2009 Champions: Bayou City Bosses
The Bayou City Bosses overcame a late Psych Ward Sirens rally to win their second consecutive Houston Roller Derby championship, 124-107 on Saturday night. In the opening bout of the night, the HRD Burlesque Brawlers beat the Spindletop Roller Derby 221-30.
Bayou City Bosses’ jammer Death By Chocolate (DBC) opened up the first jam of the night taking lead jammer status and scoring a 4-0 jam. Rookie jammer Bobituary scored a 5-3 jam for the Bosses and the defending champions took a 9-3 lead early in the bout. Mistilla the Killa came out of the penalty box in the third jam, took lead jammer status and scored a 5-0 jam, and the Psych Ward Sirens had narrowed lead to 9-8.
The Bayou City Bosses defense shut out the team in red for the next six jams and took a 31-8 lead after the ninth jam. The Bosses run featured a 10-point and four-point jam by DBC. The Sirens’ DeMentia responded with a 10-0 jam in the tenth jam. DBC came right back with a 10-4 jam for the Bosses followed by an 8-3 jam by Mistilla the Killa narrowing the Bosses lead to 44-30.
The defending champs and the team in red traded scoring jam advantages until the Bosses’ Miss Lead scored a 5-0 final jam of the half giving the defending champions a 57-44 lead at halftime.
Death By Chocolate opened up the scoring in the second half with a 10-point jam for the Bosses for a 67-44 lead. However, the Psych Ward Sirens shut out the defending champions for the next five jams, highlighted by a 10-point jam by Mistilla and a four-point jam by Jekyll and Heidi. After the sixth jam the team in red had narrowed the lead to 67-58.
A 7-2 jam by the Sirens’ DeMentia was countered by a 9-1 jam by the Bosses’ Miss Lead. An 11-4 jam by Jekyll and Heidi further narrowed the Bosses lead to 82-77. A 2-0 jam by DBC and a 4-0 jam by Miss Lead moved the lead out to 88-77 for the Bosses. DeMentia countered with an 8-4 jam in the 11th jam of the final half narrowing the lead by the Bosses to 92-85.
Two scoreless jams set up a huge jam by the Sirens. Mistilla the Killa took advantage of a penalty to the Bosses’ jammer, and scored a big 13-4 jam. To the delight of the boisterous Sirens fans at Kicks Indoor Soccer and Gym, the team in red took its only lead of the night, 98-96. A 4-4 jam by DeMentia and Miss Lead in the 15th jam of the half set up the big jam of the night with the score at 102-100 in favor of the Psych Ward Sirens.
The Sirens’ jammer was sent to the penalty box, and Death By Chocolate would take advantage of the situation by getting three pack passes worth 14 points, the defending champs shut out the team in red. The Bayou City Bosses took a 114-102 lead. Miss Lead gained lead jammer status in the next jam and with the Siren jammer still in the penalty box, she reeled off a big 10-0 score putting the Bosses in front of the Psych Ward Sirens 124-102 with time for only one more jam.
Considering that DBC was jamming for the Bosses, and that the team in black had been stingy all night long on defense, many fans thought there was no way the Sirens could score enough points to tie the bout, yet alone win it. But holy ref whistles! DBC was sent to the penalty box with a major penalty early in the jam, and the Sirens were ready to slow the pack down to a near standstill. While the best Bosses’ jammers would not let this entirely happen, DeMentia did slip through for a pack pass for points.
But the drama in this jam was not over as DeMentia was sent to the penalty box and the ever dangerous DBC came out seeking to even up the score. Wow, was that another penalty on DBC that the fans in Houston saw? It was, and out came DeMentia from the penalty box with time to score some more points.
There was no way that Becky Booty, Nawty Dread Knocks, and Goldie BloXX of the Bosses were going to let DeMentia by for more points. And by now you might have guessed what would happen next. DeMentia was whistled back to the penalty box and Death By Chocolate came out of penalty box just in time to skate some very cautious jamming time as the final four whistles sounded. The Psych Ward Sirens had closed the margin a bit, but the final score in favor of the team in black of 124-107 made the Bayou City Bosses repeat Houston Roller Derby champions.
The leading scorer for the Bosses was Death By Chocolate with 61 points. She gained lead jammer status in her first ten jams, and was lead jammer 11 out of 13 jams skated. Other top scorers for the two-time champions were Miss Lead with 39 points, Bobituary with 13 points, and Babyface Assassin with 11 points. In a game where team blocking was a huge key defensively, top blockers for the champs were Rebel Ann, Daily Beatings, Nawty Dread Knocks, and Goldie BloXX.
