I hope everyone got all that they had wished for this year! Be safe and enjoy yourselves.
Author ArchiveRoller Derby changed my life! I know everyone says that and I know it might sound cliche but sometime that’s the best way to describe it. It’s hasn’t just changed my life for the better, it’s changed my life permanently. Before Derby I was cautious, I did what I was told and I was the “nice” girl. I thought of everyone before myself. I didn’t take risks. (unless you count the 4 tattoos!) I was comfortable being average and ordinary. I had graduated from college and had to become an adult with a “real job” and real bills. I found out about roller derby by watching the A&E show about TX and started Googling..I found BRRG and decided to join! My parents were not supportive, my friends thought I was crazy but it was something I WANTED to do! I decided to get my gear and show up! My parents are now very supportive and come to every game! They were just worried I would get hurt…which I have but they realize it’s what I love to do so they “get it” I didn’t know anyone, In fact the 1st person to talk to me was Morbid and she was super sweet and welcoming (weird right!?) I hadn’t skated since middle school and back then I spent most of my time picking up guys in the snack bar and when I was skating I couldn’t stop so I would just skate into the wall! Roller Derby made me push myself. I was a sad little skater and if it wasn’t for the encouragement of Scarrie and Stroker I might have given up. I learned that I can lose a little bit of control and fly around the corners..I learned that I could stop without running into walls! I learned how to play the game and work with a team. I pushed myself even when I felt like I was the slowest person and the worst hitter. I asked questions and was determined to try my best. Derby gave me confidence, and the realization that I am strong..All these years of feeling average and ordinary made me blind to the fact that I could do amazing things if I put in some effort and determination. Derby also gave me the love of my life. I can’t thank the lovely Vix Smackey enough. She introduced me to Fritz. Smackey, Dagney and I were in the car at NEO and she all of a sudden blurted out “I have a guy for you” We met, became inseparable and soon after got married! I didn’t think I would find someone as amazing as him and I never would have if I didn’t join derby! All in all derby has made me realize that going though life without a passion is no way to live. I have something that I love doing and I am starting to get pretty decent at it! I have learned that being strong doesn’t mean just physically but mentally too. I have a team and a league that I respect so much and that supports me. Derby means the world to me. I am so lucky to be a part of this and sometimes I pinch myself and realize I am a Roller Girl! The nice girl can kick your ass…with a smile of course xoxo I have been wanting to upload this picture for quite awhile (actually I have a bunch of pictures that I have been wanting to upload). This is the wonderful view I have all day long. Just look at some of my wonderful items. From my HellBombers Sign (made by Damegerous (the first girl to actually have a conversation with Turn 2)) to my Ruby Red Take-Out box which actually had two fortune cookies in one wrappper! Of course there are a number of items which are not in my cubicle for instance my 8×10 Professor Booty Autographed Picture (no joke) and my blue hand clapper from black & blue 3 which was thrown to me by Ivanna Destroya, even though she knew I was cheering black are in miscellaneous places out in about! Anyway there is my view, hows yours!
Derby Name: Pretty Scarrie Number: #80 MPH Team(s): Hard Knockers and Burning River All-Stars Position(s): Pivot, Blocker, Wanna-Be Jammer What brought you to roller derby? What made you want to play and what keeps you playing? Hard Knockers are in a place they have never been, what is happening there? If you could steal another member from the league and put her on the knockers, who would you take and why? What has been the best moment of your derby career so far? What do you like/dislike most about the travel team bouts? Who do you have the toughest time against on the track? What do you think is ahead for derby as a sport? What skates/gear are you currently using? How does it feel to be on the header of sk8intheface? What has been the worst injury you have received? How long do you feel you will play derby for? what is your favorite movie of all time? What are your thoughts on the new venue? How has derby changed your life? By Bettie Shocker
Derby Name: Soul Eater Number: #53 (It was originally supposed to be infinity, but when I realized what a pain getting a custom number would be, I decided to go to a regular number. Then I thought, how can I do something in relation to my name for my number. I realized 5 and a backwards 3 would be my initials: SE. I used to have a backwards 3 on all my jerseys, but got tired of explaining that “yes, I do know it’s backwards, and here’s why…” to drunk people at loud after parties.) Team(s): The Rolling Pin-Ups and The Burning River All-Stars Position(s): It changes, but lately I’ve been pivot a lot and I’ve also been training as a jammer, although my rib injury put a temporary hold on that. I’ll step up and do whatever the team needs. What brought you to the world of roller derby? A few years ago I got back into playing soccer after taking time off from sports during college, and although I like soccer, I was never in love with it. I was thinking of checking out what other sports were in the area when I heard they were forming a roller derby league in Cleveland. Without seeing a bout, reading the rules, or having any clue what it was other than the vague memories of what I had seen on TV as a kid, I made it to a registration meeting and joined up. I’ve been in love since! How has your life changed since roller derby? I am in