3 days, 8 bouts, 1 unbeatable ending.

Christy Germain Cass photo

I’d never watched a roller derby tournament before, let alone announced one. But after calling all eight bouts at the first-ever three-day Triple D Tournament — right down to a nailbiting championship conclusion — it’s hard to imagine anything better.

It looked all but over as it came down to the final jam with the Oz Roller Girls trailing the very talented Ithaca Bluestockings in the championship game 126-117. The teams matched speed, strength, skill and smarts all bout long, but a late surge by Ithaca left Oswego calling timeout with about 40 seconds left. Time for one more jam, but what were the odds of Oz, playing its third game in three days, pulling the comeback win against such a great team?

But Oz would have done Houdini proud, with a thrilling escape. Jammer Masso-Kiss-Tic Mandy grabbed the lead for Oz and the Ithaca jammer went to the penalty box for a back block. That meant Mandy became the only player who could score points … and I tried to pass this info along to the audience without going too crazy on the mic. But we have a pretty well informed crowd, and as Mandy made her first pass for a grand slam (five points), the audience caught on. The Oz blockers found an extra burst of energy to get Mandy through. When she made a second pass, the crowd reached fever pitch … and at her third pass, to put Oz ahead, I thought the place (and my voice) was going to erupt. Mandy then called off the jam, the clock had run out and Oz somehow pulled off a 130-126 win for the first-ever Triple D Tournament title!

The whole tournament was enjoyable, although no games could compete with the title bout in excitement. I met, talked and shared stories with so many great teams. Some folks gave positive feedback on my announcing, especially the intros (I had to write about 50 of them in about an hour on Saturday morning), which was quite pleasing. By Sunday’s afterparty, players and coaches and volunteers chatted and mingled in a free, friendly way, reminding us that all of derby is like one big family.

And somehow my voice lasted through eight bouts in three days, even if at times I ran out of anything intelligent or intelligible to say. But when it wraps up in such amazing fashion, no words are really necessary anyway … the excitement itself tells the story.