If you can't play nice, play derby! Mason-Dixon Roller Vixens wheel into town and they're in it to win Originally published April 20, 2008 By Susan Guynn News-Post Staff
"Here she comes!".."Insideinsideinside! She's coming to the inside!"
The pack of women bunch up in derby stance and ready to throw a shoulder or a booty block to stop the oncoming jammer in her tracks.
"I wanna see you hit!" hollers a teammate.
The jammer tries to weave through the pack but, crash!, she's down. Jam over and the pack skates off the track.
"How late is this practice going to go? Some of us have a PTA meeting tomorrow," queries one skater.
That's roller derby.
You might be snickering about now. "Roller derby? C'mon, that's right up there with wrestling. It's not real," you might be thinking.
Derby skaters Rebel Shell, Fanny Harmher and Doom Baby are not laughing.
Actually, they are.
They're having a blast skating with the Mason-Dixon Roller Vixens, a women's flat track roller derby league that got rolling last year in the Frederick area. The Roller Vixens will have a bouting event, open to the public, in Frederick on Sunday, May 18, at the Frederick Sportsplex.
"It's a physical sport, it involves a lot of strategy and it's exciting," said Kristi Jacobs Woods, 33, one of the league's owners and marketing department supervisor for Structural Systems Inc. in Thurmont.
"It's empowering more than anything else. Also, people you think wouldn't be interested do this. It's such a cross section of women," said Woods. "I don't think it could be more diverse."
There's a first-grade teacher, a Starbucks manager, a college student, a stay-at-home mom and a woman who works in accounting. Some have tattoos and piercings. Others don't. Their skill levels and reasons for rolling vary but they have one thing in common -- they love the sport.
"It's really all in fun," said Katie Leatherman, 28, of Hagerstown. Her skate, or derby, name is Fanny Harmher. It's a play on the name Fannie Farmer, because she loves to cook.
Each skater picks her own name and number -- usually revealing something about the woman, but with an edge. You want the competition to shake in their skates when your name is announced at a bouting event. You want a name and persona like NASCAR's man in black, Dale Earnhardt, had -- the ultimate "Intimidator."
"It's the derby attitude; you've got to rock 'n' roll. It's the way you want to be perceived," said Doom Baby, aka Jennifer Mills.
She chose that name because she's a fan of Maryland's doom metal bands. "I follow them and photograph them, just for myself," said Mills, 32, of Frederick. The mother of 10-year-old twins, she also sells dog products on eBay. Roller derby, she says, is just her "flavor."
"It's gives me something besides being Jennifer, mom or girlfriend. It's just for me," said Mills, who never played a team sport before. "(The women) laugh and enjoy themselves. I need that freedom."
Woods skates as Tinkerbelch. "I can be a girly girl and pretty rowdy," she explained. Her number is 1974, the year she was born. At a recent practice, she wore a pleated miniskirt, fishnet tights and a T-shirt. The league colors are green camo, pink and black. And no derby roller worth her skates would try this sport without cushy knee pads, elbow and wrist guards, and a helmet.
"I usually don't sport fishnets and short skirts," said Leatherman, who got interested in roller derby through a friend who rolls with the Dominion Derby Girls in Virginia Beach, Va.
Rebel Shell is Shellie Huy, 36, of Frederick. "It went along with the Mason-Dixon, Civil War thing" of the league's name, said the manager of the downtown Starbucks. She started looking for a league after reading an article in the company newsletter about Starbucks employees who were in roller derby leagues around the country.
"The thought process is what I really like (about roller derby) -- and setting up a really good jam," said Huy, an admitted "strategy junkie."
Lucretia McEvil took her skate name from a Blood, Sweat and Tears song. "It's one of my favorite songs," said Jeni, who lives in Boonsboro and asked us not to use her last name.
A friend asked her to give roller derby a try and "before she could finish asking me I said, 'yes!'" A college student who is "sweet and caring" in her job in human services, Jeni said roller derby has made her stronger and more confident. Plus where else can you "knock your best friend down and she'll get up and say, 'Yeah! Way to go!'"
'Fastest-growing sport in America'
The Mason-Dixon Roller Vixens hope to join the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. Founded in 2004, the WFTDA oversees the nuts and bolts of the sport, such as membership, rules, policies and tournaments.
