Local ladies serious about Roller Derby league
By Josh Kolm
Sports
Editor
August 3, 2010
 Anyone who thinks roller derby is a silly game clearly hasn’t met anyone involved with it.
“Since there are reporters here, be mindful of what you say,” Rae Wyatt tells several crowded tables at the third meeting of the Border City Brawlers. “You’re representing your league and fellow players. We’ll probably do media training soon.”
Wyatt—derby name “Hooligal”—has four years of experience with the game, and despite not having plans to play once the Brawlers are ready, has become the de facto organizer for the league planning to operate locally in the grassroots sport.
“I applied for a job and the manager said he had a friend who played roller derby because I had it on my resume,” she said about how she became the head by accident. “I said, ‘Well, everyone should play roller derby,’ so I started the Facebook page and got some people and we began having meetings.”
Played on roller skates, derby involves two teams of five skating around a circuit-style track. Players use their speed, strategy and hits to the body to gain position on the other team in order to score points, resulting in very fast, very rough action.
The meetings have brought out an interesting mix. One aspiring player, Cheri, is a hair stylist who brought her daughter. Ashley Holman—“Ash Hol”—is a second-year student at the University of Windsor. There is also interest in a junior league for girls aged 13-17.
Some have been fans of derby for a long time, traveling to watch matches—“bouts”—in Detroit and Toronto, while others have had their interest sparked more recently.
“I saw Whip It,” Holman admitted, referring to the Ellen Page-starring, Drew Barrymore-directed film revolving around derby girls, released earlier this year. Other referenced Rollergirls, a reality show revolving around a league in Texas that aired briefly in 2006.
Those with access to ESPN Classic may associate roller derby with Roller Games, a televised series from the 1960s that utilized theatrical stunts and regular fights to draw in viewers.
Although there have been attempts to revitalize the series, contemporary roller derby was born in the early 2000s when groups in Texas started a league, insisting on all-female teams played on flat tracks. The organizers’ personal tastes led to an incorporation of rockabilly and punk aesthetics into the team uniforms and branding, which remains a definite influence on today’s derby girls.
The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association was formed in 2004 when an online message board was formed that allowed leagues to consult with each other on how to best operate. In 2005, 20 leagues from across North America met to form a governing body and definitive source of rules for roller derby. Today, the WFTDA is a registered not-for-profit business that recognizes 89 members across the US, Canada and United Kingdom.
Generally, roller derby follows an interlock competition system. Anyone can train to join their local league, which will usually have between two and six house teams. In addition to this, each league will often have a travel or varsity squad that travels to play representative teams from other leagues.
The Brawlers can look forward to bouts with teams from Detroit—where Wyatt normally plays—as well as Flint, London and Toronto. However, they have a long way to go. Nearly everyone at the meeting was new to roller derby, and many have never been on skates.
Cheri is confident the skill will come to the girls that are motivated enough. “It’s not hard to learn. A lot of it is common sense and training. Once you go skating, it becomes just like riding a bike. It becomes second nature to you.”
While male and mixed-gender leagues exist, the tradition of keeping teams all-female has remained, and supportive men take on tasks off-track.
Holman acknowledges a third-wave feminist influence on the organization of derby, but another potential player chooses to take a less ideological approach.
“Even though girls could play football, they are usually all males on the teams,” she said. “With a few exceptions, girls just aren’t interested in football. And for whatever reason, the opposite is true for roller derby.”
Males are still involved with roller derby, typically seen refereeing bouts, scorekeeping and acting as “jeer-leaders”.
“If there was interest, we could start a men’s league,” Wyatt said. “But typically there aren’t enough guys who want to play roller derby.”
There is a definite quirkiness to the game that can be simultaneously attractive and hindering. While the style and inherent non-mainstream ethos draws in players and volunteers, it can make derby seem like a fad.
Bring things back to the meeting, and you can see derby needs to be serious in order to be successful. Talks range from choosing team colours and logos to finances, sponsors and appointing committee heads.
The discussions would seem very familiar to anyone who has ever been involved with minor hockey, baseball or soccer. The next big step, however, is for those who really want this league to function properly to take their seriousness and use it to get results.
“It’s tough because a lot people don’t know what they’re doing or they don’t know that they could step up and do it themselves,” Wyatt said. “A lot of the girls really want to be involved but they don’t know how. They come to the meetings and they’ll sit here and listen.
Anyone wishing to get involved with the Border City Brawlers can visit their Facebook page or the forum at http://borderbrawlers.freeforums.org for information on the next meeting, training sessions and how to lend a hand.
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