ZOMBIE WALK This FRIDAY!!!

This Friday, Oct 1st, CNY Roller Derby wil be participating in the 2nd Annual Utica Zombie Walk. Some good friends of our got this going last year, and we had a fantastic time. Because what goes together better than rollergirls and zombies, right!?

A couple weeks ago during the Utica Music and Arts Fest we got together with photographer/graphic designer Darrell Nieman and ghoulish makeup artist Katrina Burnett and created some ummmm....'ads' for the event. These are SO COOL! Thanks Darrell and Katrina for making us zombie-rific!

If you're interested in being a part of the zombie walk, registration is from 5-7pm on Friday at the Uptown Theater on Genessee St in Utica. The walk kicks off from there at 7. During registration you can hear DJ's spinning live tunes while creepy rooftop footage of last year's zombie attack plays on the big screen (courtesy of our own grambo!)

Tough Cookie Bake/Yard Sale Event Recap

On Saturday 9/25/2010, CNY Roller Derby hosted its second annual bake sale fundraising event at the Tramontane Cafe in Utica. Last year's event featured classic derby movies shown on the big screen an a chance to mingle with the girls and learn about roller derby.

This year's event got a lot cooler!

Dubbed 'The Tough Cookie Yard and Bake Sale', we pulled out all the stops to make this event a really fun way to fundraise in our off season. Assembled by Heather 'Freegan Brutal' Snogles and her motley crew of Non-Bout Events Committee ninjas, they really put together a nice time. Since the date of the event coincided with the streaming of WFTDA Eastern Regionals hosted by our friends at Suburbia Roller Derby in Yonkers, we had the tournament streaming on the big screen courtesy of the wonderful folks at Derby News Network (We love you DNN!). On top of the already awesome bake sale, we added a yard sale portion of the event this year under tents in the lot across Lincoln Ave from the Tram.

In case you didn't know, CNY Roller Derby has an amazing collection of bakers, cooks, crafters, and collectors of cool vintage stuff in its membership. A few are even professional confectioners! There were Gluten free treats, raw food options, Vegan yummy stuff, and a ton of decadent, amazing, tastey other treats all priced very low. By the time all the food was there, we had nearly 2 full 8' tables stuffed with baked goods!

The yard sale portion was very cool indeed...because after all, what's more fun than going shopping through derby girls' closet leftovers?! There were clothes, books, baby items, furniture, toys, and crafts, just to name a few.

To make things even more awesome, The Tram kept the food coming! Many of us took shift breaks and got our favorite Tram sandwiches for lunch and/or dinner, and continued to get waaaaay caffienated to keep us going strong. The gracious Tram regulars were awesome as usual about the bunch of us overtaking 'their' place for the day:) Many of our friends, family, and fans who had never been to the Tram before came to check it out and loved the great food, drinks, and cozy atmosphere and have said they'll be back! Thank you SOOOOO much Garrett and Robin for alowing us to take over your business again this year!

We also had our merch table set up just like at bouts, and we were so happy that people took this chance to get some more tshirts and swag. Also made special for the event were recycled bottlecap buttons made from the Tram's own bottlecaps, our recycled bout programs, and the love and elbow sweat of Little Bastard:)

Another serious thank you is due to the Foodshed Buying Club for their wonderful donations of awesome food for the sale.

Overal, the league netted more than $900.00 from this event. This money will be spent directly to foster the future of CNYRD by purchasing sets of pads and helmets from a local skate shop for our new skaters to use while they get started in the sport. This both helps CNYRD grow as a league, keeps everyone safe while learnign the sport, and supports the local economy. Thank you for helping us continue to bring in new people who are excited to learn to play the sport!

OD Article Correction: We are NOT homeless!!!

On Monday Septemeber 20th The Observer Dispatch in Utica ran an article about a former practice space of CNYRD's called 'Skate-A-Rama'. You can see the article's text HERE.

CNYRD praticed at Skate-A-Rama from Dec 2007 through March 2009, and was coached for a time by the rink's owner, Bill Schmelcher.

The article highlights Bill's troubles with a burdensome tax debt and the threat of forclosure. Unfortunately, the printed article in Monday's paper used an old photo of former members of CNYRD playing roller derby at Skate-A-Rama, with a misleading caption which has caused much concern in the past few days by friends, family, and fans who think we are losing our current practice space.