Despite the powerful Bayou City Bosses’ defense, Mistilla the Killa led scorers for the Psych Ward Sirens with 57 points. Dementia added 31 points, and Jekyll and Heidi chipped in with 19 points for the Sirens. Leading blockers for the team in red included Sick Nick, Copperhead, Panty Raider, and Scarlet O’Hurtya.
In the first bout of the evening the Burlesque Brawlers used their experience and speed to defeat the Spindletop Roller Derby of Beaumont, Texas 221-30. Spindletop was skating in their first bout ever.
Savage Rose opened up the first period with a 14-3 jam for the Brawlers as Spindletop picked up its first three points ever by Slam. The Brawlers shut out the new league for the next eight jams and a 20-point jam by Sweet Commotion would highlight the team in purple’s 114-0 run. Claudia Van Damage scored 14 points for the Brawlers, while Stella GetEvens would put up a pack pass of her own for Spindletop and four points.
Spindletop got its first highlight of the night, as Wildcat took lead jammer status and scored a strong 11-4 jam at the end of the half. As Wildcat skated past the Brawler bench, opponents came out onto the track to slap her on the back and hug her for the accomplishment. The Brawlers went into halftime leading 132-18.
While Spindletop slowed down the scoring machine for the home team in the second half a little bit, the Brawlers tossed up seven double-digit scoring jams. The biggest jam of the half was when Brawler captain Starr Doom scored five points and handed the jammer helmet cover to pivot Speedo. She added an additional ten points until the refs whistled the jam over. In the tenth jam, retiring skater Wreck Hell Welch got lead jammer and scored 14 big points in her final jam as a Houston Roller Derby skater, while Wildcat would tack on eight extra points for Spindletop. The final jam of the night would see the retiring all star Savage Rose put up a ten–point jam finalizing a 221-30 score.
The top scorers for the Burlesque Brawlers were Savage Rose with 44 points, Sweet Commotion and Basket Casey each with 40 points, and Speedo with 35 points. Leading blockers for the Brawlers were Chainsaw Chic, Wreck Hell Welch, Chicken, and Sinister Sista.
The leading scorers for Spindletop Roller Derby were Wildcat with 19 points, and Holy Miss Moley and Ruby Ridikule with four points each. Top blockers included Breaking Dawn, Talking Headcase, and AndyCondDuh.
Comment on 2009 Champions: Bayou City Bosses
Preview: Sirens v Bosses in the Championship
I am waiting for my rosters from the Houston Roller Derby captains before I do my writeups. Let me just say this. I might not get a roster because one of the rivals is fairly secretive. Now this is really strange to me, because it seems like you have to have a league practice and all teams show up. Anyway, whether you release the information, the other teams in your league are going to have knowledge of who is going to be skating, or at least a pretty good idea.
So with that being said, I think the biggest roller derby rivalry going is the Bayou City Bosses against the Psych Ward Sirens. Even when the Psych Ward Sirens were sweeping their way to the first HRD championship in 2006, the third place team (Bayou City Bosses) were still able to play them closely in bouts. In 2007 the Bayou City Bosses actually beat the Psych Ward Sirens in regular season competition, but the Sirens turned right around and beat the Bosses for the championship. Last year the Sirens beat the Bosses in the regular season bout, but the Bosses turned around and beat the Sirens in the championship bout.
So far this year the Sirens have beaten the Bosses in their first bout of the season. But in a round robin tournament game that was not completed because the fire marshall in Houston closed down the event with about ten minutes left in the game, the Bosses were leading by four points. You can just imagine what was being said at the after party by the two teams. The trailing team was pretty sure they would have come from behind and won. And they may have been right since the Bosses had skated a full 20 minute bout the game before.
Well this rilvarly (and this rivalry has gotten to the point of some serious psychological tactics being involved) will happen again this Saturday evening. And as it has the previous two years, this bout Saturday night at Kicks Gym will decide who will be the champions. When I get the rosters I’ll do the writeup, because I wouldn’t want to write about any skaters that might not be skating. But just in case I don’t get rosters, check out the bout information at http://www.houstonrollerderby.com.
Phil
Comment on Preview: Sirens v Bosses in the Championship
