Calamities and casualties

Last Sunday's practice was an eventual one for the Old Capitol City Roller Girls. Despite missing a good chunk of the line-up due to RAGBRAI, we still ended up having not one but two girls taken away on stretchers to the hospital.

Novice Crash Carelli, ever living up to her endearing name, was skating before practice when she lost her balance and fell backwards. But instead of landing on her bottom or back, it was her cranium that loudly absorbed the brunt of impact. We knew we had a problem when she could not remember the fall or what she was doing beforehand. When asked who the current president of the United States was, she paused before tepidly answering, "Bush?"

Despite this, Crash was still eager to practice and had to be coaxed into removing her gear and skates while waiting for the paramedics to arrive. (Our resident paramedics, Ophelia Fracture and Tynamite, were two of the ladies away biking; but fortunately fresh meat Jackie was there to take control of the situation.) She did have a concussion but would be permitted to be back on skates within a week.

Maybe an hour later we were practicing hip and shoulder blocks when GladI8Her zeroed in on neophyte Tyrant Angelica. She executed the shoulder block effectively and a resulting loud pop was heard as Tyrant Angelica careened into the wall. Tyrant Angelica complained of some neck pain while the same paramedics were called back out to Mercer Park again. It was a worrisome time but a few hours later the news would come back that Tyrant's CAT scan revealed no abnormalities with her spine and she would be released later that night.

Wednesday's practice was far less eventful, and I was beginning to think we were in the clear. By yesterday, our RAGBRAI absentees had returned to swell the population back up to close to its usual numbers. Practice was wontedly grueling, as we went through our arsenal of demanding drills including but not limited to shopping carts, planks, lap-after-lap plows and several games of tags. The veterans and I were performing jams before the studious eyes of the fresh meat when Hellyna Bucket tripped over someone's skate and went down hard.

But they say bad luck comes in threes, and this was third blow to the OCCRG roster. Hellyna ended up snapping her pinky finger at the base in two different places. This injury was doubly frustrating as Hellyna had only been back on her skates for two months following long layoff that began in February, when she fell during practice and broke an ankle. No word yet on how long she will be out of commission.

So it's safe to say OCCRG has reached its quota on player injuries and teammates will be saving their pent-up agression and unbridled fury for the team's first home bout, which is tentatively slated for October.