Dru's recap of Eastern Regionals Day 1

Derby Helper correspondent Dru Blood spent yesterday the way I should have: sober.  No, he spent it watching Eastern Regionals and here is his recap of Day 1.

As I wait for today's pictures to upload and review the tournament brackets for tomorrow, a song lyric keeps running through my head: you can plan a pretty picnic, but you can't predict the weather.  We're one day in and things are nothing at all like I thought they'd be.  This is my first major derby tournament; first attended, first I helped in the planning of, first everything.  It's been a long, long day...

I arrived at Dorton Arena around 9:30 this morning, to see the décor done to the theme of the Wizard of Oz.  It is, after all, Wicked Wheels of the East.  After setting up the track, I began wandering around, helping fix little problems here and there.  So much goes into something like this, you never realize it until you have to help do it yourself.

 The first bout set an interesting tone for the rest of the day.  The first period set an interesting tone, with DC coming out with a slim lead, but setting up what looked to be a very good second half.  What came next was the start of a long, high-scoring day.  The sheer scoring in the bouts that followed was incredible, but they don't really reflect how the game was played.   At points, I'd wonder why there's no mercy rule only to have the losing team pull off an incredible jam.  The skaters never gave up, never stopped playing.  The dedication and love the skaters have for their sport never fails to impress me.  It's why their fans traveled from all points of the Eastern seaboard, from Boston on south.

I had wanted to try and highlight the top performers from each team, but really that's impossible.  Even though things were grim at times, every skater on every team gave all she had and earned every bit of applause they received.

Thanks Dru!