Newbies. Fresh Meat. Newbs. Freshies. They go by many names, but whatever we call them they are a lovely sight to behold. Maine Roller Derby has been doing a lot of recruiting this fall to replenish our numbers and bring in fresh blood after a fairly large reduction in league membership due to a wave of retirements for various reasons (long-term injuries, moving out of state, moving on, etc).

We have two waves of Fresh Meat skaters training with us now. The first wave is a small group of eight skaters who started attending practices in August. We knew we'd be recruiting in September and November but we wanted to start replenishing numbers as soon as possible. Hence we brought on this early admissions group of women who were friends or associates of current MRD skaters and who were chomping at the bit to try their hand at roller derby. Since August they've been attending 1 - 3 practices a week and getting intense basic training from Miss Creant, a retired skater who is no longer competing but thankfully still heavily involved with the league by helping to train the Fresh Meat. The hours of focused attention and work both on- and off-skates is really showing because these women look like professionals already. They were required to try-out with all the other potential skaters on September 20th, and they all passed with flying colors. They're skating in a low and balanced derby stance, they're gaining more powerful crossovers by the day, their agility and footwork is looking good, and a handful of them have even reached Contact Level as of the last skills assessment. This is a big point in the progress of new skaters because it means they get to learn how to give and take hits and assists (assists are also known as whips, though there are more ways to assist someone than just whipping).

Reaching Contact Level status is very exciting, and also becomes what our league trainer, Olive Spankins, calls a defining derby-moment. There's always that first time when someone really blows you out of the water with a big hit, and suddenly you're laying on the floor, head ringing, bones aching and feeling like they've been rearranged into impossible configurations, rink rash and bruises blooming on various body parts, and you realize in the three seconds it took to get you there that this is roller derby. This is what it means to play a full-contact sport on roller skates. This is what you've somehow signed yourself up for. And in those three seconds it takes to get you there, you also realize you needed to be getting up off that floor two seconds ago, putting those wheels under you and using your strength to explode off the floor, get back up to speed, and re-gain your position on the track, ready to do that all over again…and again…and again. That moment is often the first time you find out if you've got what it takes to do this. There are many more moments where you'll wonder the same thing, like when you reach Scrimmage Level and actually start playing the game, but that first one is a real doozy.

The second wave of Fresh Meat came from the first round of tryouts on September 20th. That night brought us eight more skaters who began practicing with us as of October 12th. Though the various plagues - cold, flu, etc - that are going around have taken a number of them out temporarily, most of them are there being furiously but lovingly whipped into shape. They're looking good too, full of dedication and determination, and i have no doubt you'll see most if not all of them on the track at a home bout next spring.

There's going to be yet a third wave of Freshies joining us soon. We’re holding a second round of tryouts this very Sunday, November 8th at 6:00 pm at Happy Wheels (click that link for details on how to try out). We're hoping that the October release of Whip It, the movie about a Texas teen who finds herself by falling in love with roller derby, will have successfully drummed up extra attention and hence extra potentials. Though the movie's portrayal of roller derby is about as accurate as Hollywood's portrayal of anything is (read: it resembles it and many things look familiar or even ring very true, but much of it is glossy, over-dramatized, and occasionally completely inaccurate), it's thrilling to have a movie about our sport out there. Overall it's a charming movie with some touching moments and it does get a lot of things right, especially the dedication to and love of competitive sport, the strong, unique community spirit of roller derby, and the way it will change your life.
 
The veteran skaters, or Old Meat as we sometimes joke (with a shudder), get pretty excited about all these new skaters. It's so inspiring to see all the potential, to see them working so hard and falling in love with derby and getting to remember our early days in derby through them. It's fun to get to share advice about how to deal with blisters the size of half dollars and how to adjust the trucks on your skates and new ways to get comfortable doing pivots or running starts. Plus they're new family members, and we get to learn who the funny ones are, and the quiet, unassuming ones who have a vicious sarcastic streak in them, and the sweet and bubbly ones you just want to hug to pieces. It's an injection of new energy and perspective into the group that gets everyone motivated, new and old.