One weekend + One ticket = Two amazing opportunities to see some of Seattle's most exciting female athletes!

One $32 ticket is your passport to both Roller Derby Night at the Seattle Storm game on Friday, July 14, and to the Rat City Rollergirls' first-ever hometown bout the next evening, Saturday, July 15, against out-of-staters: Portland's Rose City Rollers.

Rub elbows with rollergirls on July 14, when the Rat City Rollergirls swarm Key Arena to help cheer the Seattle Storm on to victory against the New York Liberty. Skaters and mascots from Seattle's only all-female, flat-track roller derby league will show Seattle Storm fans how they rock and roll, with live skating demonstrations, mingling on the concourse, video highlights of their wildly popular first season, a roller derby how-to and an exclusive offer for the fans who attend: first crack at tickets for the August bout. Then on Saturday, attend our bout and see us wilt some Roses! The Rat City Rollergirls plan to show those Portland roller girls a thing or two. We'll start by showing off our ability to self-pump gasoline, and finish with some winning and bruising!

Tickets for the Seattle Storm-Rat City Rollergirls event are on sale now online, and will be sold in person at the May and June RCRG bouts.

We're playing Bumbershoot! The 2006 Bumberbout Flat Track Derby Invitational, co-hosted by the Rat City Rollergirls, will feature eight of the best flat-track roller derby teams in the nation vying for the first-ever Bumberbout title. The tournament will be held one day only -- Saturday, Sept. 2nd, from noon to 10 p.m. at KeyArena. For more information go here.

The Rat City Rollergirls will be joined by seven of the top roller derby teams from across the country for the day-long tournament at Key Arena. Here's who else is coming:

Who knew we had such poets in our league? Here is the first batch of winners of the first ever Rat City Rollergirls Haiku Contest. Whether they came from a misunderstood referee, a grateful daughter with straight teeth, a clever Reaper or an RCRG Fresh Meat grappling with newfound smelliness, these poems managed to capture the essence of roller derby. Visit our forum to read the rest of our outstanding entries, or to submit your own roller derby haiku.

I made a bad call
Still you must obey the refs
Quit flipping me off!
-General Anesthesia: RCRG Head Ref

Ode to a single mother who worked hard to make sure her daughter had all the things she should have (including braces):
After every bout
My mother calls to ask me
Did you break any teeth?
-Rettig to Rumble, #29 Grave Danger

You think she's down but
She'll rise from your hardest hit.
Pia Messiah.

-and-

Faster, Judy, fly-
Devil in a blue dress follows...
Two points ends the bout....
-Kim Reaper, #77 Derby Liberation Front

I never thought that
I would smell like elbow pads
My ass hurts like hell
-Hot Flash, #40-something Sockit Wenches

The Rat City Rollergirls are happy to provide Kodak moments at our events, but we're even happier when our fans share the photos they took. If you took photos at a RCRG event, visit our forum and post a link to your shots under the thread (brace yourselves) "Post Your Photos Here". Who knows -- your work may even earn a spot of honor on our Web site, or be posted right here in our monthly newsletter.

Tickets to the May 20th bout were sold out early, but thanks to the ticket fairies, we released a few hundred more last week. So if you thought you missed out, don't give up! There will be a small secret stash of tickets available at the door, too, for the truly last-minute fans. They'll go on sale at 4:30 p.m. so get there early!

Tickets for the June 24th bout will go on sale to the general public on May 23rd. However, for the lucky readers of this here newsblast, we're doing a special internet presale May 21st and 22nd. I know, I know -- we said we were going to do that last time. But what we didn't realize is that we needed to send out FOUR passwords, one for each type of ticket sold. It's complicated, but that's a small price to pay for being first in line for tickets, right?

