Baltimore and Tucson Men's Teams Battle In Denver

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Wed Oct 21 2009 8:39pm

DENVER, CO -- Three-year-old Baltimore men's team Harm City Homicide ends its busiest season yet with its longest trip to date, traveling out to Denver to take on first-year Tucson Dry Heat Militia in a full-length bout. It's the opener of a doubleheader hosted by the Denver Roller Dolls; in the second bout, local teams Bad Apples and Shotgun Betties face off for the hometown championship. The bout takes place at the Fillmore Auditorium at 7pm on Saturday, October 24.

In terms of men's national play, this bout is particularly notable for the distance between the two home teams -- with the exception of Washington State's Puget Sound Derby Outcasts coming out to New England to play Pioneer Valley and Connecticut in August of this year, almost all men's bouts thus far have been between teams within driving distance of each other.

After going winless for almost the entirety of 2007 and 2008, the Homicide has experienced much more success in 2009. They kicked things off in January by dominating the Connecticut Death Quads 145-29 in 40 minutes, eked out a 90-86 win over the Diamond City Death Kings in April, and finally knocked off longtime rivals Pioneer Valley Dirty Dozen 77-60 in August. Homicide has only lost this year to the still-undefeated New York Shock Exchange -- 106-64 in June and just last weekend in a 20-minute exhibition bout at Charm City's local championship, where they jumped out to an early lead but couldn't hold on and fell 56-35.

Most of the Homicide's members also played in a full-length bout at the WFTDA Eastern Regionals, where they teamed up with members of Pioneer Valley as the Dirty Homicide to take on the New York Shock Exchange and Connecticut Death Quads playing as the Death Shock -- the Death Shock won a tight one there, 94-83.

Tucson's Dry Heat Militia is fairly new to the men's derby scene, and has only one public bout to their name, a big 178-19 pounding at the hands of the Dallas Deception in March of this year. Three Homicide members -- Justice Feelgood Marshall, Sin Diesel and Gearhead -- helped fill out the Militia roster in that bout.

While Harm City comes into this bout with a great deal more bouting experience, they also will be fielding an extremely short roster in a city known for wreaking havoc on endurance. Homicide brings only 7 players to the party, including a new addition in Quad Almighty, the current bench coach of the Cincinnati Rollergirls and a transfer from the now-inactive Midwest Men's Roller Derby. The Dry Heat Militia, for their part, will have 12 skaters on their roster, giving them a potential endurance advantage as the bout goes on.

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