Another “W” for the Dead River Derby
Dead River Derby made their fans proud on their second to last home bout.
This past Saturday, July 12th, fans got together at the Lakeview Arena to watch as the Dead River Derby team took on the Northwoods Derby Knock-Outs. The Derby girl’s season started on March 22nd with an away bout against the Escanaba Rollin’ Hellcats. Their schedule consists of five away bouts and five home bouts. With their season winding down they only have one home game left which is August 23rd. Their last bout of the season will be on October 4th against Mitten Kitten Mash-up.
A Northwoods Derby Knock-Outs skater takes a hard fall during their roller derby bout against our local Dead River Derby girls at Lakeview Arena in Marquette, MI. (photo by Ron Caspi)
The crowd was full of energy as the bout began. You could feel the tension and competition between the teams as the bout started. The atmosphere had a friendly yet competitive feel. On the roller rink you could see the teams competing for points and playing rough but on the side they would smile and laugh with one another.
Glory Sparks of the Dead River Derby attempts to break through two Northwoods Knock-Outs. (photo by Ron Caspi)
One audience member Alex Cowles said that the Dead River Derby team skated really well. “After not seeing them for about a year their skills have grown immensely!” Clowes said. “After an intense game, I was pleased to see my home team pull ahead, I always have confidence in the girls.”
Pepper Pilliwinks (this is her derby name) who is number 86 on the Dead River Derby team said the Northwoods Derby Knock-Outs were a pretty fast and aggressive team. Pilliwinks said one of the tougher teams they have faced this season was Wisconson’s Paper Valley Flying Squirrels.
When speaking about their losses from the previous year Pilliwinks said, “It’s good that we had that experience because we learned so much from it.”
Dead River Derby jammer Soumi Smack tries to push past a jammer for the Northwoods Knock-Outs. (photo by Ron Caspi)
The two teams they lost against last year were downstate and included their very first bout and about two months later they played the Eastside Derby girls where they lost by 13 points. Currently the Derby girls have not lost any other bouts and they still have three remaining. The last home bout will be on August 23 against the Soonami Slammers.
The Derby girls practice six hours a week in order to prepare for their bouts, including the bout against the Northwoods Derby Knock-Outs.
“We practice six hours a week on skates,” Pilliwinks said. “And we just do a lot of different wall drills, one of our better skills is keeping the wall and knocking the jammer out and recycling her to the back and that’s something we work on a lot.”
She said some of their strengths on Saturday night after a few jams was being able to predict what the other team was going to do. “You kinda get a feel for what their strategy is,” Pilliwinks said. “And we were able to counter that fairly quickly.”
Dead River Derby and Northwoods Knock-Outs take each other down during their roller derby bout July 12, 2014. (photo by Georgette Breen)
On the other hand she said some of their weaknesses were making holes for their jammers. “I would say making holes for our jammers to fit was very hard tonight,” Pilliwinks said. “We have very skilled jammers but they had to fit particularly hard tonight because they also had good hard hitting fast walls.”
In order to prepare for their next bout which is only about a month away Pilliwinks said they will prepare by doing the same thing they have been because it’s been working. They will also be sitting down and discussing what some of their strengths and weaknesses were this past bout and build on that as they also do after each competition she said.
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