So! To purchase tickets during the presale, thus guaranteeing your choice of tickets before they sell out, head to Brown Paper Tickets and search for "Rat City Rollergirls". You'll need to use one of the following passwords, depending on which kind of ticket you'd like to purchase.

general admission password: earlybirdGA
general admission (kids under 12): earlybirdkids
reserved all-ages bleacher seating: reservedAA
reserved 21+ beer garden bleacher seating: reserved21

Got it? Good! The presale starts at 10 a.m. on May 21st and runs through 9:59 a.m. on May 23rd, after which the passwords will be removed and tickets will go on sale to the general public. As always, please e-mail ticketing@ratcityrollergirls.com with any questions.

Rat City Rollergirls Bout 3 will feature:

Grave Danger vs. Sockit Wenches
Throttle Rockets vs. Derby Liberation Front

Doors open at 4:30 p.m., bout starts at 6 p.m.
Magnuson Park Hangar 27, 7400 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle
Pre-show at 5 p.m. with the band Dateless! Cash-only beer garden provided by The Service Board and The Showbox
Our favorite, DJ Boo Berry, will be spinning tunes all night long and halftime entertainment will be provided by The Aerialistas!

After the bout, check back in and let us know who your favorite players are. You can fill out the survey here.

Special Internet ticket pre-sale for Rat City Rollergirls Bout 4 -- 2 days only!
Visit www.brownpapertickets.com and use the passwords listed above to buy your tickets way before everyone else can -- and way before they sell out.

I Heart Rummage is a local, urban, awesome craft show, hosted by the Crocodile Cafe on the first Sunday of every month. Urban Craft Uprising, the crafty folks behind IHR, have invited the Rat City Rollergirls to sell some of our very own rollergirl-produced crafts! All RCRG craft proceeds go to fund our travel as we take on teams and leagues from around the country, including our most recent adventure in Austin, Texas, where Derby Liberation Front attempted to liberate the Honkey Tonk Heartbreakers.

12-4 p.m at the Crocodile Cafe, 2200 2nd Ave
We'll be the ones on skates with our faces painted! Come see your favorite rollergirls, up close and in person, and take home a bit of crafty goodness.

Bout #4 tickets going on sale soon! If you are lucky enough to get tickets, you'll see:

Grave Danger vs. Derby Liberation Front
Throttle Rockets vs. Sockit Wenches

Doors open at 4:30 p.m., bout starts at 6 p.m.
Magnuson Park Hangar 27, 7400 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle
Visit ratcityrollergirls.com for more information.

On April 30th, the Rat City Rollergirls held our first every disco skate -- can you believe we waited this long? The outfits were outrageous and some folks even revealed a few hidden talents and boogied down on the dance floor. The event was a successful fundraiser to send Derby Liberation Front to Austin, Texas, to take on the Honkey Tonk Heartbreakers.

And speaking of, the Derby Liberation Front messed with Texas and made it back in one piece, a truly remarkable feat considering the veteran Texans have oodles more experience than we do. Alas, the final score came down in favor of the demons in denim, but I do believe we gave 'em a good scare or two. For full bout recaps, visit our Past Events page, or talk about it on our forum.

At what age did you put on your first pair of roller skates?
My first memory was in grade school. I loved going to the skate rink by myself, preferably Oaks Park in Portland. My favorite skate song: Let's Hear It For The Boy. All skate rinks are little palaces of puberty.

What do you do for a living?
By day, I'm a print production manager for an advertising agency called WONGDOODY. I come from a background of journalism. Yes, clients like T-Mobile, Alaska Airlines, and a few other respectable companies chose to work with a company that sounds like a porn shop.

Do you have any superstitions before bouting?
I won't skate without fake eyelashes. I also have a puck that I found at the Everett Events Center. I call it my Lucky Pucky.

What is one thing most people would be surprised to find out about you?
In middle school I won the Oregon State Women's Turkey Calling Championship two years in a row.

What's your favorite food (or foods)?
Fave Food: Open face turkey sammich. I am on the hunt for the best in Seattle. Got any tips?

What are some of your guilty pleasures?
Guilty pleasures: making sock puppets (I call them Sockit Puppets now), the now-cancelled TV show Dance 360, singing along to Phil Collins songs (you know you all do it!).

