So hey! The landscape’s changed a bit since I talked to you all last, huh? If you have no idea what happened with the team in the offseason — well, if you have no idea, the hell are you doing reading this blog? Creeper. But the ten-second backstory is that there was the Boston Militia, right? And they were huge and awesome and had better funding than any other team. And then right before practices were supposed to start for this season, that funding was all LATER, SUCKAS! and dumped the team in the trashbin with no nothing.
I think they honestly thought that that would be the end of the team. I’d be curious to know if they had any idea how much people would pull together in order to make this season happen…well, not THAT curious ’cause I don’t want to talk to those goobers. But I do wonder. Anyway, you know what happened next – it’s all in this video right here, which we made with crappy sound and amateur editing and all the love in the world. The team — the real part of the team, not the write-the-checks part of the team — looked around at the trashbin and said, fuck this. We got games to play, Let’s get to work.
As such, I have decided that the motto of this Renegades season is:
2015: Less Money, More Awesome.
There are a few ways in which this motto may not be 100% accurate, but it still beat out the other contenders:
- 2015: The Season We Pulled Out of Our Ass
- 2015: Fake It ’til You Make It
- 2015: The Season Where I’m Not Supposed to Call redacted a Douchecanoe
Important update: I’m keeping my name. “Renegade Cheerleader” is fucking badass, don’t get me wrong, and as that’s technically what I am, I have moved the blog to this domain and updated branding as applicable. (I’m sure there are little format-y things that I still need to fix on this site on account of the move, by the way, so if you’re reading through old posts and something looks like ass, there’s a 80% chance it’s just ’cause I haven’t updated all the code.)
However, in practical conversation I will remain Militia Cheerleader (MC). There are a few reasons for this; one is that I can’t stand this cola. Another is that I’m from Boston and to me, my Renegade Cheerleader initials sound like this. But mostly, it’s just that MC’s my name. It’s who I’ve been from the start and I like it and also I’m old and tired and can’t remember new things that well. So I apologize if it’s weird, but that’s what I’m doing.
So the Boston Renegades take the field tonight for the first time as the Renegades, but to call this a new team is simply inaccurate. I know that lots and lots of people thought that the only reason the Militia won all the time was because they had money. And I saw that the reaction from other teams (and even in other sports) to stories like this was overwhelmingly “Oh, cry me a river, no one else is funded by a billionaire either and we make it work.” Is this accurate in a technical sense? Yes. Is it accurate in the true meaning of the statement? SO MUCH NO.
You didn’t do what we’re doing. No one has. When teams first form, they are small. You’re like 16 people and you get your asses handed to you and everyone expects that and that’s fine. Then you grow a little the next year, and you get more fans, and you get more visibility, and over time you gain traction and size and support. Or maybe you make the decision to splinter from an existing team, and you do so with your eyes open, choosing to go that route.
The Boston Renegades did not get to start as a little fledgling bird team, prepared to grow into a badass eagle over time. No, the Renegades team pretty much sprung forth fully grown from the head of Zeus with a mighty battle cry of “AAAAAHHHHH LET’S GET 50 PEOPLE TO FOUR CITIES IN FIVE WEEKS WITH ONLY TWO HOME GAMES, BITCHES!” It’s a little different. Yes, everyone else is self-funded too. But no one else started a season with a full roster, zero cash, a bullshit schedule and only a few months to fundraise. We weren’t even allowed to keep the team’s name.
This isn’t about me wanting sympathy. This is about me appreciating what it has taken to even get this team out on the field tonight. It’s been so much work, you guys — and it’s been so awesome to watch and to be a part of. I spend a lot of time worrying about stuff ’cause I’m me, but in the middle of a bunch of what-ifs the other day, something occurred to me: those dudes who peace’d out and ditched the team in January? They looked at this season and got scared. These people with virtually unlimited resources GAVE UP. They couldn’t make it happen.
We’re making it happen.
It might be ugly and difficult and it may not always be what we want. But when I watch this team step out onto the field in a few hours…in that moment, they will have already won.
Now, we’ve got games to play. Let’s get to work.
P.S. Tiny Coach — who is almost four!! — seems to have inherited his mother’s tendency towards insomnia, especially when anxious about something. Last night he woke up around midnight and found me at my laptop doing last-minute prep work for the game today. “Mama,” he said with absolutely sincere concern, “What if the Booball Aunties need to pee?”
