East Montgomery County, allow me to introduce you to the Missfits roller derby team.
By day, you might recognize one of these Missfits as the local pharmacist, an office admin, your child's school nurse, or even the single mom at the grocery store...But as soon as she hits the track, she turns into a Harley-Quinn beast on roller skates.
The Missfits have actually been around for quite some time...since 2012 to be exact. They used to be just down the road in Humble. However, scheduling conflicts with the rink where they played and practiced caused them to seek other accommodations. The folks at Bull Sallas Park were kind enough to let them move into the show barn where they could continue to entertain their fans.
Contrary to popular belief, there's more to the sport than just a bunch of women bashing each other while flying around a track. It's actually an incredibly tactical sport with quite a few rules. First off, a match between two teams is called a bout. It's divided into two-minute jams in which each team fields five players. Among those five are a jammer, a pivot and three blockers. The jammers begin behind the rest of the pack and their goal is to lap the pack as many times as they can. The teams try to help their jammer through the pack while trying to stop the opposing jammer. This can be done with full body contact. However, cheap shots like using elbows, headbutting, tripping and so forth are not allowed and will see the instigator sent off to the penalty box.
There are many other terms that will help you follow a roller derby bout without looking like a rookie...For instance - fooling a zebra, falling small, executing an apex jump and successfully passing a panty. For a complete rundown on roller derby rules, scoring, terms, etc.., visit
www.rulesofsport.com /sports/roller-derby .html
The Missfits are led by captains Keri "The Hulk" Strother and Angela "Doom" Simmons. These ladies coach a team made up of 25+ moms, sisters and daughters ranging in age from 18 all the way into their 50's. They practice all year long on Mondays and Wednesdays, and their season of weekend bouts runs March through November. They are able to play on both flat and banked tracks, but currently their home track is flat.
They'll have four home bouts this season at Bull Sallas Park (21679 McCleskey Rd - New Caney), with the first being this weekend, 6/30/18, at 5PM. Tickets are $12 at the door for adults and $7 for kids, military and veterans. You can save a couple of bucks by purchasing them ahead of time from your favorite Missfit. This week's bout is between two Missfit teams, the Ravens and Deadshot Dames.
Schedule:
June 16 - Missfits Roller Derby vs Hurricane Alley Roller Derby (H.A.R.D.) @ Corpus Christi, TX
June 30 - Ravens vs Deadshot Dames @ Home
July 22 - Zombies vs Creepers Charity Mashup @ Home
August 4 - Missfits vs Houston Roller Derby's Machete Betties @ Houston, TX
August 5 - Missfits vs Brazos Valley Roller Derby @ Bryan, TX
September 1 - Missfits vs Heart of Texas Skaters @ Home
September 8 - Missfits vs Madams of Mayhem @ Tyler, TX
October 20 - Missfits vs Deadly Rival Roller Derby @ St. Petersburg, FL
November 3 - Missfits vs Rockin' City Rollergirls' Hidden Tracks @ Austin, TX
November 18 - Missfits vs TBD @ Home
The Missfits are a non-profit team. Any money they receive from tickets or events goes directly to helping with team expenditures. Each member pays their own $40 monthly dues to participate in the league...and also for their skates, most of their protective gear and anything extra that's needed.
So, come on out this weekend and support Hardly Quit'nn, Tricky Nicky, Sgt Psycho, Phineas Rage and all of the other Missfits.
To keep up-to-date on everything Missfits, visit them at
www.facebook.com/Mis sfitsRD/
Welcome to New Caney, Missfits.
We'll see y'all on Saturday.