"(Leagues are) springing up around the nation," said Woods, from metro cities to small Midwest towns. She hopes the Roller Vixens numbers will grow enough to form two teams -- one based in Frederick, the other in the Hagerstown/Greencastle area.
"It's been called the fastest-growing sport in America," said Kristin Hendrick, aka Mercy Less with the Duke City Derby in Albuquerque, N.M., and marketing and public relations chairwoman of WFTDA. In three years, the number of leagues has grown from 56 to 279 worldwide. The fastest growth is on the coasts, she said, with California, Florida and the Pacific Northwest seeing the most.
"It's like a 4,000-member sisterhood," said Hendrick. Women playing a full-contact sport and having fun appeals to fans, and bouts are affordable. "Major league sports have outpriced the average family," she said.
Leagues are becoming more competitive, and rookie leagues are starting. In Seattle, a league for girls age 7-12 play a noncontact version, sort of like flag football. They're called the Tootsie Rollers.
In addition to "fresh meat" (new team members), the Roller Vixens are searching for a place to rent for practices in Frederick County. Currently, they practice at roller rinks in Hagerstown and Greencastle, Pa., and hold some practices at the outdoor rink at Riverwalk Park in Frederick.
"The surface can be pretty much anything -- uncoated sportcourt, wood, concrete," said Woods. The track size is about 100 feet by 60 feet.
Most of the Roller Vixens had been out of skates about 15 years when they joined. Some had little skating experience.
"It was like riding a bicycle," said Woods, who hadn't skated in that many years when she started. As a girl, she admits she was "queen of the carport" skaters in Mount Airy where she grew up.
Rachell "HeineQueen" Finch, 31, of Frederick, did speed skating when she was younger, but hadn't roller skated in years.
"It was wonderful. It was like I had never stopped. The only thing that sucked was I had to rent (skates)," said Finch.
Injuries? Yea, they happen.
Woods said she has a few bruises and occasional "rink rash" from sliding across wood floors when she gets knocked down. Fishnet tights can help protect legs "or you just may end up with a diamond-pattern on your leg," she said.
Huy said her first and only injury, so far, was a kick to the ear. She went on to complete three more jams.
"I wouldn't let not knowing how to skate stop you from trying it," said Leatherman, who's had a few cuts and bruises, but nothing to keep her off skates. "We're teaching some of our girls now. You have to be willing to work and take a couple of hits, well, more than a couple."
Roller Vixens' coach, Travis "Groper Cleavage" McGlaughlin, 34, of Fairfield, Pa., said some leagues don't take the time to teach skills, such as how to fall and get back up fast, without putting your hands down on the track.
"The first thing we teach is how to fall," he said. "You want to fall small so you don't wipe out the nine other people behind you." He also teaches them how to jump over a down skater. "The trick is to not look down. When you do, you fall forward," said McGlaughlin, who works at Hood College.
He grew up watching roller derby, "from the serious to the silly." But he got hooked on the sport when he saw an A&E television show on roller girls and watched the Charm City Roller Girls, in Baltimore, compete two years ago. He helped that team until he found out about the Roller Vixens, closer to home.
A typical practice includes drills on balance and coordination, cardio endurance, mock bouts and pack drills, where the girls practice their communications skills. It ends with "Queen of the Rink," where it's every woman for herself. Anyone who falls or goes out of bounds is out. Last one standing is queen.
Rebel Shell's husband, Steve "Grizzly Remains" Huy, came just to watch his wife practice.
"My wife wanted to try roller derby. I laughed," said Steve. "The first time I went to a bout I was hooked." He signed on to be a bout announcer, and is now a referee.
"It's an incredible sport," he said. "There's a lot of creativity to it."
A bout is a series of jams. In a jam, which can last up to two minutes, each team has four blockers, one of which is the pivot, and one jammer. The jammer is the only one who can score, by passing through the pack of blockers. The pivot is the lead blocker and the one who communicates to the rest of the pack the location of each team's jammer. A bout is 60 minutes, with about 30 seconds between jams.
Technically, each girl can play any position but "people are generally more suited for some positions than others," said Woods. Petite women and fast skaters are usually good jammers; larger body types make good blockers.
Women of all shapes and sizes can compete, said Woods. "That's why it's such a cool sport."
(This article and the accompanying video can be found
here.)