This weekend the BAD Girls co-hosted The Big One, a California derby tournament in Davis. I put off thinking about the event just long enough to get asked to be an announcer as part of my required volunteer shift. Two days of derby, several hours of talking in to a mic, not enough sleep, a lot of beer and ribs and hot dogs. And now I need a derby vacation.

I tried to focus more on explaining what was going on in the game, rather than color commentary. I used my old choral training for annunciation and my karaoke experience for speaking in to the mic, etc. The hardest part, by far, was knowing how I was planning to end a sentence before I started it. Turns out I almost never use that skill. I also had to try very hard not to give away too much of the game to the players, or to start telling the girls how they should be playing their game ;)

The Bad Girls cleaned house in the tournament, btw.

Every time I spend time with derby I'm reminded of how lucky I am to be a part of this.