we got floored.

Unlike some sports, roller derby doesn’t necessary take place on a uniform surface. Our practice surface has been a beaten linoleum floor in a former dollar store — until last week.

Coach Flyin Phil learned that the sport-court floor usually used in the Baldwinsville Ice Arena for Assault City Roller Derby bouts would be available for lease during the six months the arena turns back into a hockey rink. So we jumped at the opportunity for a new surface, which meant moving purposefully to get the surface in before last Saturday’s scrimmage against the Rockin Rural Roller Girls.

On Thursday night, when Phil piloted the truck full of flooring up to the loading dock (after a series of misadventures that he could better describe) a veritable army greeted him. We enjoyed a huge turnout of Oz skaters, refs and non-skating officials who unloaded the truck and quickly fanned out around the facility. Each tile is one foot square, and they come in three by four rectangles that snap into each other.The flooring went down fast.

Many hands make light work, as Daddy Cadaver, our Cowardly Lion mascot said as the flooring rapidly overspread the facility in a flurry of activity, palpable excitement and the sound of pieces snapping into place.

From there we laid out the track, came back to test the floor on Friday and hosted RRRG on Saturday. We could feel the difference, especially when skaters would hold in the corners that previously seemed to slide. The soreness in my legs this weekend reflects having to work harder on a surface that is more sticky … although stickiness, in terms of a derby floor, is generally a good thing.

The floor will help a lot over the next six months. We all enjoy skating on it, and it will improve our practices immeasurably. We may be able to take the surface into another facility to add a winter bout to our schedule, which would be huge. But, for me, the lasting memory will be less about watching a floor come together than seeing the impressive effort of the team coming together to make it happen.