What actress would play you in a movie about your life and why?
I think an aging Cybill Shepherd should play me because she really needs another break at this point. Plus, I was obsessed with her as a child and wrote her letters during my "Moonlighting" phase.

What other hobbies do you have?
My hobbies are occasionally performing burlesque and sometimes making sock puppets. I should have some puppets for sale to benefit the league at I heart Rummage in June and I'll be performing at the Rendezvous, Re-bar and Pink Door in May, June, and July.

Do you have any phobias? What are they?
I don't fear them but I absolutely hate penguins.

What is the hardest thing for you about roller derby?
The hardest thing for me has been learning how to manage a simple movement disorder I have called essential tremors. Basically, sometimes my hands and legs shake for no good reason. My team and the league have been very supportive and it has been great meeting girls in other cities with movement disorders to share our stories. I love that I have found a sport that embraces people who are a little different or need a little bit more patience. If you happen to be curious, go here: essentialtremor.org

How did you come up with your skate name?
Long story or short? Short story: Jager bombs. Long story: My friend's daughter constantly got our names confused (they are only one letter off). One day she decided that everyone was going to call her by her name and call me KY. Well, everyone thought this was hilarious and called me KY all the time. Shortly thereafter I needed a new derby name (I was Ida Kiltya but with another Ida on the league I changed). Add goofy friends and Jagerbombs and KY becomes Astro Glide!

What do you like best about your team?
I am a part of the most amazing group of ladies, everyone is so caring and thoughtful while still totally kicking ass. It is so inspirational. I love the Throttle Rockets so much, they are the sisters I never had!

At what age did you put on your first pair of roller skates?
I was young, maybe 5 or 6, visiting my cousins in New Mexico and they had the strap-over-your-shoe skates with metal wheels. We competed to see who could make more sparks.

What do you do for a living?
Paralegal, mostly family law, estate planning and probate.

Do you have any superstitions before bouting?
I should say I don't wash my pads because I never do but that is just bad planning. So no superstitions but I am crazy about checking my skates since I almost lost a truck while jamming.

If you could leave tomorrow for a week-long vacation to anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Somewhere tropical, sunny and sandy with deserted beaches except my personal cabana boy. I just can't resist tropics.

What actress would play you in a movie about your life and why?
I hope they never make a movie about my life.

What other hobbies do you have?
I am a geek. I attend science-fiction/fantasy conventions, I wrestle occasionally (Pindown Girls), I participate in the Society for Creative Anachronisims and I like costuming.

Do you have any phobias?
Spiders, but I am getting better about just smooshing them and not running screaming anymore. Seriously, when I first lived alone I used to make people come over and kill spiders for me. They eventually stopped coming over, and I had to learn to do it myself.

Do you have any pet peeves?
People who try to force their beliefs on others.

What is one thing most people would be surprised to find out about you?
I was painfuly shy as a child around my peers, I would rather read than talk back then, and I was fine with adults.

What kind of player do you think you are?
I hope I am a team player. I have been told I am a pain in the ass to knock down, and I am working hard on gaining speed.

What would you be doing if you weren't a rollergirl?
Working on a doctorate in Plasma Physics, bare knuckle boxing in Kathmandu, chaining myself to trees in the Amazon rain forest, curing breast cancer and climbing Mt. Everest without oxygen. No, really, I would be at home playing with my cats, watching too much South Park, spending money on shoes instead of skate accessories, doing yard work, playing Diablo, bugging my husband and seeing a therapist on a regular basis.

How did you come up with your skate name?
Bonnie Collide suggested my name and knowing the social symbolism that Punch has held for centuries, I knew it was the name for me as a new skater for DLF. Thanks, Bonnie.

What do you like best about your team?
It would have to be our team philosophy that every DLF skater is vital in making DLF work, not just a select few players. I believe that this empowering idea is a big part of our success.

What do you do for a living?
I am an insurance claims adjuster.

What are some of your guilty pleasures?
I am a huge ABBA fan. I have them all over my (iPod) Nano, you can't keep my off the dance floor when one of their songs comes on and I even had front row tickets to Mamma Mia in Vegas where I proceeded to sing every song with the fans around me. I need to thank my mother for this.

