Triple Header? Psh...I eat those for breakfast!
Since the events of the last blog I have only had the opportunity to ref once even though my league has had some bouts. I’ve skated in scrimmages and practices and I am learning how to jam ref. At first I was stupid nervous…but now having done it 5 or 6 times, I kind of like jam reffing.
I’ve been dealing with a confidence issue since the events of the last scrimmage. I go between times where I want to give up and others where I just want to skate my butt off to achieve my goals. There never seems to be any in between since that fateful Monday. Life goes on and it won’t wait around for me to wallow in self pity. One thing that I didn’t allow to change, I am always the first one on the track at practice/scrimmage/bouts and I try to utilize any track time I have to practice getting better at my skills.
This past weekend I had 3 days of derby. First up was for QCRG where we had a Friday night double head. Their were so many NSO’s signed up to work that I only worked one of the bouts which freed me up to do some volunteer work at will call for the event. It was nice to do that. I also got to sit and watch the 2nd half of the bout which, i’ll be honest, was the first bout I have had the luxury of watching at QCRG. Since I joined the league, I have NSO’d or reffed all of them. The 2nd game was between the Furies and Orangeville who just gained their WFTDA status last week. It was a hard fought bout and Orangeville won. It was a bit of a shock but Orangeville played a hell of a game and deserved it.
Next up on Saturday night was an NRG double header. I have a blast every time I do anything with this league. Every league is full of fun people but this league I think has an over abundance of fun people. I helped oversee the Lineup Trackers for the first bout and learned Inside White Board for the 2nd one. It was a fun night. I think I may have laughed more than I should have for this event because the people I worked with were amazing. I hope to ref up there if a spot is every open when I am available.
And finally Sunday comes…..a triple header in Ancaster and I am reffing all three games. The day started out good. I went and picked up my kids and started to head up to Ancaster for the day. The Canadian border agent asked me where I was headed and I told her I was going to ref roller derby in Hamilton. This got the kids and I hauled into immigration. Apparently she had never heard of derby and thought I was either running away with my kids or getting paid to do it even though I assured her it was volunteer only. The woman in immigration chuckled when we walked in and quickly had us on our way
Most of the crew for the junior bouts.
Two junior games and HARD’s Peach Cup. I volunteered to jam ref for the juniors games and that was a lot of fun. It was an experienced crew which eased my nerves a lot. I also advised everyone to give me feedback as we went a long and to feel free to tell me I am doing it all wrong so I could make my game better. When you work with an experienced crew, you learn a lot. For the first two bouts, I learned a lot about communication between the Pack Refs and the Jam Refs. It is amazing the confidence you gain in something when you are placed in a situation where it is required that you do it. I made a couple mistakes. Forgot a lap point at one time but I corrected that at the end of that jam. And at one point in the 2nd game, I had a brain fart and followed the wrong jammer out of the pack. That was a bit embarrassing but the other jam ref had done the same thing in the previous half so we had a good laugh about that.
The final game was the championship game for HARD. I was rear OPR for this one and I skated my tail off. This, by far, was the fastest pack I have ever been on. The other OPR and I decided that we would try to maintain our position on the outside of the pack instead of doing the rotation. For the most part, we kept up. There were only a few jams where I needed to peel off and pick up the pack in turn 3 and 4. But man…I skated my butt off. This bout being the final of 3 for the day made for a long day. I felt good about my performance and everyone has told me I did great.
I really enjoy refereeing and NSOing. I absorb all the feedback I get and try to step up my game whenever possible. The next blog will most likely be in a couple of weeks after I participate in Winter Wipeout 2016. This is a tournament in which I will be reffing at least 6 20 minute games over the course of a day and I can’t wait.
Look at that concentration. And that crossover…..