CNYRD has not practiced in this facility since March 2009. We hold summer practices and events at JFK Arena in Rome NY and we currently have our winter practices at the Utica Center for Development (former YMCA) on Washington Ave in Utica. CNYRD wishes Bill and Skate-A-Rama the best of luck in this unfortunate situation. We hope that the community does not lose yet another skating rink, along with one of the only options for cheap indoor recreation during teh long winter months.

To sum up: We are NOT losing our home!!!! Thank you all for the concern, but we have practice space, and we have some great opportunities on the horizon which may be announced soon.

The Utica Clubbers Take It All in "The 315 Throwdown"

On Sunday, September 19th Central New York Roller Derby’s (CNYRD) Utica Clubbers took on Assault City Roller Derby (ACRD) in the long-awaited rematch, “The 315 Throwdown.” Hundreds of fans from around the region, including many who drove from Syracuse, came to the JFK Civic Arena in Rome to witness the thruway rivals play each other again.

The last time these teams played each other marked the emergence CNYRD, a new league comprised of mostly inexperienced skaters and skaters borrowed from other leagues. Sunday was a very different story. CNYRD now has two teams and new recruits all the time. And the league recently became WFTDA certified.

The Clubbers and Assault City both played a rough game, but CNYRD took control from the first whistle. In the very first jam, Clubbers’ jammer Mean Squeak took lead jammer status and managed to make three scoring passes before Assault City’s jammer could score a single point. Mean Squeak kept it up, scoring 50 points in the bout. The Clubbers continued to build on this mastery, ending the first half with a 40-point lead over Syracuse. Things did not improve for Assault City in the second half. Their jammers, with the exception of Blaze, could not penetrate Utica’s ferocious blocking by Lady Die Mentia, Moody Obsession, and Slay West. The final score was Clubbers 146, Assault City 66.

The two teams awarded MVP trophies at the end of the night. The MVP for Assault City was awarded to Chainsaw Mama. The MVP for the Utica Clubbers was awarded to Moody Obsession.

Sunday's Bout to Feature Heather Case and S.A.M.

This Sunday's bout at JFK Arena in Rome will feature live music by our favorite rollergirl-musician Heather Case, with backing by Secret Asian Man. We've heard that they have some awesome tunes for us including 'Roller Derby Saved My Soul'! This is going to be a great show!!

S.A.M enjoying some derb love;)

The above photo from early 2008, Heather Case in ER after a serious break in her foot playing roller derby with us. A complete trooper!!!

ZOMBIES!!! Tonight at Hotel Utica!!

Join members of CNYRD TONIGHT at the Hotel Utica and surrounding area as we help to promote the upcoming Utica Zombie Walk on 10/1.....we've got a professional makeup artist doing us up zombie style for some photos, and then we're coming down to Utica Music and Arts fest Headquarters to help spread the word about this awesome event! Come walk with us on 10/1!

Click HERE for more info on the walk.

Open House draws great turnout. Still time to start new skater class!!!

On Tuesday September 14th 2010, CNYRD hosted another Open House / Meet and Greet / Recruitment event at JFK Arena in Rome. We had an awesome turnout for interest in our upcoming new skater class, and got to see some wonderful family and friends who came to check things out and skate a bit. (photo cred Hispanic Attack)

There IS STILL TIME for people interested in becoming new skaters to join! The class runs 7-10pm on Tuesdays, starting September 21st and running for 12 weeks.

The class will be held at the gym at the Utica Center for Development, 726 Washington Ave in Utica NY. This is the former YMCA building for you locals. If we havent heard from you yet, please shoot an email to recruitment@cnyrollerderby.com and let us know to expect you, and show up on Tuesday!

New skaters are trained in a new-skater-only class once weekly, coached by our recruitment staff of veteran derby skaters. After the first 5-7 weeks of basics, 'newbies' are also invited to join into the advanced league practices. In total, new skaters will attend a minimum of 10 newbie practices and 3 advanced practices in a 12 week period.

By the end of the 12 weeks, our goal is to prepare you to take the WFTDA minimum skills assesments. Once you pass the skills and show us good attendance and willingness to help with the league, you are eligible for draft onto one of our 3 home teams.

The bottom line: YOU could be competing as a roller derby skater by January 2011!!!! Sound crazy? Have no skating experience? It's OK! We know how to get you there, we promise;)

THIS SUNDAY, 9/19 Season Closer bout vs Assault City!!!

Join us this SUNDAY, 9/19/2010 for CNYRD's last home bout event of the 2010 season as The Utica Clubbers take on Syracuse's Assault City Roller Derby in "The 315 Throwdown"!