What actress would play you in a movie about your life and why?
Sarah Jessica Parker because people occasionally say I look like her.

Do you have any pet peeves? What are they?
1. When my husband washes our clothes with our towels, which is somewhat funny because he is so much better at laundry then I am (i.e. shrinking things, color exchange, getting things from the dryer before they wrinkle) that I don't understand why he doesn't get this.
2. When people think their high end vehicles give them instant immunity from any kind of courteous driving.
3. When adults talk baby talk to children.

What is one thing most people would be surprised to find out about you?
I have a 16-year-old old son.

What kind of player do you think you are?
Somewhere in the middle but one of the best parts of being on this league is all the amazingly talented girls you can look up to and learn from.

How did you feel about the last bout?
DLF's last bout was actually against the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers of the Texas Rollergirls league in Austin and all I can say is YEE HAW! Although the beginning of the bout was really rocky, it was great to watch DLF turn it up and turn it around giving those Texans a run for their money. Although we lost it will always be one of the best Derby experiences I have had and I believe we did a good job of representing the RCRG and our capabilities. Texas better watch out in September.

How did you come up with your skate name?
My coworker's son, Chad, came up with my name - after weeks of wracking my brain for the perfect name, he thought of it in about two seconds flat.

What do you like best about your team?
Our attitude, our bond, and our drive. We're a smaller team in numbers than the others so each player simply must contribute to the best of her ability. If one member goes down, we all feel it. We work as a unit -- we lose as a team and we win as a team.

At what age did you put on your first pair of roller skates?
I did a little couples skating in sixth grade. Okay, it was wallflowering, but none of you went to sixth grade with me, so I can embellish a little.

What do you do for a living?
I'm a Road Engineer and Inspector for King County.

Do you have any superstitions before bouting?
I really try to eat oatmeal for breakfast on bout day. Also, I'm obsessively early, so I'm usually down at the hangar at least an hour before I'm supposed to be there.

What are some of your guilty pleasures? Howard Stern. I followed him to Sirius satellite radio. And, fine, I admit it, I like Coldplay.

What actress would play you in a movie about your life and why?
Should be an easy casting call -- they really only have to look like half of me.

Do you have any phobias?
Although Lil' Hateful is gonna hit me extra hard in practice for this one, I'm really pretty scared of clowns.

Do you have any pet peeves? What are they?
Public grooming and gratuitous public displays of affection. But I'd take those any day over a hit from Electric Fanny!

What is the hardest thing for you about roller derby?
Other than the schedule (which is basically a second full time job), the aches and pains (hello massage, acupuncture, broken bones and bruising), it's losing a loved and valued member of the league, like my good friend Lisa Lawless, who now skates for the Bay Area Derby Girls. The women of the Rat City Rollergirls are a close bunch and although I'm happy when a friend moves on to bigger things in life, it is really hard to let them go.

What kind of player do you think you are?
Average. I love to watch Darth Skater, Femme Fatale, Drew Blood and D-Bomb and try to imitate them. That's how I learned to skate. Our league has some amazing teachers!

Do you want to watch the next Rat City Rollergirls bout for FREE? Do you want to earn cool stuff and our COMPLETE ADORATION? Please see our Volunteer Page for more information, or e-mail volunteer@ratcityrollergirls.com to receive our NEW Volunteer Newsletter (a special email just for our fabulous volunteers).

Adopt A Track Safety Bumper Info [pdf]

• Provide the Rat City Rollergirls and rink-side fans with a safe, convenient and affordable way to enjoy roller derby!
• Bumpers are foam wrapped in heavy vinyl. They are in 10-foot-long sections that are 12 inches tall and built to last!
• These bumpers are approved for league play by USA Hockey In-Line skaters!
• If you want to adopt a bumper, then you can decorate it!

Adopt a Bumper Today by contacting sponsorship@ratcityrollergirls.com
Or, mail your check payable to Rat City Rollergirls, LLC for $250 to PO BOX 4698, Seattle, WA 98194