Saturday afternoon our Carolina Bootleggers traveled to Greensboro to take on Greensboro Roller Derby‘s all star team, The Gate City Roller Girls. This isn’t the first time these teams have met on the track. Saturday’s bout marked the third time our Boots played against Gate City.
The Bootleggers were off to a rough start at the beginning. It took a few jams just to get some points on the board (special thanks to our Captain Dot Bomber for scoring our first point to get us moving). By the half, the score was 181-21 with Gate City in the lead. The Bootleggers were down, but most certainly not out.
Into the second half of the bout, The Boots put everything they had into each jam- treating each jam as a chance to do better than the last. They worked together and dug deep to keep fighting all the way to the end. The final score was 287-104, but what does that score really tell you?
Sure it tells you we lost, but if the score is all you see you’ve missed a big part of the game.
Coming off the track from each jam we all slapped hands, smiled and complimented each other. On the bench we celebrated each and every smart move and point scored. Our bench coaches Kat Diablo and Trudy Struction stayed positive and kept us motivated the whole game. Our leaguemates and family cheered us on from the sidelines. No one got down about the score. No one complained. We refocused in the second half and gave it our best shot. The teamwork and great attitudes among skaters carried us through the bout with our heads held high. When the last jam was called off we high- fived and hugged as if we had scored 287 points.
In the end, the score says we lost but if you ask this Bootlegger I’d say we won.
Contributed by your friendly blog editor (and very proud Bootlegger co-captain) Lillian Axe