The scene at the Castle Sports Club on this particular evening is not the usual ‘hoo-rah’ of most sports events. There are girls on roller skates wearing pirate costumes, tutus and baseball uniforms and it’s well past Halloween. The crowd gathers around a flat track carefully laid out by tape and the announcers go by the names ‘Fred Nutz’ and ‘Sick Girl’. Welcome to the world of roller derby.
It’s the opening night of its seventh season and the Arizona Roller Derby (AZRD) is preparing for its triple header bout with the Surly Gurlies, the Brawlarinas and the Bad News Beaters. The anticipation is high as the girls are lined up for the first bout of the evening.
“I have to be on that line. I get nervous when I’m on that line,” says Art junior Hannah Langmade aka Gratuitous Violet. “I see the blockers and I know that they are going to kick my ass.”
Roller derby is making a comeback and a group of Arizona’s own women are a part of the movement.
Derby Girls
Stretching Before Practice
Langmade skates for the Surly Gurlies and is in her second year playing derby for AZRD, but she grew up with the sport. Her older sister is a derby girl. “I guess you could say my sister started it, but I continued it,” she says.
Like Langmade, many girls join derby because of someone they look up to or because they want to try something new and fun with friends, says Lynn Violanta aka Rayna Rage, a volunteer and outreach coordinator for a local charity, who is in her sixth season with AZRD.
Having been around for a while, Violanta says she has seen someone from almost every kind of background. “We have a pretty dynamic group of girls,” she says.
Roller derby is female dominated pastime and is popular for women of all ages (18+), shapes, and sizes. The team has quite the range of people. From girls who are shockingly tattooed and with piercings to the girl next door and even a fair share of teachers.
“It’s definitely an exciting counter-culture experience that defies much of what we know about gender norms,” says Ben Wood-Isenberg a non-profit leadership and management and global studies senior who attended the bout out of curiosity and to see something different.
There are a lot stereotypes surrounding girls that join roller derby. Stereotypes that try to define the kind of girls they are, Hassing says. But truth is, the girls form a very eclectic group that doesn’t mold to any of the stereotypes out there.
“I was very surprised, but pleasantly so, to find that a lot of the girls are educated,” she says. “They’re mothers, they’re wives, they have a good head on their shoulders.”
Most of the women are independent, spit-fire girls, says Hassing. All the women like to stand on their own have their own attitudes and roller derby is a great way for them to do that.
“It’s girls with tattoos up and down their arms, piercing, gages,” Langmade says. “But when we put skates on we have to work together as a team and try to be the best.”
Violanta agrees, roller derby has a place form every woman. Regardless of your type, you can find a strength she says. The whole experience looks like a blast and not to mention a bonding experience. As one can see at the bouts, there is a strong camaraderie between the girls.
Many women jokingly say that Derby saved their life, says Violanta, because its given them a new opportunity beyond the life that they had led previous to.
Dress ‘em Up to Knock ‘em Down
One of the most intriguing aspects of Roller Derby would definitely be the the attire. As the rebels of the athletic world, derby tosses the traditional team uniform out the window and embraces something with a little more character.
Making The Rounds
“There are very few sports where you can dress up like a pirate, skate around in circles and it be acceptable,” Wood-Isenberg says.
Langmade says she likes the costumes because they’re fun. “I get to dress up, I get to look pretty, then I get to get my [butt] kicked.”
From frilly bloomers to white face paint, almost anything goes in the world of roller derby attire.
But you can’t dress yourself as a character unless you have an alter ego to go along with it. One of the most piquant aspects of the sport are the aliases that each girl rolls with when they are skating.
“It helps us hone in to our competitive spirit and our personalities that we take on when we’re in costume and on our skates,” Hassing says.
The names are a nod to the fact that the girls just want to have fun, and they want fans to see it as a fun sport too, Hassing adds.
Ann T. Madder, Hassing’s alter ego is a reference to her science teacher days. Like anti matter, Hassing says she hopes to destroy everything on the track.
“A lot of us have a hard time even remembering each others real names,” she says.“We usually refer to the skater names.”
The resurgence of roller derby, an American-born sport, has roots that date back to the early 1920s
Roller derby was created to be a spectacle in which skaters would exaggerate hits and falls, making it more of a show than a sport.
“Back then it was kind of like boxing,” Hassing says. “There were very little rules involved. Most people watched it because they liked to see the fights.”
Sick of fake hits and staged falls, the man who is credited for the creation of roller derby, Leo Seltzer, sought out to legitimize the sport. By the early 1950s, roller derby leagues began sprouting up nationwide with rules and proper conduct added to the game, although full-contact was still permitted.
Cue the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). Since 2004 the organization has been the presiding body for women’s flat-track roller derby. WFTDA has standardized flat-track roller derby by setting up rules and safety standards. The association provides structure and makes for fair competitions among WFTDA leagues.
Even though there are still leagues who abide by the spectacle element, roller derby has evolved into legitimate athletic pastime.
“We are not so interested in the spectacle, as we are in actually playing the game,” Hassing says. “And we are not willing to compromise the way we play.”
Roller Derby: A Sport
Facts of The Game. A sticker on the back of a helmet
Day in and day out, the derby girls practice perfecting maneuvers and refining their skating skills. But is the the school-yard activity one used to do as a child, skating in circles around the block, really a sport?
“If you’ve ever been a roller derby girl, you would say ‘absolutely,’” Hassing says. “We bust our butts off, we are very concerned with athleticism and there is definitely a strategy to the way that you play the game.
Mark Weckerly, a global studies senior says he was really surprised by how much endurance the skaters have.
Although sport has not yet integrated itself into the mainstream world of athletics, the WFTDA has leagues established across the country that participate in competitions each year.
“Id love for it to become a nationally recognized sport,” says Violanta.
That dream may not be too far from reality. Since the WFTDA standardization of everything in derby, some see it as a more reputable activity. Even if there are a few things that set them apart, but a little ‘different’ never hurt anyone.
“We try to be punk and edgy, but there is a lot of qualities that are the same in baseball, football and soccer,” Langmade says. “We want to be athletes and we want to be recognized as athletes.”
Between all the pushing and booty-bumping these girls are not the lot to be messed with. Behind those tutus and pirate garb there lies a true athlete who is not afraid to take a hit. Unlike many of the other female dominated sports out there, roller derby is a full contact sport.
“[Boys] have football, they have hockey, they have soccer. Give us something,” Langmade says.
But she emphasizes that the league is very safe in practice and on the track. The girls are thoroughly trained before being allowed to skate. Otherwise the pose a threat to not only themselves but to the other girl on the track.
“Women have progressed to this day in age to be a little bit more aggressive and be little more independent and have a little more attitude,” Hassing says. “Roller derby in contact has given them a way to express that.”
Read more about the derby breakdown.
Contact the reporter at janice.vega@asu.edu
The video below is a State Press Television special. It profiles the Derby Dames, who are not a part of the WFTDA, but are another derby league in the Phoenix area.
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