Yes, you read that correctly....we're holding this bout on a Sunday afternoon! In conjunction with the Utica Music & Arts Festival (UMAF), we decided to change this one up a bit and offer a $2 discount to anyone that comes to the door with a UMAF bracelet on. We thought it would be a nice way to wind down from UMAF weekend and we know all of our friends who are organizing it could use a nice relaxing day after a crazy weekend of fun and music! Plus this gives you plenty of time to sleep in after Saturday's bands and still make the bout!

To give a little history, Assault City helped give CNYRD our start back in 2007, and our first big public event was against them in July 2008 when we skated as The Asylum City Lunatics in the original 315 Throwdown. Both teams have come a LONG way since those days. People still talk about what a great bout the Aud event was, and if you thought that was awesome, wait until you see how much both teams have improved!

We have reason to believe that there will be a HUGE amount of Syracuse fans in the house Sunday, so we need our cheering section to make theirs look small!!! C'mon out and get LOOOOUUUUDDD in support of CNY Roller Derby!!!

Doors will open at 2pm and the first whistle will blow at 3pm.

Advance sale tickets are $10 and are available from the Tramontane Cafe (Utica), Cafe Domenico (Utica) and Bill's Variety Store (Rome), or online from Ticketderby.com HERE

Tickets will be available at the door for $12. Over 65 and under 10 are FREE.

Our back to school special: Show up with a college ID and get HALF OFF ADMISSION this bout

Our special guests for this bout are the folks who help run the YWCA Mohawk Valley's Domestic Violence programs, who have been our charity of choice this bouting season. All season we have put aside $1 of every ticket sold at the door from our events into a special account, and after this last bout we will be making an announcement of the final amount and cutting a check to the YWCA. This is your last opportunity to help us help this wonderful cause. there will also be donation jars and information available. Please help us try to push our total donation as high as we can with this last event!

This bout will also feature announcers S-Dot and Ida Feltersnatch.

Music will be brought to you by DJ Deaf Geoff and we will also have live music by Heather Case with special guest!

The after party will be just around the corner at Delvecchio's, 476 W Dominick St

CNYRD Bake Sale and Yard Sale Sat 9/25 10am-8pm

With out derby season coming to a close, what better time than now to have a little fun!

Join us for some sweet fundraising....

This event is going to be a blast, not only is there a snack for everyone....but there are going to be super cool yard sale items!

The Tramontane Cafe will be opening their doors early, allowing us to set up our little bake shop. Just across the street we will have our yard sale set up under big tents, rain or shine!

The event will run from 10am-8pm, with the outdoor items closing down just before dark.....get there early, don't worry you are in good hands....Utica's very own caffeination station will wake you up!

We will also have a limited amount of CNY Roller Derby merchandise set up and ready for sale- t-shirts, lanyards, pins, stickers, bumper stickers, etc

CNYRD Places 4th at Empire Skate Showdown

See WKTV's YouNews coverage HERE

CNYRD accepted into the WFTDA!!!!

Today is a proud day for Central New York Roller Derby. Today we were accepted as a full member league in the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. This is our single biggest accomplishment to date, and we are thrilled. This accompishment allows us to represent our region on a national and even international scale through the association's rankings.

See WFTDA's announcement HERE.

This is an excerpt from our league's member handbook, which gives some insight on why we are so excited:

When we first looked into forming a league, we saw the website for the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) and just assumed naively that every league out there lived up to the standards set forth for WFTDA leagues. We started from day 1 with meeting those requirements and bench marks as over-reaching goals, because we thought that’s just what you did to become involved in this sport. As we grew and learned more, we realized that there were plenty of other ways to be involved in Roller Derby and do it your own very fun, cool, effective, profitable way, but we always stuck to the idea that CNYRD would eventually represent WFTDA for our region, and kept working towards that goal.

CNYRD would like to extend very heartfelt thanks to some people/groups who mentored or helped us over the past year:
Black Cherry of CT Rollergirls, our derby mom from day one, for pushing us to be the best skaters we can be, and never letting us believe that doing any part of our business at 90% was enough.
Bonnie Thunders of Gotham Girls Roller Derby, for providing endless good advice on how to handle difficult situations, and believing that your hometown girls could do it:)
Gratuitous Violet of Arizona Roller Derby, for typing your fingers off back and forth around a full school schedule to get us through our apprenticeship.
The CT Rollergirls, for providing the best role models we could ask for.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Stay tuned for our 2011 travel team season schedule, where you can catch your first dose of WFTDA sanctioned play right here in Central New York with your team, The CNY All-Stars.