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I "A announcement was made for the
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I keep children out of the first
two rows. Those of you sitting there will most likely
have a rollergirl in your lap this evening.
The Classic City Rollergirts skated around the track,
separating from the group one by one as their names
were called: Moshya Brady, Rita Bandita, Chimera
and Axtual Malice were among those who greeted the
packed house, dressed like hellish ballerinas.
The Sept. 18 bout against the Chattanooga Roller
Girls began, the crowd's excitement fueling the skat
ers as they darted around the track. The women seen
smiling and laughing before the bout were suddenly
crouched, throwing their shoulders brutally into their
baby-blue clad opponents.
t “Q rules of roller derby are simple: For every
I two-minute ''jam," each team has a pack
made up of four skaters (three blockers and one pivot)
and a jammer. The jammers, marked with starred hel
mets, attempt to score points by breaking through the
pack, while the blockers work to move their jammer
through and block the opposing team's jammer. Once
the jammer breaks through once, she laps the pack and
skates through a second time, scoring points for every
member of the opposing team she passes.
"You get hit by a lot of people, and when you're
jammer you've got a big star on your helmet and
there's no missing you," says Erin "Rita Bandita"
Cooper, a lead jammer and blocker. "But it's one of
those things where you learn how to predict it and get
out of the way, or you hit back, which is always a lot
of fun and what I enjoy."
The hits continued with the bout and skaters went
flying into the crowd or created pile-ups on the track
while the jammers broke though, bouncing their hands
off their hips to signal points to the ref. While Cooper was
enthusiastic about hits, not all the Rollergirts were ready for
the intensity that comes with a bout.
"Newbie nerves kinda got to me in the beginning, and I got
knocked down quite a few times," says Gretchen "Wretched
Gretchen" Eggiman, a blocker, of her first-ever bout "But after
half-time I was like, 'AU right Gretchen, it's do or die, they're
either going to hit you or you have to hit them. And it's gonna
hurt' And I knew that* I was just scared and nervous... But it
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went really well, and it was really fun, and towards the end of
it I had some pretty good blocks and hits in there."
The Classic City Rollergirts walked away from the September
bout with a 142-95 win and further enhanced celebrity status.
Skate-A-Round USA could barely hold the 800-plus fins of the
team and slowly emptied only after people took pictures and
received autographs from the exhausted skaters.
"Sometimes it feels like we're famous; kids ate really fun
about ft—theyll ask you for autographs. Some kids have asked
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me to sign their jeans before and I'm like, Is that OK
with your mom?'" says blocker Morgan "Axtual Malice"
. Felts.
The popularity of roller derby has seen an increase
since the release of Drew Barrymore's film, Whip It, last
year. It featured Ellen Page as a 17-year-old unlikely
rollergirl who blossomed on a team of quirky women.
After the movie's popularity hit its peak, the Classic City
Rollergirls experienced a revitalization of roller derby
hype.
The team had previously hosted "boot camps" for
interested girls twice a year to teach basic skills, but
soon had so many prospective skaters that they began
accepting girls year-round. Cooper felt encouraged to
try out for the team after seeing Whip It, and noticed a
similar enthusiasm in fans.
"I think that because of the movie Whip It, it's a
whole new world to people. When I came to my first
| bout, even though I'd seen the movie, I wasn't prepared
for how fast-paced it was or the alter-egos people take,
since they didn't really focus on that in the movie," says
Cooper. "I think thafs half the reason people come...
to see girls who, like me, are smiley and nice and like
everyone, legitimately, and then hit other girls and get
really mean and sassy sometimes."
Qr isn't only fans of Whip It who attend the
CXI Rollergirts' bouts—UGA football fans move
from Sanford Stadium to the roller rink on home game
Saturdays to maintain the competitive atmosphere,
i "The fact that it is a competitive sport and being in
a college football town, you already have a lot of team
mentality, and I think that even though we're not affili
ated with the university, we still get a lot of that crowd
! bringing that hype to our bouts," says Eggiman.
The skaters are proud to advertise their league
around town. For Eggiman and Cooper, both students
at UGA, enthusiastic announcements of upcoming roller derby
events have led to questions from their classmates.
"It is definitely a double life, especially when you tell peo
ple, 'Hey, support your local roller derby team,' and they're like,
*Wait, you're a RoUergirt? Don't you have to be pretty badass to
do that?* says Eggiman, who is currently finishing her master's
degree in archeology:
Rollergirts' alter-egos start with their derby names—a
trademark of the roller derby sport and a key intimidation