Derby Brats!

And no, that's not referring to some weird Bratwurst / Roller Skate combo, it's referring to the mighty Seattle Derby Brats, who partook in the "Derby of the Dead" this evening over in Port Orchard. The Brats, and the other leagues involved, have girls from 11 to 18 skating in a relatively low-contact version of the standard Roller Derby. No monster checking, but some contact allowed.

I've seen the Seattle Derby Brats play as halftime entertainment at Rat City bouts, but hadn't watched them in action on their own terms before. So when Betty Ford Galaxy of my beloved Throttle Rockets e-mailed me to see if I was interested in taking pictures at the bouts I jumped at the chance. After all, she was going to comp me a ticket, and it was all-ages so we could force the kids to come. Oh, and as an added bonus a couple of Maya's friends from school and Girl Scouts would be skating with the "Tootsie Rollers", a Junior-Junior Derby group made up of 6 to 10-year-olds.

Also on the bill were the A-Town Derby Dollz out of Auburn, who were both short-handed and awesome, the home team Kitsap Derby Brats from Port Orchard, and the Portland Rosebuds.

Thanks to the ferry schedules we split after the second half of the Tootsie Roller bout, but I'm pretty sure I got shots of each team - and hopefully some relatively good ones.

But the best news of the evening was that Maya, as we were driving home, said "you know, maybe I do want to be a Tootsie Roller..."