Photos by Evie Carpenter and Madeline Pado
Ten feet in front of me, a blocker and jammer collided. One girl sprawling for the rail turned into a pile up that involved half the skaters on the rink. The confusion leveled, and the injured jammer crawled away. Before the end of the second quarter, one roller derby skater had already broken an ankle.
The Arizona Derby Dames Championship, held at Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Sept. 24, saw the Coffin Draggers claim victory over the Runaway Brides for the sixth season title.
I looked down at my shoes and realized combat boots would have been a more appropriate alternative to my Sperry Topsiders. Everywhere around me there were fishnets and tattoos. No, I was not at a strip club or a wrestling match, but rather a combination of the two.
Because the sport spans generations, fans of all ages attend. At halftime, a derby girl in shiny golden spandex shorts helped an elderly man carrying a beer down the stairs to his seat. In between bouts a little girl in a tutu with pink in her hair asked a derby girl for an autograph.
These girls are not the stereotypical Barbie-type role model. “Girls are stronger than Hollywood puts them out to be,” said Gwen Steponya, co-captain of the Runaway Brides.
Roller derby is not just a group of women skating in a circle counterclockwise trying to pass one another. The game involves as much strategy as football and as much violence as hockey.
The jammers, labeled with starred helmets, try to pass the three blockers and two pivots of the opposing team. After they pass the pack the lead jammer is in scoring position and gets one point for each player of the opposite team they pass. The games are broken into four 12-minute quarters. Individual jams are 60 seconds long but can be stopped strategically at any time by the lead jammer.
Blockers skate in a tightly knit pack, forming a wall that the jammer must break through. It is a mystery that they can find an opening in the pack the first time around, let alone the second lap around when scoring begins.
Once through the pack, jammers take on the form of a speed skater hunched over to increase aerodynamics and swinging arms to build momentum.
This is where a stadium seat was helpful. From the stands I could see how pivots control the pace of the jam. They conduct the team through a carefully-orchestrated progression of speeding, slowing, arranging and rearranging that is all precisely executed.
The teams play on a steeply slanted elliptical track that encourages higher speeds and harder hits. Players are not allowed to use their hands against other players but are encouraged to whip teammates through the pack and shove each other into opponents. Full body blocking is legal, and a lot of shoulder- and hip-checking are utilized.
For many competitors roller derby is more than a sport; it is a getaway. Many of the women on the team hold jobs and have families and other responsibilities. Steponya is an ASU graduate, single mother of two and a senior accountant.
“Here, I don’t have to be a professional for my job or a mommy for my kids,” she said.
The sport seems to be gaining popularity in Phoenix. The Arizona Derby Dames have expanded to six teams in the state as well as the Banked Track Brats for children.
Teams will make an appearance at this year’s state fair and will begin their seventh season Dec. 3.
The sport originated from skating marathons in the 1920s and has since evolved into something entirely different.
Roller derby has had a series of rebirths since its creation. In the early 2000s when roller derby began another comeback, there were only three or four known leagues. Now, only a decade later, there are 1055 registered leagues worldwide.
Contact the reporter at domenico.nicosia@asu.edu
