An old alternative sport is becoming a new national trend, combining campy and sexy outfits, including spankies and fishnets, with the tough blows usually reserved for football and hockey: roller derby.
The women of the Houston Roller Derby have taken attitude and resiliency to a new level.
"I do network security from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and at night I like to beat chicks up," Psych Ward Sirens player Carmen Geddit said.
Women from different backgrounds -†full-time moms, teachers, lawyers and even a librarian – form the different teams of the Houston Roller Derby League. Sinister derby names -†Orange Crush, Goldie Bloxx, Tawdry Hepburn, Ivanna B. Sedated – fill the ranks of the league’s teams: Machete Betties, the Bayou City Bosses, the Psych Ward Sirens and the Burlesque Brawlers.
The rules of the game are simple: two teams comprised of five girls skate around the ring trying to earn points. Teams consist of a pivot, a lead blocker, three other blockers and one position known as the jammer (scorer).
The "pack," as it’s most commonly known, is made up of the blockers (defense and offense) and the one pivot. At the start of the first whistle, the pack begins skating around the rink, following the pivot’s pace. Once the pack goes around the rink once, the referee blows the whistle again, and the jam, a 2-minute game session, begins with the jammers following suit, said Orange Crush, a head referee Orange Crush.
The jammers are the only ones who are able to score points for the team. Jammers earn points by passing each of the opposing team’s blockers, earning a possible four points. And in some cases, if a jammer catches up to another jammer, an extra point is earned.
Bouts between teams are made up of two 30-minute periods, each consisting of multiple jams.
"I’ve been with Houston Roller Derby since day one. I had a girlfriend who said, ‘Hey what are you doing Sunday morning? Wanna go roller staking?’ I’ve been skating with them ever since," Geddit said. "I was never skater, just went to random rink parties. I actually learned how to skate when I joined Houston Roller Derby."
Geddit, a self-described practical joker, derived her skater alias from a play on "come and get it." Geddit also said the camaradery and self-satisfaction is what makes the effort and time put into the league worth it.
"It’s a full-contact sport like hockey or football – but it’s all women," Geddit said. "We’re running the business, playing the sport. We do the whole thing. We don’t have any managers. It’s very empowering to be able to get out here and perform in front of the crowd of 12 to 1,400 people and known that we’ve done this entirely by ourselves."
But along with the satisfaction of completing and participating in a event that draws a crowd, the ladies of the Houston Roller Derby believe they are at the forefront of a new phase in women’s equality, breaking widely-held stereotypes of women and contact sports.
Hovering over 6 feet tall, with her hair in braids, Catazon, member and co-captain of the Burlesque Brawlers, is an opponent that few take on lightly -†even with her day job.
"I can hold my own against everyone. I’m a librarian," Catazon said.
Although it’s not a requirement, many of ladies of the Houston Roller Derby come from an athletic background, citing the derby as a part of a natural progression.
"I’ve always been athletic. I’ve competed in figure, freestyle, dance and free skating my whole life, so this was a natural step," Catazon said. "I quit skating after high school, just skated recreationally here and there. I probably didn’t skate in five years when I tried out."
Even though the sport has a recreational foundation, it is still a contact sport, which comes with a heavy price: injuries.
"I’ve been out for 10 months; broke my ankle in last August’s bout," Catazon said. "In our August bout, I hit the low lights and my skate got stuck and my foot went sideways. It was a compound fracture and broke in half. The bone pierced the outside of the skin. It was pretty nasty."
Bumps, bruises and scrapes aside, many of the women of the derby wouldn’t have it any other way. The exercise, satisfaction and the competition -†all of them make the experience worth it.
"You look at the girls that are best and the hardest to take down, and you want to take them down. I mean, you want to get to that level where if you come up next to jammer that’s hard to get down and you take them down. It feels good," Catazon said.
Even though the ladies of the Houston Roller Derby are a close-knit group, they don’t see themselves as being exclusive.
"Anyone can try out. We are at the point where our league is an established league and we compete nationally. We have tryouts," Geddit said. "Not only does it involve interviews, but skills assessment and scrimmages to make sure that we’re getting a skater on the league who’s going to work hard enough to play the sport."
Tryouts for the team is a three- day process, beginning with a two-day boot camp session held Aug. 8 and 11, followed by a tryout session Aug. 12. Attendance is required for all three days and candidates must be female and at least 21 years old.
And for the few out there who still believe that women can’t play contact sports, Catazon says: "Come and watch this game. Come see the girls train and play hard for this game and take the big hits, because I doubt that they’ll be able to do it."
