For the first time, there is an I in team.

I realised that I haven't talked much about the derby team I'm in on this blog, and the whole notion of being in a team full stop. With the graduation bout, breakings, repairings, birthdays and the like it's been there but only relatively recently have I started to get my head around what being in a team really means to me, so now I'm going to waffle about it.

I've never been on a team before, apart from being a stand-in goal defence in primary school netball, where I played one and half games before it was suggested I take my talents elsewhere. Which I did, to the dark regions of not playing sports. At all. I was in theory a member of the 360 Fire Team paintball squad, but never actually played with them (sterling bunch of dudes BTW).

So, yes, Mascara Massacre. Last year, when I was well into my training, I entertained the notion of possibly getting on a team in 2011. I wasn't allowing myself to get my hopes up, as there were only two teams in the league, and I figured that just to spend the year scrimmaging would be more than enough. Then this year, the Third Team was mooted, meaning the number of player slots in teams going up and the possibility of me representing one of them increased. Dare I hope? Was I good enough?

Getting on a team was an amazing feeling, like a validation of all the work I had put into my skating so far. I always knew that a team was a stage on the journey, not the end point or an excuse to slack off. And so it's proved. I now feel like there's even more reason to push myself as hard as I can every training, every drill. I want to be as good a skater as I possibly can, so that I can help my team mates out as much as possible. It makes it personal. It's become the impetus to get out of bed at 6am to go to the gym every morning, not to eat another chocolate bunny, and to make every training session out there. I'm training harder, studying strategy harder, thinking about the game harder than ever before, because it's not just my awesomeness on the line but my team's too. It's great.

We play our first bout against PCR's new team, the Alpha Beta Slammers, on the 21st May. It'll be my first bout in front of people, and in a way it's more special than playing in the grad bout would have been, because I'll be wearing the green and purple of my team, and trying out all the stuff we've been working on the last few months. It's like a coming of age, and extremely exciting for this fresh meat. If you're in Auckland, check it out, tickets on sale from www.undertheradar.co.nz from Wednesday.

It's going to be one hell of a night.

Just make sure you wear green.