A roller derby revolution

Written by Rachel Strobel Tuesday, 03 November 2009 08:00

There is a new sports team in the Fargo-Moorhead area that enjoys elbowing, hip-checking and fighting one another during competition.

Hockey season may be right around the corner, but this is not the sport that these individuals play. They have swapped out the blades for wheels and the ice for a flat track. This is the full-contact sport of roller derby and all of its hard-hitting members are women.

The F-M Derby Girls are a non-profit organization that will be competing in their first bout on Saturday, Nov. 7 at the Fargo Civic Center. Their challengers will be the Winnipeg Roller Derby League.

To prepare for their inaugural bout, the ladies meet for practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 to 10 p.m. at Skateland in Fargo. They also meet on Sundays for an off-skate practice at Cormax Fitness Center in Moorhead to build up their strength.

As 8 p.m. rolled around last Tuesday, Skateland was filled with preteens skating around to pop music and parents rounding up their children. Arcade game lights flashed in the background as the F-M Derby Girls laced up their skates. When the rink was empty and Skateland was no longer full of birthday parties and chatter, the fierce derby girls made their way out to practice.

Roller derby has recently become a new trend in America. Leagues have been sprouting up across the United States with eager women ready to strap on their skates. 

The sport of roller derby began in the 1920s, and its hype continued to grow until the 1970s when expenses of travel and competitions caused larger leagues to quit. The revival of the all-female sport began in 2001 in Texas and has been growing in popularity and size since.

The F-M Derby Girls started at the beginning of the year and began to openly recruit in April. They are the first roller derby team in the state, making North Dakota the last state to have a competing roller derby team.

“My feet are itching; I want to be out there,” Beth Ambrosio, a Derby Girl, said as she watched from the sidelines last Tuesday night. The flu may have kept her off the track, but she stayed busy during their practice. She explained the ins and outs of the sport to individuals curious about the Derby Girls.

Ambrosio said they are recruiting for all areas within the sport, which includes skaters, referees, coaches, stat trackers and announcers. Each volunteer in the organization helps with the skate side of the league as well as contributes to the business aspect of the sport. The ladies arrange their bout schedule, do their own advertising and create and maintain partnerships with local businesses.

Skaters that have not been on wheels for a while, or ever, are just as welcome as women that seem to skate better than they walk. “The last time I had put on skates was 22 years ago,” Ambrosio said. “I was surprised how quickly it came back to me.”  

As their practice continued, the girls began to circle the track, bumping and knocking into one another playfully. Some were wearing skirts, some fish net stockings; others wore ruffled skirts with bandanas. No matter what fancy outfit the skater was fit with, all were wearing a helmet and pads.

The sport involves its fair share of bumps and bruises. One of the new recruits asked Ambrosio if they should expect a pretty bad beating. “It can get a little rough,” she answered. “A lot of the violence at one point in the sport’s history was staged. There is checking with shoulders and hips, but there is no head blocking or tripping,” Ambrosio said.

She assured the skaters that chances of getting injured would grow smaller with training and that most injuries occur when skaters are not wearing the proper safety gear.

The F-M Derby Girls are not to be taken lightly though. They do not mind getting bruises and roughing each other up.

So these women must be tough skinned, tattoo covered ladies that won’t take lip from anybody –  man or woman – at anytime, right?

With derby names like Plow Girl and Lil’ Miss Potty Mouth some may be surprised that this tough girl image that is assigned to most derby girls is far from true. The F-M Derby Girls are comprised of many different individuals that come together to form a team and a family.

Lenaya Kerlin is an art major working on her second degree at NDSU. She enjoys roller derby because it is a high contact sport. On the track she is known as Shock Therapy because her first major was in psychology. “When I tell people that I am in roller derby, no one believes me,” Kerlin said. “In high school I was in golf, speech and drama, so this is far away from who I usually am.”

Rhea Newberger, aka Major D. Fect, is a computer technician that first heard of the derby girls from an ad in the newspaper and thought it sounded like fun.

“All of the girls are awesome, they are like a second family to me,” Newberger said. She is a single mother of three children juggling work, derby girls, as well as cub scouts.

Her kids are very excited for the first bout in November. “They will definitely be in the stands holding signs, wearing derby shirts, and cheering for mom,” Newberger said.

For Marybeth Scaffer roller derby could not be a more exciting sport. Although she is not on the team yet she looks forward to strapping on her skates soon. “Now [roller derby] is all I can think about,” Scaffer said.

As a former basketball player, Scaffer said she “couldn’t help but foul out.” Roller derby will give her the chance to be her physical self again. “What I like about the idea of the sport is that it shows that women can be women. They deliver some pain and have some fun too. It seems empowering,” Scaffer said.

This empowerment shows through on the track as well as off. These women volunteer their time to give back in the F-M community. They assist at the Dorothy Day House in Moorhead once a month.

They also helped with a carnival to benefit Logan Frank, an area boy who has autism, receive a therapy dog. A portion of their proceeds from their first bout will also go to Frank’s family.

Another way that they are supporting the community is by having a local band, The Saloon Girls, perform at intermission of their bout. The Snow and Skate Skateboard Team will also thrill the audience with their tricks.

But do not let all of these events distract you from the main show. The F-M Derby Girls now have two teams, The Monkey Wenches and the Fighting Suzies, to take on Winnipeg. They hope to expand to four teams in the near future. 

As interest grows in this rising American sport, the girls will compete in more bouts both with other cities and inter-squad. For now the ladies will continue to beat and battle each other in preparation for their first competition.

So the next time that you think of a physical sport with pushing and checking don’t just think of hockey. Think of the powerful punch that the F-M Derby Girls can pack.