Our first "take a knee" moment.

Last night the Red Rockettes had their first on-the-track nasty fall injury.
We were finishing off Basic skills testing for all the Toffuti Cuties (there are twenty-some-odd of us) and the lovely Cherri Chokehold somehow slipped and fell so hard on her backside that she heard a crunch in her sternum. She tried valiantly to get back up, but she had the wind knocked out of her and her chest hurt just to move. Bless her heart, she was so brave. She has sprained her ribcage and will be able to skate again once the pain subsides, but it was a sobering moment for all of us. We find it easy to forget how quickly rollergirls can be injured. We play for fun, not for an audience, so we tend to play a little bit easier. As a result, we tend to have fewer serious injuries and a more relaxed attitude.
Cherri stayed and watched the rest of the girls for a while, but eventually realized that she was hurting just too badly to hang around.
The rest of the ladies seem to have skated even harder after the fall. We all worked hard and have pretty much finished the testing. Everybody did so well. Then after we more or less completed the testing, we played a few games.
Did you ever play red light, green light as a child? WAY harder on skates. Then we played a game Wanton referred to as "Last woman standing". I did okay, for a while, I was able to stay in the running simply by outrunning everyone who tried to hit me or knock me out of bounds. Oddly enough, four of the strongest skaters all went down in a big pile almost immediately. In the end, there were about five women left after I went out of bounds (not without a fight). I feel like I did well evading people's hits, and escorted a few ladies to the outside boundary.
It was overall a good practice, with one horrifying moment.
Love you Cherri! Heal quickly girl, you still have to annihilate me.