Heading into The East Coast Derby Extraganza 2011 I thought I was going to be seeing Feasterville for the last time. 2009 had been the best year of my derby career, 2010 had been one of my worst, and 2011 saw my girlfriend, Miss Print, retiring and my best friend, Caesar leaving the announce booth in Cincinnati. I had reached the point why I was questioning why I was still doing this while many I knew had already went on? I felt like a preacher who was questioning his faith but was still hanging around the church.
ECDX has always held a special place in my heart. It was the first “tournament” weekend I had ever taken part in. It was the first place I ever worked with a rookie announcer named Heaven Hymen, who has turned into one of my best friends. It is where I met Rev. Al and Dumptruck for the 1st time in person. Caesar and I about died on the way there, blasting Dragonforce in my Pontiac Grand Am, driving 80 MPH on the Pennsylvania turnpike in a blizzard. It’s where I saw the Slay Ride when Beyonslay hit Rice Rocket. These are just the first things that come to mind when I think of ECDX.
I flew in early to Philadelphia to visit a college buddy but work had taken him out of town and instead was adopted by Professor Murder and his wife for a few days. This also meant living life on a referee’s schedule, which means early mornings. On Friday, we were at the Sportsplex by 8:30AM after a much-needed WAWA run. I hung out and watched the referee and NSO training, which was followed by an intense on skate session to help increase maneuverability, skater avoidance, and over all skate skills.
From what I saw as an outsider who was observing from the sidelines, I like where the referee training is going. The classroom part at the beginning helps referees to understand how the game and specific situations should be called. This gives them a firm ground to stand on during games because they know they will be backed up when they make a call the way it was told to them in the class. Also ideally this information and skate skills will be taken back to these referees’ home leagues to be distributed among their colleagues; the idea being like bees pollinating from flower to flower.
One of the big things I deal with in announcing is working with video crews and the production aspect of games. Last year was not fun for me as it the video production was this quasi “United Nations” approach with to many chefs in the kitchen and things being dropped. This year Philly went with Blaze Media and 1 director (Hymen Heaven) and everything ran much, much smoother. We ran on time, we knew our assignments, and we got honest feedback on how to make our calls better during the game from someone who works in video production for a living. John “Kool Aid” Porter acted as our announcer wrangler and did a good job in making sure over a dozen announcers got air time with the motto “the pie is big enough for all of us to have a piece of it”. This resulted in a true team effort from all and really high morale over the course of the weekend.
Philly also only streamed the event through their own website www.phillyrollergirls.com. I think it is very intelligent for any league that is broadcasting their bouts to have full control of their video rights, advertising/sponsorships, and how and where it is streamed. I plan to write more about this in a future article discussing why the Internet and not television is a better fit for roller derby in the future.
My favorite part of the weekend had to be the No Minor Beta Test Bouts. If you haven’t already, check out Caesar’s article with impressions from across the derby landscape, read it here. My take on the bouts? Can we insert this rule set tomorrow? The games were fast, hard hitting, and most of all entertaining. There wasn’t official timeout after official timeout to talk over the penalty board or how many minors someone had. The big, unsightly penalty board and outside white boards were gone creating cleaner sight lines. Referees are given the trust to make a call, the skaters are allowed to play the game, and it is much easier for spectators to understand what is happening. I think WFTDA is on the right path with this rule set.
I had heard rumblings coming out of WFTDA Con 2011 that good things were on the horizon and after this weekend, I whole-heartedly believe that to be true. By training referees under the same information/practices, controlling their video rights, and with the success of the No Minors Beta Bouts, I think that WFTDA is doing some good things currently and moving in a positive direction. My faith in roller derby has been reenergized after this weekend, as derby has become fun again on many levels. I am excited for the Big 5 and can’t wait to see where things go next. My faith has been refueled and all it took was a trip to Feasterville.