the best shape of my life thanks to roller derby. I worked out a little and tried to eat healthy before, but I was never too motivated just for the sake of fitness. Since I’ve joined roller derby, I’ve learned so much about nutrition and cross-training just to better my performance, it has really improved my overall health. I also met the love of my life, Stroker Ace, at the registration meeting, and my life hasn’t been the same since (for the better of course!). Last year you were nominated for biggest bitch, yet you seem so sweet, how can this be? Haven’t you heard me screaming at my teammates, or “barking” as it has been called, from Turn 2?! I may seem sweet off the track, but I’ve been known to be a bossy little b*tch on the track. I’m also not one to sugar coat anything and can be a little abrupt, which I’ve been trying to work on, but sometimes you just have to call it how you see it. How did you come about your name? Just like any derby girl, I went through the names I wanted and realized they were all taken. I was set on being Goldie Roxx until I found out it was too close some other derby names for me to have it. So I spent months trying to find something, then realized I already had one. I have two ex-boyfriends that said I’m an “eater of souls.” That sounded like a title, and not a name, so I changed it to Soul Eater. You are dating Stroker Ace, does it make it difficult to play against her? Nah, not at all. Actually it helps keep us motivated. When one of us wants to be lazy and lay around the house instead of going for a run or working out, we’ll talk some smack about the other’s team and how it’s okay for them to lose, or something like that. The only thing that’s hard is that we spend a lot of time with derby related events, and being on separate teams means separate team practices, team meetings, etc. There are some weeks we don’t even get a night to ourselves between all of it. Luckily we’ve been on the All-Stars together so far, which has been nice, especially with the traveling and additional practices it requires. What your hopes for roller derby in general? I would love for roller derby to become more accessible and with more options to girls and women around the world. It’s becoming a reality little by little, thanks to all the new leagues popping up around the world, not just WFTDA or WFTDA-aspiring leagues, but also recreational and junior leagues. Most sports have all sorts of leagues, from pee wee, high school and college, to “beer leagues,” to more competitive and serious leagues that have tournaments, roller derby should be no exception. A handful of adult women in a few major cities shouldn’t be the only ones that have the chance to play this awesome sport! What album having you been enjoying most recently? Album? I live off my iPod these days, which is always on shuffle. I guess Shiny Toy Guns, We Are Pilots, and the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, since it’s the most recent music I’ve downloaded. What is your favorite derby memory? My favorite? There are so many! I think the most amazing day of derby was our league’s first public bout, Black & Blue 1, and its after party. Our league had worked so hard for so long, and to finally see our hard work come to fruition and produce a successful event was great. Everyone was so happy, it was a true celebration. I felt like I was in a movie it was so surreal. You are on the sk8intheface header, how does that feel? When I saw it at first I thought “wow I’m making an aweful face,” but I’m still very flattered to have made the header! If you could take a skater from another team and put them on the Pin-ups, who would you take? Stroker Ace, of course! Mostly because it would be nice not to have separate team obligations, but it doesn’t hurt that she’s an awesome skater too. You were just out due to injury, how hard is it to just watch? It sucks!!! I’ve skated every bout that The Rolling Pin-Ups and The Burning River All-Stars have had until last month. It was kind of cool to be able to watch and enjoy, but I wanted to put on my skates and help my teams so badly! Especially the Cincinnati game… I played against their B team early last year and was looking forward to finally getting to play their A team, and on top of that it was such a close game! Since I couldn’t skate, all I could do was scream my head off, but at least I had the honor of being Turn 2 for a day What are your ‘09 season goals? I am working on becoming a great overall skater. I would love to be able to step up to any position in roller derby and just rock it without a sweat. Winning Best Pivot or Triple Threat this year would be pretty sweet, but dethroning Ivanna Destroya (who won Best Pivot for the past 2 years) and Stroker Ace (who won Triple Threat for the past 2 years) will be no easy feat! Always keep the bar high, right? What are your thoughts/feelings on the new venue? I like it a lot so far. I’m not a huge fan of sport court because it slows the play down a little, but it’s good training for when The All-Stars play against teams that have sport court, which is pretty common. Do you have a favorite quote? “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” - Babe Ruth One thing that brings great joy for Turn 2 on Sk8intheface, is hearing back from you! We have been overwhelmed with the amount of traffic that we have been receiving on this site! Last month we had over 300 unique visitors (IP addresses) and over 1400 visits to the site! One thing that we had hoped for in creating this site was communication; whether good, bad, or indifferent, never bite your tongue! So for those of you who love to comment, We wanted to make you aware of gravatar, a free globally recognized avatar site, which associates your email address with an avatar of your liking. You may have recently seen the Destroya has accomplished this; well that is because she is freakin awesome! So get hip, get a gravatar account, and get to posting comments!
