I just read an amazing article by a writer that tried out for the Minnesota Roller Girls. Wow. Not only a good read, but an amazing tale of heartbreak and pain, work and sweat for fresh meat girls with the dream of playing roller derby.

As a player that started out as one of the "Come one, Come All" girls, the last or next to last member to join Les Contrabanditas in Montreal in 2006, I didn't have the experience of having to train like a madwoman for months and then have to try out in front of a league and screaming coaches to see if I made the cut. And then being sent home because I sucked more than half the other girls, and am not worthy to play for the team.

If I had, I probably wouldn't have done it. Why? I was never into sports or doing anything in front of people I didn' t know before roller derby. I was too shy, too reserved, too scared... it was roller derby that made me willing to wear a short skirt, to skate in front of people and try to jump, fall, hit, move, skate faster, get up and sweat with confidence and even...glee. After Les Filles started up, and La Racaille, our 2008 recruitment in Montreal before I left was more organized, with training, boot camps, draft picks and all that, but I don't think we told any girls no, and I don't think anyone was turned away..."until next year's tryouts" except for those that were just learning to skate and could not safely stay up yet.

I am so hard on myself that I doubt I would make it onto a team like MN if I were to go to tryouts, even if I were to go after the next 8 months in the gym I am spending, after over a year playing and training in Montreal behind me, because I would have to compete against all these skaters that I would think were better than me, and that would probably be better than me, with the huge insurgence of true, hardcore, Olympic-gold, hyper-competitive athletes that are getting into roller derby.

And having never had that All-Star player, winning jammer, award-winning blocker experience, I have no personal grounds to build my rollergirl confidence. Roller derby still seems to welcome women of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds, but I think I am correct in that we're hearing the first groans of a labor pain, that will birth a new era of today's roller derby, that will make it start feeling more and more like all the mainstream sports I never joined.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope that if I am right, I'll be happy for roller derby. I hope if it does, that we keep some grass roots, amateur-style, come one and all, we love roller derby leagues that maybe become the farm teams for all the high rollers. I could train on a farm team until I'm good enough for the big leagues., sure I could!

I heart roller derby.

Labels: media, MNRG, roller derby, training

Photo: 2008 Saugen Photography

Spike has been following roller derby since its renaissance in Minnesota in 2004. In 2005 he joined the ranks of the striped shirt wearers managing the Minnesota RollerGirls penalty box. As his skating skills progressed he joined the ranks as a pack referee and left his glorious penalty box managing days behind him. In 2007 spike became the MNRG Head Referee.

He has helped manage the MNRG all-stars as well as officiated dozens of bouts both intraleague and interleague. He's travelled thousands of miles to watch roller derby, including both Dust Devil tournaments, Bumberbout, 2007 WFTDA Nationals and others.

He helps represent his league as a WFTDA Referee Rep and facilitated the first WFTDA referee conference at the 2007 New Orleans WFTDA Conference.
He loves flat track roller derby and his rollergirls, and sometimes feels like a big brother to 80+ women.

Like everyone else, he has opinions about how derby should go, but his views don't necessarily reflect the opinions of MNRG or WFTDA.

tell me about yourself in a few sentences.
did that already

who are you?
some doofus.

how and when did you get involved in derby and with MNRG?
see above

what do you love about RD?
the skating, the fact that i get great exercise out of something fun and most definitely the great people involved in my league.

i've seen that infamous photo of the RWA on the net. what is it like to ref in st paul in front of 2000+ people compared to any other place?
its a trip. we've all gotten used to it so its actually more strange to not have that constant noise during a bout.

what kind of gear do you use?
crappy protec elbow pads, way old but loved salomon wrist guards, EVS knee pads (LUV EM!), ProTec helmet, Riedell 265 boots with Laser Plates and Bones Reds bearings and Devil Ray wheels

where do you see RD in 5 years?
not much different. 5 years is too short of a time for RD to completely take off, but in 5 we'll be starting to either die off or have gotten some serious media footholds.

best advice you can give the derby community in 5 words or less?
dont take it seriously. seriously.

Labels: MNRG, refs, Spike