Hellions of Troy Roller Derby : Authentic all girl roller derby action.

Hellions on wheels

Roller derby team wants local action

By MAURY THOMPSON – thompson@poststar.com

Shauna Cross, a Los Angeles screenwriter, was searching craigslist.org for a tennis partner when she came across an ad for a women’s roller derby league.

“Instead of a tennis partner, I got a bunch of hilarious, loud-mouthed, bruising broads to skate with,” Cross said in a telephone interview last week.

Cross parlayed her experience into the script for a movie directed by Drew Barrymore, called “Whip It!”

The movie, scheduled for release in 2009, is based on the modern resurgence of women’s roller derby, a sport that first surfaced in the 1930s.

The Hellions of Troy, a newly formed roller derby league, is hoping the action-packed event can be part of the resurgence of the Glens Falls Civic Center.

The group is negotiating with Civic Center management to hold five bouts, as roller derby events are called, at the arena between May and September, with the Troy league hosting visiting leagues from Montreal; Wilkes Barre, Pa.; eastern Pennsylvania; Syracuse; and a yet-to-be-determined team.

Civic Center management thinks roller derby would bring diversity to the arena’s summer offerings, a traditionally slow time in the schedule, said Jason Blumenfeld, the Civic Center general manager.

Area residents got an introduction to roller derby excitement Sunday evening at The Fun Spot in Queensbury, when the Hellions of Troy, in their debut event, defeated the Green Mountain Derby Dames of Colchester, Vt. by a score of 182-92.

The score seemed inconsequential to the action, as packs of women skated around an oval playing area marked out with fluorescent tape on the roller rink floor.

Teams score when their jammer, the skater with a star on her helmet, makes her way through the pack and passes opponents.

Think of the jammer as an inner-city cab driver trying to get through traffic on the way to an airport.

The metaphor is apt, said Sunshine Thunderbolt, a skater in training with the Derby Dames.

One roller derby practice drill was inspired by the way traffic moves in Boston, she said.

Sunday’s event also featured live music, with a Saratoga Springs alternative rock band, Skeletons in the Piano, performing a pre-bout set and a heavy metal band, Sugar Eater, performing during intermissions.

The casual observer could see women’s roller derby as “Coyote Ugly” on wheels.

“It’s more like a wrestling crowd. They get into it. They get noisy, and it’s fun,” said Jim Coyne, general manager of Washington Avenue Armory in Albany, where the Albany All Star Roller Derby League is drawing from 800 to 1,500 fans per event.

“It’s a sport that has a sense of humor to it,” said Cross. In addition to the movie screenplay, Cross wrote the novel “Derby Girl!,” published in 2007 by Macmillan Books.

It’s fun, Cross said, but not frivolous. Cross skated with the Los Angeles Derby Dolls until she took time off recently to have a baby.

Televised roller derby events from the 1960s and ’70s were scripted, but the renaissance version is a serious sport that makes a feminist statement, she said.

“Even though the persona and the vibe and kind of burlesque nature of it is more theatrical, the actual sport is completely real. So when a girl gets hit, she really gets hit,” she said.

“There’s no other outlet where women can sort of be completely aggressively sexy and aggressively athletic at the same time. And I think those dualities exist in a lot of women.”

Roller derby also requires a business acumen, said Danielle Furfaro, of Albany, a skater with the Hellions of Troy.

Roller derby leagues are all player-owned, with the skaters themselves handling the marketing, contract negotiations and raising of investment, said Furfaro, who skates under the name The Beirut Bombshell.

“It’s about strong women who are finding other strong women who are into athletics and are into marketing and managing,” said Andrea Chen of Clifton Park, who skates as Flexi Wheeler.

Her nickname, she said, reflects her interests in skating and body building.

Skaters all use nicknames, some of which have sexual innuendos.

“Some of us need to separate this from the rest of our lives,” said Amy Moore, a community college instructor who co-founded The Hellions of Troy.

Occasionally, innuendo crept into the commentary by announcers at Sunday’s event, but no more than what might be heard at a rodeo.

Skaters, ranging in age from 20 to their early 40s, mostly are young professionals, said Moore, who skates under the name Bitches Bruze, a takeoff on the title of a Miles Davis album.

The women’s roller derby revival began about six years ago in Austin, Texas, said Cross, the screenwriter.

Leagues sprang up in Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Franciso and New York, and the sport grew by word of mouth from there.

“Once you see girls that can do it, you figure out, ‘Well, we could do that, too.’ It’s just been pretty contagious,” she said.

The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association was formed in 2004 to standardize rules and promote competition.

And yes, there are rules.

“There’s 30 pages of rules you have to know,” said “Ref Payback,” a referee from Burlington, Vt. who would only reveal his first name, Peter.

Peter said his wife skates with the Derby Dames.

Seven referees worked Sunday’s event, with officials supplied by each team.

Tactics like hair pulling or punching, which some may recall from televised roller derby events in the 1960s and ’70s, are banned under modern rules.

But the sport does allow aggressive blocking — similar to the checking in a hockey game — at Sunday’s event, and some skaters made repeated trips to the penalty box.

Past experiments with roller sports at the Civic Center have fared poorly.

The Empire State Cobras roller hockey team pulled out of the Civic Center partway through the season in 1996 because of poor attendance.

But the Cobras relied on professional skaters, while women’s roller derby competitors do not receive salaries.

Hellions of Troy organizers said that, with consistent marketing, they can attract upward of 1,500 spectators to the Civic Center and perhaps more at an event expected to be held the same week as Americade, an annual motorcycle rally in Lake George.

Tickets would be priced at no more than $15, Chen said.

About 200 spectators attended Sunday’s event at the Fun Spot, which had a $10 admission price.

Some were die-hard roller derby fans from Albany, Syracuse and Utica, who drove in to show support for the new league.

Others came because they were curious.

“We just remember this stuff from when we were kids,” said Rob Havens, who attended with several friends from the Glens Falls area.

At the first intermission, Havens said he was impressed with the sophisticated skating maneuvers and level of teamwork involved.

“I will definitely check this out again,” he said.

Organizers expect to stage another event at The Fun Spot in February in hopes of building a following, as they look to hold events at the Civic Center.

Moore, one of the organizers, will speak to the Glens Falls Kiwanis Club in a few weeks about the potential of bringing roller derby to the Civic Center, said Blumenfeld, the arena’s general manager.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.