Talking Derby to DNN: Bonnie Thunders, Gotham Girls Captain

By Mercy Less, Last updated Thu Jul 16 2009 2:22am

In the days after the Texas Rollergirls' top-ten marathon weekend, DNN's Mercy Less interviewed representatives of each participating team for their reflections on the bouts. In the second of four interviews, Mercy talks with Gotham Girls captain Bonnie Thunders.

DNN: How did you prepare your team for the bout against the Texecutioners?

Bonnie: We’ve been prepping for this bout quite a bit because we were playing progressively harder teams this season for interleague. So we started with Boston, went on to Charm City, followed by Carolina, so I feel like that was good preparation, in that we were challenging ourselves a little more each time, and learning a lot about our playing style by playing our opponents, really seeing where our own weaknesses were.

Additionally, of course, I think endurance is a huge one, and I do believe that's one of the ways in which we won the game. We do have a really high level of endurance with the entire team at Gotham. That helps, not just with physical endurance, but mental endurance - to be thinking clearly even though you've been playing for 60 minutes, and also having....it was really, really warm in there, all those factors on top of it.

Just in general, we came up with a plan - after every bout, working on improving what didn't work in that bout, and I think that we just built that momentum forward from the beginning of this season, culminating in this bout. Now we're able to regroup aain, and wrap up and prepare for Regionals.

DNN: What was your feeling about your team's performance going into this game? Did you have expectations?

Bonnie: I definitely had expectations. I really had high expectations, especially for our rookies, because they've been so strong lately. I was really glad to see that they all had pretty good games. There were a couple of very, very new rookies - two girls that have only played one home season in the past. I was really excited for them to play such high level derby, so early in their careers. I felt that we did a really good job of filling in the holes of skaters that we lost last year.

I also had expectations for older girls' skills as well, not only living up to their reputations from last year, but also improving. I think that's the hardest part of being a veteran - how do you get better when everyone else is getting better, too. You have to be constantly improving your own skating even though everyone else is coming up under you, eating at your tail, so to speak.

So those were my expectations, for our rookies to get some good experience, and and really feel what it feels like to play a really high level derby game. Also for our veterans to push themselves that much more to show themwhere they've come since last season.

DNN: What was the most challenging thing about this game for your team?

Bonnie: I think that Texas had a really good offense, not that we didn't expect it, but it was a very strong offense. They really supported their jammers in the pack and I think that was somewhat of a challenge for us, because I don't think we had faced that before this season. That was something we really learned a lot about. How we need to overcome strong offense from another team, and really trying to stop their jammer.

I think the other thing about Texas is that their jammers actually improved really well. Obviously everyone expected Rice Rocket to be jamming a whole lot, and she didn't. It was really amazing to see the improvement their jammers had since last year. Especially Olivia Shootin' John, she's really come a long way. Nationals [2008], she didn't skate very many jams in their game. She had skated a lot fewer jams than she did in this game.

Lucille Brawl - she had never really been a jammer, but she really was a jammer. There were some girls on Texas who we totally didn't expect to be that strong as jammers - they really stepped up a lot from last year.

DNN: What was the best moment of this game for you personally?

Bonnie: It was when Suzy got a 15-0 jam, and I followed it up with a 10-0 jam, and I felt like that was a really important moment, to have 25 points on the board for Gotham. Or maybe getting lead jammer at the very end - that might have been it.

DNN: What was the best moment for your team, as captain?

Bonnie: I guess it's not a moment, but a period in time? The middle of the second period when Texas had been scoring a lot of points, and were coming back up, and they took the lead, and then we were able to shift the momentum back to us. I was really proud of the team for that. I feel like it's very tough to come back from having a whole lot of points scored on you. It was really great to see the team not let that get to them and still be able to come back, and score points, and bring it back together.

DNN: What were the keys for Gotham to winning this game?

Bonnie: Like I said at the beginning, endurance was key, just being able to stay mentally focused, and physically ready throughout the game. Additionally, adapting to changing game play from Texas. They definitely were an adaptable team. They changed their style as the game went on, and I felt like we were also able to keep up with them in their adapting game play.

DNN: What kind of talk was going on, on your bench, throughout the game?

Bonnie: There were a few key moments where we were like, 'okay, strategy A is not working, let's try strategy B.' Also, a couple teammates were like, "okay, this jammer's not really doing well as a jammer, let's float in someone else who we didn't plan on jamming quite as much." Those were some of the key discussions that happened. Towards the end of the game, looking at who was having a really hot game as a blocker, and keeping them in, keeping them warm, keeping them going. So that they had a lot of momentum built up - so that they would go through the whole game.

DNN: How did this game compare to your last meeting with Texas at ECE 2008?

Bonnie: The last game was a lot different because the point differential was much bigger. That game seems like it was forever ago, and for all of Gotham, a huge turning point in our career in roller derby. It was a lot different because there was a lot less pressure to win. We were not expecting to win, and I think even some people on the team didn't expect us to win. As opposed to this game - you know, I think we all realize that everyone wants to beat us. That's everyone's goal, is to beat us.

Knowing that, I feel like there was just so much more pressure going in to the game, to have to perform. Also, too, a lot of pressure to win by a large margin - to prove that we're always going to win by 150 points. For me personally, the closer the game, the bigger the challenge - so  I was really happy that it was a close fought game.

DNN: If you could give out 3 MVPs to anyone on Gotham for this game, who would they be, and why? On the Texecutioners?

Bonnie: I would give one to Fisti Cuffs, because her versatility is really key, she's not a leading jammer, and she's a blocker, but she can pull up the rope as a jammer when she needs to, and she's always a reliable blocker. Donna Matrix is also incredible, and always very reliable as a blocker.

On their team, a lot of their girls gave me personal trouble, as a jammer. I felt like Belle Starr was always in my lap, and I felt like she did a really good job, and a really effective job of blocking me.

DNN: This is the closest you've come to a loss in recent times - what lessons are you taking away from this game?

Bonnie: We learned a lot about our own personal strategy and what is more effective than other things. We learned quite a bit about how quickly we need to adapt to another team's strategy in order to keep the game close. Most importantly, what we'll bring from this game is knowing that we can come back from a deficit if we need to. That's something that we don't have to do very often. When you've been winning most of your games by a margin of 100 points, you don't have to come back from a deficit. That is a really important lesson, and a really valuable thing that we can come away with from this game.

DNN: What advice would you give ambitious teams in the lower ranks who hope to be the force that Gotham is one day?

Bonnie: You can't ever underestimate your up-and-comers. Every year you're going to have losses on your team, as far as skaters retiring, people moving - it's gonna happen to every team. You're never going to have the same team twice. I think it's super, super important to put a lot of effort, time and confidence into the new girls who are up-and-coming, and are gonna be the next stars on your travel team.

DNN: What's next for Gotham?

Bonnie: We have to come up with our training plan leading up to Regionals and Nationals. We have quite a bit of time between now and then. We have a couple of offers for some scrimmages in the summer, so we'll probably just be doing totally non-sanctioned scrimmages at practice with a couple of other area leagues to test out some of the stuff we've been working on. We're taking this week off to recoup and recover, and next week we'll start right in with moving on so we can be prepared for Regionals.

Photos:  ChaiTGuy, Craig Lammes.