the second time and the tries I will do after it will be more mental.

All the girls were EXTREMELY, can i say EXTREEEMMMEELY close. Karlie took a fall and still got to a last straight away and didn't make it. Chris and Amy were litteraly strides away.

I believe I was more concerned for the other girls. They all had the potential. I had seen Chris and Amy get so close before, and they are two of the biggest fighters I know.

Here's an example.

Instead of being upset and pissy and sad, they stood up. They had done a very phsyical and emotional drill, and then decided to not give up and did all the drills with the teams so the drafting teams wouldn't be short.

They did more laps. They scrimmaged with their teams. They did awesome. that is what I love about derby girls, they are strong, heroic women taking risks in a adventerous world of derby and living the even more scary reality. Even more so, the girls who constantly get knocked down, out of breath, and have to fight are the women who get faster.

After that night, we coined ourselves the Rowdy Unrostered, and thank god for that. I had found a some kind of really weird/bruised sorority group. It's almost like we are some weird sister wife clan, but no men allowed (justkidding...noreally).

After the rostering, there was not a lot of room for us at the skate rink. Honestly, I don't really remember us every truly bitching and pissed off about it. We all instead did our thing on the side, sharing sweat and some laughs. We were taught things that were hard, and when one of us were lacking or hurting, there was always someone to keep us going.we even brought our really awesome volleyball skills together for charity, lost horribly, but won most spirited!

After awhile, we were being noticed by the league, and even addressed as the Rowdy Unrostered. I think that was a big step for us, for us wanted to be known and stick together to be seen and heard.

Okay, I may be getting ahead of myself. In all honesty, all of us arent attatched at the hip and I haven't spent a ton of one on one time with each of them. but truly, I call each one of these girls my friend. I've never been annoyed by any of them, like ever. And let me just say, girls in general can get on my nerves.

All of them are all so damn nice, talented, supportive, educated, funny, motivating....

When I had to take my leave of absence, I was really bummed. Not only was I missing out on the time I could practice, derby and these women have become my life. I literally cried at the last practice (i'm such an emotional mess sometimes)

Now that I am gone, I feel like they still never leave me out. Before, I was always a loner in a pack of friends, I was never the partier or drinker, so my friends always just passed on by me to more fun people. When ever they are planning something together in springfield, I am always informed, am reminded that I am missed, liked, and hopefully I remind them that they are awesome.

Since so, many of the girls have made the move, and they are officially rosterable. The night I found out I was SO BEYOND EXCITED. I think more excited than I will be for myself... I was just sitting on fbook/twitter refreshing waiting for them to say something so ecstatic. they did update, but instead of being crazy and obscene like I undoubtably would, they were classy with couth, and were conserned with other peoples emotions.

God there are so many things to say about them that I forget. I want to find the words to say, for people to be moved, for people to notice how much these women have worked, for people to understand how they've kept me going, but I think there personality speaks for themselves.

To Amy,
To Chris,
To Karlie,
To Crystal,
To Brittany,
To Julianna,

Thanks for being you.