The reviews are in - the North Star Roller Girls were a hit at Yelp’s Drive In on October 7
Yelp’s Drive In was a 50’s themed bash put on by Annie (Annie D on Yelp) and her team. Assembled were a wide variety of eats and beverages from local vendors showcasing the best that Minnesota has to offer in fun food and drinks. The North Star Roller Girls were on hand to support the event and help out as needed – in full gear and skates!
Mix the food, beverages, great vintage 50’s style party atmosphere with the enthusiasm of the hundreds of “Yelpers” that made the RSVP list and the results were fabulous! The weather was great, everyone had fun in the Photo-booth, and the costumes were dead on the money, Daddy-O! If you were one of the over 400 people on the waiting list and couldn't make it in, look for the next Yelp event and RSVP early, it fills up fast. Who knows, we might be there too!
Hat’s off to the organizers for putting on such a great event!
2011 NSRG Tryouts a Smashing Success!
 2011 - 2012 is shaping up to be the best season ever for the North Star Roller Girls. Recent tryouts brought out the best skaters the Twin Cities had to offer to compete for a spot in the league.
What does it take to make the grade? See the full Tryout Report.
Hot August Night!
 The off-season during the summer brings many opportunites to see the best derby league in the Twin Cities out and about in the community. The St. Anthony Parade was no exception where one of the hottest features were the North Star Roller Girls.
Did you miss them at this event? Don't worry, we'll post more upcoming events here on our site.
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Minneapolis Hearts Us!
 Can you imagine anything better than skating up Hennepin Avenue, at night, wearing glowing red dreadlocks and flashing skull lights as part of the biggest summer festival in Minneapolis? We didn't think it got any better than that, until we won an award for it! Yes, the North Star Roller Girls received the Aquatennial Award of Excellence for their performance at the 2011 CenterPoint Energy Torchlight parade. The Aquatennial organizers actually referred to it as an "exceptional performance" but we want to be careful about bragging.
The North Star Roller Girls would especially like to thank Aaron Archer for use of all the fantastic LED lights that we wore in the parade which he donated in honor of his late wife, Shannon. What a beautiful memorial Aaron – the North Star Roller Girls salute you both! |
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 A Smash Hit: Roller Girls bring action to Rochester
by Christina Killion Valdez
originally published in The Post-Bulletin, Rochester, MN on July 29, 2011
Since Rochester is new to roller derby, the North Star Roller Girls offered some tips to the locals for watching the North Star Roller Girls bout this past weekend, August 6 at Mayo Civic Center. • Be ready for an action-packed, family-friendly, full-contact sport. • Cheer your head off. • Roller Girls love it if you bring signs. • Be careful, you might get hooked. Even while laid up with a broken leg, Jessica Whitaker, who organized the Med City Massacre Women's Flat Track Derby double-header, thought the event encouraged more women to join the sport. "Maybe a girl will see this and start up their own league in Rochester," said Whitaker, a former Rochester resident who skates with Northern Lights,a team withi nMinneapolis-based North Star Roller Girls roster. Roller derbies are fun to watch, but even more fun to play, said Whitaker, who goes by the derby name Marge Hadron Collider. "I hope it sparks something down there."
Seeing a North Star Roller Girls bout in the spring of 2010 is what hooked Jordan Schoephoerster. "Just the athleticism of everyone on the track," is what she said caught her attention, "and how tiny, short girls out there take on big, heavy girls like me. Everyone has a job. It was empowering." Schoephoerster never roller skated before, but while growing up in Rochester she took figure skating lessons at the Rochester Recreation Center. As she started training for roller derby, she found she could easily do cross overs, skate backwards and do backwards cross overs, said Schoephoerster, who took on the derby name Rosalind Shanklin when she made the Northern Lights team last summer. "During my first time on the track for a scrimmage I was a deer in the headlights, there was so much action," she said. Fortunately for viewers, the roller girls put on a slow-motion derby 101 tutorial before the bout to explain the goal of the game, which is simply for the jammer to pass the opposing blockers. As people get more into it, they will pick up on the nuances of the game, Schoephoerster said. Women's flat track roller derby is a carefully regulated, athlete-owned sport. The North Star Roller Girls, which started in 2006, typically play for 2,500 fans at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The Rochester match-up featured two bouts. The first was the North Star Northern Lights against the Kansas City Roller Warriors' Plan B for the first time ever. "The teams are evenly matched so there was a lot of lead changes," Whitaker said. "It was really exciting." The second bout is the North Star Supernovas verses the Harbor City Roller Dames from Duluth. "Duluth is pretty scrappy. They are new, but they are tough and have a lot of spirit. The Supernovas love to win. That's the No. 1 thing they love to do," Whitaker said. And while she describes roller derby as "like wrestling only real," Whitaker said she broke her leg during practice in "a most unspectacular fall."
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