RSS
Home
Mama said knock you out: Meet the moms of the Rat City Rollergirls
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
Meet Scarlet Leather, one of the moms
of the Rat City Rollergirls
It's almost 9pm on a rainy Wednesday night, and Mary Rostad is lacing up her roller skates. Her husband was home late from work today, delaying the handoff of the kids so she could head to roller derby practice. "I hate being late," she says, looking a little flustered as she pulls on knee pads and wrist guards. "It takes me so much longer to warm up than the younger girls." She tightens her helmet and glides off into the crowd of women circling the rink. On the rink, Mary has become her roller derby alter ego, Sugar N. CreamHer. Within moments, Sugar N. CreamHer is leaning forward on her skates and sending a well-aimed shoulder into the younger woman skating next to her. She barely glances back as the other woman careens off to the side. Welcome to the world of moms in the roller derby.
Sugar N. CreamHer and her teammates are part of the Rat City Rollergirls, the Seattle area roller derby league. Made up of all sorts of women, including quite a few moms, Rat City Rollergirls is growing in popularity in the Seattle area, just as roller derby is flourishing across the country. Unlike most sports that require participation from an early age, roller derby offers strong, aggressive, athletic competition for adults, and the women lacing up the skates to play love it.
For the uninitiated, watching roller derby for the first time is a bit confusing, so here's a quick and dirty version of what the heck is going on: To play, two teams of five women each skate laps around the rink for about two minutes at a time. One player on each team, the jammer, is tasked with scoring points against the other team. Identified by the star on her helmet, the jammer scores each time she passes an opposing player. The other players, meanwhile, are doing their best to slow down the opposing jammer and protect their own jammer. They skate in clumps to block the opposing jammer's path, or slam into other players to clear the path for their own teammates. The action is fast, sometimes resulting in sprains and broken bones, but these women still move better on roller skates than most people move without them.
Unlike roller derby from the 1960's and 70's, which was choreographed much like professional wrestling is today, modern roller derby is the real deal. The competion is intense, the injuries are real, and the players take it seriously. "Sometimes a situation might get a bit heated," said Marlene Hall, another mom, known as Sassy Chassis. "Broken back, broken collar bones, concussions, etc. It comes with the game, but not done with bad intentions."
Sugar N. Creamher
[Photo by Jules Doyle - Type2BPhoto]
And being a mom doesn't offer any protection in this rough and tumble sport. Said Hall, the oldest player in the league, "A lot of these girls could be my daughters. This makes it kind of weird for hitting and rough stuff. I remember one of my first games, I told the other team, 'I know that you all respect me, but during our game I want you to hit me hard, because I'm going to be hitting you hard back... okay?' They all laughed and told me they never give me any breaks anyway."
As moms, these women think about what kind of message the aggressive play is sending to kids, particularly girls. "The unique pull for fans who are women and girls is that they can identify with us," said Jessica Ivey, another mom who goes by the name 'Scarlet Leather'. "We use the word 'empowering' a lot, because I think that's how most of us feel. For my generation of women, sports have definately become more inclusive, and roller derby is a revolutionary chapter of that progress for girls in sports. As athletes from various sport backgrounds, we have re-defined a sport on our terms, not just a female version of a male sport."
Click here to go to page 2 of "Meet the moms of the Rat City Rollergirls"
Find out more about the Rat City Rollergirls at their official website. http://www.ratcityrollergirls.com/
Check out the list of all the rollergirl names across the country, right here.
Learn more about the history and background of roller derby, right here.
Want to create your own roller derby name? Here is a fun name generator to try.
Related Articles:
Comments
