International Travel Ahead!
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International Travel Ahead!

Ramping up for a jam-packed schedule over the next month, Ohio Roller Derby will hit the road for the first time in 2019 as the All Stars travel north to participate in Canada’s longest-running active WFTDA invitational event, Put Up Your Toques. Hosted by Tri-City Roller Derby, the tournament will take place over the first weekend in May at the RIM Park in Waterloo, Ontario, providing internationally competitive opportunities for WFTDA charter teams from across the province and the eastern United States. Participating teams include Brandywine Roller Derby (Downingtown, PA), Orangeville Roller Girls (Orangeville, ON, CA), Ottawa Valley Roller Derby (Ottawa, ON, CA), Roc City Roller Derby (Rochester, NY), Royal City Royal Derby (Guelph, ON, CA), and Toronto Roller Derby (Toronto, ON, CA) in addition to Ohio and Tri-City.

(66) Ohio will open the tournament weekend at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 4th against (69) Orangeville Roller Girls, a previously untested opponent. Orangeville is currently 1-4 for the season, suffering an early-season loss to Roc City as well as later games to perennial powerhouses Queen City Roller Derby, Columbia Roller Derby, and Boston Roller Derby, but eking out a narrow victory over the Charlottesville Derby Dames.

At 12 p.m. on Saturday, Ohio will face (53) Royal City in a rematch from their most recent trip across the border last May. When the two met at the Royal City-organized Royal Brawl tournament a year ago, Ohio struggled with short rosters and relied heavily on rookie jammers to make up the difference. While ultimately unable to best their hosts in that match up, Ohio finds themselves on more even footing this time around, returning a majority of their roster and rounding out with veteran players. Royal City already had victories over Grand Raggidy Roller Derby and Toronto under their skates this season before heading to the Southern Discomfort tournament in South Carolina for their first of two consecutive tournament weekends. While able to stay well within reach of their opponents, Royal City finished the tournament 0-3, suffering close losses to Columbia, Dub City Roller Derby, and North Star Roller Derby.

Closing out the weekend with a 12 p.m. Sunday game, Ohio will take on new competitor (74) Ottawa Valley; like Royal City, they stacked back-to-back tournament weekends, heading to Kalamazoo, Michigan for the annual K-Town Shakedown tournament from April 26-28th. Unfazed by an early-April home track loss to Antwerp Roller Derby, Ottawa Valley improved their season record to 2-2, securing wins in their first two tournament games against Grand Raggidy and the Oklahoma Victory Dolls, and falling short against Tri-City in game three.

All games will be streamed live and archived on the Tri-City YouTube channel; additional information and tournament updates can be found at https://tricityrd.com/toques/ and on the Facebook event page.

Header photo by Chris Baker.

HardKore