Derby Name: CoCo Sparx Number: 4 Team(s): Hellbombers & the All-Stars Position(s): For the Hellbombers, primarily jammer & pivot. For the All-Stars, I’ve done everything; started with the team being told that I wasn’t a good enough jammer and I was going to be blocking only. After jamming as a pinch jammer a couple times, they moved me to jamming only. Now I’m in limbo again as they’ve added some ace jammers to the All-Stars roster and my blocking has improved. So… I guess that means I play all positions. How did you learn of roller derby? I got a MySpace message saying “Hi, we’re looking to start a women’s roller derby league in Cleveland. We’re looking for girls who are 21+ and have health insurance.” I didn’t really know what roller derby was, but I knew it involved roller skating, which I was decent at, and I’d already been looking to find a sports team to play on but hadn’t found the right one. I figured I’d check it out. What made you decide you wanted to play roller derby? My parents were dead set against it. Haha, but seriously, when I told my dad that I was joining a roller derby league, he sighed loudly and said, “Lindsay, we raised you better than that.” True quote, he’ll deny it now, but he said it. I kept going to practices out of stubbornness. After a couple of months it dawned on me that I was ACTUALLY playing roller derby, and that I LIKED it. By then everyone was a lot more supportive. If you had to choose between Jammer or Blocker which would you choose and why? That’s actually a hard question, since I like different things about each position. I’m going to say I would choose to be a pivot. That way a I block & can jam if my jammer passes me the star. Best of both worlds. You seem to turn your rookies into fierce assassins, how do you do this? I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. But seriously, we’ve always tried to pick girls that we thought not only skated well, but that we knew would work well with our team; the ones who show they want to work as a unit, not as an individual. What do you hope to accomplish in the realm of roller derby? Whatever I can. I’d love to see our All-Star team go to regionals this year (which is a very definite possibility), and even nationals someday. A few people have asked me how long I plan on doing this. Even at 26 & 1/2 years old, I’m still one of the younger girls on our league. I look at some of the really amazing skaters across the country, and they might be 10 years older than me. I’ve got a long time yet before I’m thinking of retiring. You recently froze on the Jam line (Fort Wayne), care to enlighten people what happened there :)? Hey, thanks for bringing that up. But here’s what happened. As I was skating up to the jam line, it dawned on me that I had a little bit of a wedgie. So, instead of squatting down into may take-off stance & flashing a fish-belly white butt cheek at the crowd, I quickly yanked it out. So as I’m waiting for the whistle to go, I hear this really girly-sounding voice yell, “Hyuk, quit pickin’ yer wedgie!” And all I could think was, “OMG! They’re talking about my butt!” Next thing I knew, they other jammer took off and I was left standing on the line looking like a moron. If I ever find out who that girly-sounding hillbilly was, I swear…. What skates are you currently using? Reidell 965 Minx boots, Powerdyne Triton plates, and a combo of Radar Zodiac (red) & Radar Mojo (black) wheels. What has been your greatest achievement in Derby so far? I think getting nominated for Triple Threat last year, even though I didn’t win. I knew I was a pretty good jammer, but at the time, I’d always thought of myself as a big wimp in the pack. I guess I was just a big eye-opener to find out that I was not a big wimp. What were your feelings, when you saw yourself on the sk8intheface header? I had no idea that my mouthguard made me look like I had hillbilly teeth. It’s a great header though, nicely done. What do you love most about roller derby? Your mom. No, that’s wrong. I like the camaraderie, I like the competition, I like the fishnets, I like the travel, I like the feeling of getting your ass handed to you with a hard hit but knowing that I can get up and keep going, I like the strategy, I like the fans, I like hearing my name over a loudspeaker (or up in lights, like in Cincinnati!), I like the after-parties, I like the look on people’s faces when I tell them I play roller derby… I could go on & on. Which do you like better, cats or dogs? I think I’m more of a cat person. Pist & I just got a puppy in January, and she’s making me warm up to dogs. But as it stands right now, I like MY dog and my friends’ dogs, but I love ALL cats. I’ve never seen a cat I didn’t want to pick up and squeeze and cuddle and talk to in a ridiculously high-pitched voice. Last year you won best booty (then showed us all why), any pressure in keeping that award in 2009? I won Best Booty in 2007 too, so I had plenty of pressure last year. The competition was tough, and I was sure that Hannah Bull was going to take home the giant trophy. It really was a shock when they called my name. I felt like Christina Aguilera when she won the Grammy for Best New Artist. So shocked that yes, I felt the need to flash the goods. For 2009, I’m seeing some stiff competition again. We’ve got girls like Primp, Slammy, Syren, Booty… winning again isn’t going to be easy. I may have to campaign this year by not wearing pants at all. What do you think is necessary to propel the sport of roller derby further? Everyone has to be on the same page, and right now, a lot of cities are not on the same page with their aims for roller derby. Everyone has a different idea of what roller derby SHOULD be, and until everyone shares one vision, I think it’s going to be very difficult to get roller derby on the mainstream radar. However, organizations like WFTDA (Women’s Flat Track Derby Association) are working very hard to streamline that vision and get everyone on the same page. Many WFTDA leagues are getting a lot of mainstream recognition and are promoting a very good and positive image of roller derby to the mainstream audience. Welcome to the world of Stealth Bomber, Eva Lucien and Betty Shocker. Welcome to the world of women’s roller derby. “A lot of people think this is staged like it was on TV,” said Kelly Collins, of Euclid. “But all the hits here are real.” You can read the full story HERE |
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