To say that tonight’s Oz Roller Girls home debut is creating excitement and a side order of anxiety would be an understatement. Like everything else, it involves a lot of preparation and teamwork, including last night’s laying of the track, arena arrangements and even brief rehearsals.
More than 20 of us worked around three hours on Friday night to get the facility ready. Crisafulli Rink is a city facility that usually hosts youth hockey. Since this bout is the debut of roller derby in Oswego, clearly the facility has never seen anything quite like this. The biggest job involved taking measurements and laying down tape to represent the track.
We also had to arrange some bleachers, set up merch tables, move benches and take care of general housekeeping. We installed and tested a sound system, trying to figure out how to make the music and my announcing work in a metallic building that has some echoes. And we practiced bout intros … you only get one chance at a first impression.
That’s not to say we didn’t have fun either. With the name of the bout Yellow Brick Roadkill, some skaters had fun drawing chalk outlines of fallen bodies around the track.
With the exception of me going over and refining scripts, we’re almost past the part of preparation and into the part of action. Doors at 5. Bout at 6. Hope you can join us on this very important step in the journey!
my strange journey into roller derby 