They’re no longer wearing fishnet stockings and staging fake fights, but with names like Bella LeBrawl and Elizadeath Warrin’, roller derby players keep one skate firmly planted in the sport’s past.
Since its televised heyday of the 1980s, roller derby has undergone a metamorphosis, re-emerging as a legitimate, full-contact sport with a feminist, do-it-yourself ethic. In western Massachusetts, the Florence-based Pioneer Valley Roller Derby runs four teams, with members from as far north as Greenfield and Turners Falls.
Roller derby games — called “bouts” — are played on a flat oval track. Players skate counter clockwise, scoring points when a specially designated “jammer” breaks past opposing team members.
“I think a misconception people have is that it’s still that kind of performative, sexy thing that it was when it first started — that it isn’t so much a sport, that it’s more of a show,” said Iris Vicencio-Rasku of Greenfield, who has been playing roller derby for four seasons. “I think when they come to a bout for the first time, they realize this is a sport. I think that’s a little bit of a surprise.”
Pioneer Valley Roller Derby was founded a decade ago by Jake “Bazooka Joe” Fahy and Sarah “Pink Panzer” Lang, who live in Holyoke. Back in 2005, the pair went to their friend’s roller derby bout in Providence, R.I. It was the first time they’d ever seen a game.
“We almost instantly were hooked,” Fahy said.
“It was just different,” Lang added. “I played team sports growing up, but I hadn’t done anything in a long time, and it just looked like everyone was having a really good time. It was aggressive and full-contact, but it wasn’t mean-spirited or anything like that. And, it wasn’t fake.”
The two starting thinking about whether roller derby was a sport they could bring to the Pioneer Valley, and decided to give it a go. That winter, they brought a sign-up table to a craft fair in Northampton and staffed it with some members of Providence Roller Derby. A few months after gathering names of interested players, they held their first fundraiser and started looking for practice space.
The league held its first game in February 2006 at the University of Massachusetts.
“We thought it would go over well in the (Pioneer) Valley, that people would think it was pretty cool, and they did,” Fahy said.
Since that time, the league has grown to about 50 consistent members. Worldwide, the sport has grown immeasurably.
“When we started, there were less than 20 clubs in the country. Now there’s almost 1,000 all over the world. It definitely went through an explosive growth period,” Fahy said. “We also, just like almost everyone else, saw a huge bump after the movie, ‘Whip It,’ came out in 2009. We had a lot of interest; we doubled in membership after that came out.”
“Whip It” is about a small-town Texas girl who joins a roller derby team.
Today, the Pioneer Valley Roller Derby league includes four teams: Western Mass Destruction, the women’s A-team; Quabbin Missile Crisis, the women’s B-team; The Dirty Dozen, the league’s men’s team; and United Front, an all-gender/no-gender team. There is also a junior program open to ages 13 to 17.
The league’s home base is “The Bunker,” a 24/7 practice space on Nonotuck Street in Florence. On one recent Thursday, the clatter of skates and the sound of whistles filled the cavernous warehouse, occasionally punctuated by the thud of skaters colliding and hitting the flat track beneath them. The league practices three nights a week and competes in a number of bouts against other teams in the region each season.
The sport follows a strict set of rules that prohibit throwing elbows or punches. A violation warrants 30 seconds in the penalty box. Skaters also wear full protective gear, including helmets, elbow and knee pads, wrist guards and a mouth guard. Some players also wear padded shorts and shin guards.
Still, players do get injured.
“I’ve seen people get really hurt. I’ve seen people dislocate their shoulders, I’ve seen people break their legs, I’ve seen people get concussions,” Vicencio-Rasku said.
Each bout, played by two teams of five players, is played in two 30-minute periods broken up into short match-ups called “jams.” During a jam, both teams designate a jammer — identified by a star on their helmet — who scores points by passing members of the opposing team. Blockers try to hinder the opposing jammer, while helping their own jammer break through the pack.
One blocker can be designated as a “pivot,” who’s allowed to become the jammer during the course of play. Pivots are identified by a stripe on their helmet.
Fahy said the league’s members are remarkably diverse.
“Over the course of our existence, we’ve had people from every possible occupation you could think of — students, we have a member on my team who’s in his 60s, all kinds of people,” he said. “We’ve had parents and their children play at the same time; we’ve got students from all over the country, so it’s pretty diverse.”
Players say the sport also fosters a culture of acceptance and support among members.
“The DIY ethic that derby started with is very much maintained,” said Vicencio-Rasku, who works as a nurse practitioner and goes by the derby name “Vicencio.” “It’s run by its members, its sustained by its members, everything is a volunteer effort.”
Ness “Spank Robber” Bellini, also of Greenfield, works as a case manager for homeless LGBTQ young adults at Dial/Self. Bellini identifies as queer, and said their decision to join derby, in part, was influenced by its inclusive culture.
“Before I played roller derby, I was a ballerina, and there’s this thing in ballet where you’re supposed to look a very specific way and there’s a horrible weight loss culture, and roller derby is the polar opposite,” Bellini said. “There are women and men and other people here of every different shape and size and race and gender and sexuality.”
Vicencio-Rasku added that there’s no ideal body type for roller derby, which is part of the beauty of the sport. She said everyone can take a crack at playing different positions, so depending on what players’ strengths are, there is a role for them.
“I can’t even characterize what a jammer is supposed to be, because we have so many different types of people jamming,” she said. “You might assume that you have to be kind of small and light on your feet, what we call jukey — someone who can move around the track really quickly — but that’s only one style of jamming. We have people who are like locomotive trains and can just plow through a line of people. That’s a very different body type and style of jamming. The same thing goes for blockers.”
For the men and women of derby, there is much to love about the sport.
Vicencio-Rasku was an ice hockey player before joining the league.
“I love that it’s a team sport. I love that the community is really supportive. I love that it’s a combination of therapy, exercise and being with a bunch of people who are great,” she said.
Vicencio-Rasku has a 9-year-old daughter, and said she’s happy her daughter is able to watch the team play.
When asked what she hopes her daughter takes away from the sport, she said, “I think it’s just seeing her mommy do something that is not really expected of a mommy. I think that we’re all good role models for her.”