The directorial debut of Drew Barrymore, stars Ellen Page (Juno) as Bliss, a rebellious Texas teen who throws in her small town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller derby. Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Pollock) plays Bliss disapproving mother, while Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) and Juliette Lewis (Old School) play roller-derby stars.
In Theaters October 2!
We had a blast this last weekend! Atlanta’s girls put on an amazing tournement. We learned a lot, sweat a lot, and came away with a new and improved vision of top-notch roller derby. Although we finished in tenth place, we felt like winners the entire weekend. It was so great to meet other derby players and watch some of the finest derby bouts in person and live! We would like to thank the city of Atlanta and give a special shout-out to our big sister of the tourneyment: Smack n Cheese! Thanks to all of our fans who have supported us through the last two years. Without your love and support, we would have not made it this far….
This is only the beginning for WTRD. We are pumped and gearing up for next year’s schedule. Our first home bout will be March 27th against Houston. I know it’s a ways away, but keep your chin up! We are going to impress!
These bout recaps are from Justice Feelgood Marshall of DerbyNewsNetwork.com. Please feel free to check out this site to see other derby play….
Opening Round: (9SC) No Coast 109, (8SC) West Texas 79 – No Coast pulled out to a 23-0 lead after four jams of this one, and it seemed that the whole story of the game was West Texas trying to close that inaugural gap. All game long, both teams relied on a particularly strong set of blockers at the front of the pack — Slyder and Smokin’ EnJen for West Texas and The Bone Setter and ThickaThanAhSnicka for No Coast — who worked together very effectively in bottling up opposing jammers.
West Texas charged back quickly from the 23-0 hole on a couple of big jams for Slyder and narrowed No Coast’s lead to 27-24 with about 15 minutes remaining in the first half. The score stayed at single digits for a while until No Coast finally opened it back to double digits at 43-33, only for West Texas’ Rollin Atkinson to take advantage of a powerjam to get West Texas to within just 2 at 43-41 with about 5 minutes left in the half. But again, No Coast barely stayed ahead of the WTRD charge, closing the half at 57-51 No Coast.
West Texas spent the majority of the second half still hovering between a 5 and 20 point deficit, but they suffered a major setback with about 10 minutes to play, when they were on a power play but their jammer Rollin’ Atkinson was sent to the penalty box — however, she didn’t realize she’d been sent off and her jam ref didn’t realize she hadn’t gone to the box for a couple of critical laps, which had the effect of handing No Coast a much longer subsequent power play than they would have had otherwise. It was West Texas’ last best shot, and No Coast finally opened up their lead too far for West Texas to strike back in the time remaining.
No Coast moved on to face Houston in the quarterfinals, 4pm on Friday.
Consolation: (6SC) Nashville 212, (8SC) West Texas 49 — Nashville lost little time taking out their frustrations after their scoreless first half against Texas on Friday — they blasted West Texas from the start with 15 and 20 point jams from Slammylou Harris, Maulin Monroe and ace Ramb0 Samb0, and had quadrupled WTRD’s score by halftime at 100-25.
The big story for Nashville, though, was really the terrifying play of blocker Sexy Slaydie, who seemed incapable of hitting an opponent without sending her flying off the track or into the infield — and more than a couple of jams were stopped as the recipients of those hits couldn’t get back up before the pack reached them again. For West Texas, Slyder and Wild Wookie were heavily used as both jammers and blockers and acquitted themselves well, but the overpowering Nashville team was far too much for a WTRD crew that looked more scattered the longer the bout went on.
Nashville will play Atlanta for 5th place at 2pm on Sunday; West Texas will play Memphis at noon on Sunday for 9th place.
9th place /10th place: (10SC) Memphis 134, (8SC) West Texas 82 -- West Texas kept this one in reach almost all the way through, but although they made repeated runs at Memphis, they could not completely erase the lead. The opening three jam were all powerjams, but Memphis got the better of them — 10-0 Memphis, 12-0 West Texas and then 15-0 Memphis. That left the score at 25-12 Memphis, with West Texas digging in to finally claw within 2 points at 31-29 with about 15 minutes to play. That was the first of Memphis’ wake-up calls, and they opened up a 21 point lead from there, 58-37 with five minutes to play — and closed the half on a 15-0 for standout jammer Lil Cinner to leave the score at 73-45.
West Texas came out of the break on fire, though — helped out quite a bit by repeated jammer penalties on Memphis. The opening 4 jams went 13-0 to WTRD’s Mulisha Maiden, 4-0 to WTRD’s Scary Go Round, 3-0 to Memphis’ Irene Business, and then 8-0 to WTRD’s Slyder, putting West Texas within single digits at 76-70.
For the middle of the half, WTRD had the margin just one jam away but never could take the lead back. They got as close as 3 points at 84-81 with 11:55 left to play, but Memphis’ defense simply slammed the door on them at that point, making the final sequence of the game bear very little relation to what had come before. West Texas only got 1 more point in the final 12 minutes while Memphis dropped 50.
Memphis went 1-2 on the weekend and finished in 9th place, an improvement on their 10 seed coming into the tournament; West Texas lost all three of their bouts and finish in last place.
The West Texas Roller Dollz are pleased to announce that they have been invited to participate in the South Central Regional Roller Derby Tournament, SOUTHERN FRIED SMACKDOWN in Atlanta, GA. The Atlanta Rollergirls will be hosting this action packed weekend long event September 25-29, 2009. This invitation only event will begin Friday, September 25 and end Sunday, September 27 with the top three teams in the region proceeding on to nationals in Philadelphia, PA.
The entire tournament will be broadcast live on www.derbynewsnetwork.com. Please check out our first bout starting at 9 am on Friday September 25th.
Being a very young roller derby league the West Texas Roller Dollz are in great need of donations and sponsorships to help their travel team attend their first regional tournament. Anyone interested in making a donation or becoming a sponsor should contact WTRD through their email at WTRD@westtexasrollerdollz.com, or by contacting Mandy Braziel at mandy.braziel@gmail.com.
Bout Details:
Location: Yaarab Shrine Temple, Atlanta Georgia
Date: September 25-27, 2009
For more event information and to purchase tickets please visit http://southernfriedsmackdown.com.
