Do You Derby?

"Jesus Loves Derby" reads the helmet of Check Mate Cate, aka Luther Seminary Student and North Star Roller Girl Catie Luehr. This past Saturday Night brought live entertainment at the Minneapolis Convention Center: The North Star Roller Girl All-Stars vs. The Nap-Town All-Stars - Minneapolis' finest vs. Indianapolis' finest. The All-Star bout was a foregone conclusion with the score ending up in favor of our local sheroes 100-something to a much lower score with my favorites MEDUSA and tin lizzy leading the way.

This past Saturday night also brought the debut of Check Mate Cate. In between the All-Star Game, the other local girls formed two teams for a local bout. Cate's team won the first bout in the last moments with Cate using her best asset. In the second bout, when the chips were down, a win slipping away and energy draining, Cate stepped up to an unfamiliar position: jammer. A jammer is the point-scorer in Roller Derby. She must skate through all of the others once, lap around and then skate through all the others once more to gain points. That she did.

Cate was the first one through the crowd, becoming the lead jammer. Then, she lapped around and hit a grand slam, meaning that she made it through the rest of the pack, including their jammer. When she called the jam, she had gained 5 points for her team; the other scoring zero. Cate's team won by 2 points. It was pretty much awesome.