Well derby fans, it's been a while. I've missed a lot of practices because they were cancelled. We've had a good bit of snow here in the northwestern states.

My inner man, (who has a 4wd for winter) really was annoyed by the cancellations, but my inner ref approves whole heatedly. Safety first!

Our local Derby Enforcement Agency had a practice which consisted mostly of track layout, signaling and some rules discussion. I was sad we didn't get to do any skating, but the whole group has to function as one unit. With the potentially chaotic mix of visiting refs and NSOs it's vital that we all communicate in a certain way.The time was better spent working on the basics, standing on wheels is easy, communicating with other human beings (and zebras) is hard.

I went to a practice this evening, which as usual had one skater on the ground with a trashed knee cap and ankle. Get better soon B!

Did I mention I was the only Zebra at practice? It makes me sort of sad.









Of course one the coaches invited me to make calls as I skated with the players, which was almost impossible. There are three teams in our league, and with at least 14 skaters in groups of three playing "14 jammers go through a pack all at once" it was a lot to keep up with.




(O.k. I admit it, there were so damn many elbows, back blocks and so much track cutting I could have more penalty calls in one night than I had POGs in my childhood)

I didn't call anything, being the lone zebra.  In retrospect, I suppose being the only one, and making bad calls mixed with some good ones is better than not making calls at all. Damn I have a lot to learn. But hey, a guy has to do something for free beer!