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Philly Roller Girls Announce 2012 Season Opener!

The Philly Roller Girls’ Liberty Belles are excited to host their first intermediate level skills and strategy flat track roller derby clinic on April 22, 2012 from 9am-2pm at Millennium Skate World in Camden, New Jersey. Come learn from and practice with long-time veterans Teflon Donna, Shenita Stetcher, Mo Pain, Persephone, Castro, Gloria Grindem, Olivia Face, Elle Viento, Alessa Evil, Ginger Vitis, Copper Top, and Heavy Flo; and newer (but super awesome) Belles: Goldy, Devoida Mercy, Eileen U. Scream, Fully Addomatic, PMS, Wendy Whiplash, and Rollanya Asse. The preliminary schedule for this ambitious, fast-paced, information-packed clinic is as follows:

DESIGN PHILLY ROLLER GIRLS' 2012 SEASON SHIRT
 
Love Philly Roller Girls' merch? Here's your chance to help design it! The Philly Roller Girls are giving fans a chance to design a T-shirt for our 2012 season.  Five winners will win two tickets to our home opener in April, 2012.  And our grand prize winner will receive two 2012 season tickets and a free T-shirt featuring the design!

The following Philly Roller Girls 2011 season awards were presented at the Snow Brawl last weekend:

League awards

1. Most Derby Devoted Skater: Devoida Mercy

2. Most Derby Devoted Non-Skater: Paul Williams

3. Most Inspiring: Elle Viento

4. Biggest threat of draftees: Geez Ruiz

During an unseasonably warm weekend in early January, Philly Roller Girls held their 6th Annual Snow Brawl--a yearly celebration of the league's accomplishments during the past season. But the real story was warming up on the mic: As part of the evening's festivities, PRG's recent draftees were publicly paired with the teams who selected them.

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! On January 4, 2012, Philly Roller Girls will buzz with excitement as the draft committee meets to place twelve unattached skaters on to the league’s local home teams. The draft committee consists of six representatives, two from each of the home teams: the Broad Street Butchers (Antidote and Devoida Mercy), Heavy Metal Hookers (Alessa Evil and Goldy), and Philthy Britches (Castro and Rollanya Asse).

On Sunday, November 20th, Teflon Donna and PRG's "Fresh Meat" Training panel assessed 60 women for placement into the league's rookie training program. Out of the 60, the panel accepted 30 fresh meat from the candidates. Teflon Donna explains, “The goal of the assessment panel is to end up with skaters that demonstrate basic skating skills, and show aggression and fearlessness when presented with skills that are slightly above their abilities.”

Above: More than 60 women tried out for the 2012 Fresh Meat Class.

The control of the scoreboard seemed to change with each jam in Saturday’s bout featuring the Philly Roller Girls Liberty Belles and the Minnesota RollerGirls All-Stars at the Class of 1923 Arena. Both teams exchanged fire as calculated and swift jammers navigated the pack, rarely leaving a point gap that wasn’t narrowed or reversed in the next jam.

Leaping from the pack was the Belles’ Persephone who scored the initial four points of the game, while Harmony Killerbruise of Minnesota answered the challenge with nine points in the next jam. The back-and-forth of the first minutes would set the tone for the rest of the game as neither team left a successful play unchallenged.

With near-perfect summer temps and the kind of cloud cover that ECDX 2011 pool-goers love, Philly Roller Girls' fifth annual tournament closed out a spectacular weekend of women's flat track roller derby with a smattering of blowouts and some surprises.

With the second "No Minors" bout at ECDX to test the proposed rule-set from WFTDA, Richmond's River City fought Feasterville first-timers Lehigh Valley, resulting in a 165-77 victory. Early feedback from both in-house and online fans prove positive for the beta testing, with smooth officiating and education from house and stream announcers helping bridge the gap between the tried and true and WFTDA's modified rules.

Lehigh Valley fought for points over River City's relentless jamming. (Photo: Brian Macke)

In the third and final featured "No Minors" beta bouts taking place at ECDX, Steel City took on formidable Maine Roller Derby, who crushed Hammer City mid-day Saturday 367-43. During the Steel/Maine match-up, the sisters of the East duked it out with a few close jams early on in the bout, with Steel ultimately beating Maine 193-113.

The Belles' Persephone nabbed TK of the Belles 34 points against Gotham. (Photo: Brian Macke.)