so this bout I was planning on spectating. Had been out of town for nearly a month and not been in touch w/ my original home team, Northside Fury. Nor had I heard from Rocket City’s head ref as to what ref/NSO spots they may or may not need to fill.

But I showed up early anyway just to TS & catch up with skaters n officials. Sadly I only knew/recognized 3 Northside skaters (I need to visit them more often). Once hellos were outta the way I ended up on the NSO list for the penalty box, working with PB Queen Courtney Hate, not to b confused with PBJ ref/skater/trainer extraordinaire. Hard G took to teaching various NSO tasks prior to the bout and official wise it ran pretty smoothly. Something else that’s noteworthy, at least from what I know, this was SK8-B8’s first bout as head ref. Which I’d say was ran pretty smoothly, aside from the nearly 3 min official timeout just before the end of the game. RCRG’s ref crew has come a long way from their early days in stripes.

The Rocket City roster was nearly full of Seasoned skaters. Either had played with RCRG for more than 3 bouts, or had played with other leagues. There were only about 4 skaters I hadn’t seen in a bout before.
Northside Furies, thats the plural of Fury as opposed to something else, had red waves o’pain, bashin brownie, ragin’ rican, bexter, flash, hello kidney & cyber bully. The rest of their roster (forgive me if I forgot anyone) were fresh meat. Northside genuinely surprised me, as the underdog I had pictured a bar being set and they exceeded it. With some finese practice and training I think they can get their new group of skaters up to the same level their league was at just a few short months ago.
All leagues have a little something I like about them so I can never say with certainty “THIS league is my favorite” but northside’s determination and dedication have a special place in my heart.