By VANESSA PEARSON
Staff Writer
JACKSONVILLE - Long and lean, Tere Pruett skates around the track with her pale blonde hair sticking out of her helmet. She doesn't look like she'd last long in a hard-hitting roller derby bout.
When one skater mentions skinny girls and toothpicks in the same thought, she quipped back, "I'm not a toothpick - I'm more like a straw."
But the skater who goes by Candy Carnage on the track will tell you otherwise.
"I can take them, but I want my hits to be better," the 42-year-old Athens salon owner said. She's working with a trainer to get stronger.
Candy Carnage is one of the East Texas Bombers' "fresh meat" skaters. Not that the veterans returning this season are "old meat."
"We call them 'tenderized,'" said team captain Amber Ramsour, aka Homici-Doll, a nurse at Mother Frances Hospital.
The Bombers' first home bout of the 2012 season is at 4 p.m. Saturday at Skateland USA on U.S. Highway 69 in Jacksonville.
In The Southern Brawl, the Bombers will face Girls Rolling In The South, aka GRITS, from Jacksonville, Ark.
Tickets to Saturday's bout cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Suicide seats on the floor cost $15. Doors open at 4 p.m.; the bout starts at 5 p.m.
Basic roller derby play is a five-on-five match.
For each 2-minute jam, eight blockers, four from each team, take off at the whistle. Once the pack passes the line, a second whistle blows, and two opposing jammers begin the task of trying to burst through the pack and become lead jammer. The blockers try to stop the opposing jammer while helping theirs get through the pack.
The lead jammer controls the jam and can call it off before the two minutes are up by putting her hands on her hips. Each opposing player the jammer passes counts as one point.
Bouts have two 30-minute halves. The term "bout" comes from boxing, because roller derby is "a fight to the end," according to the Women's Flat Track Derby Association.
The team is different these days. In July, the team had to borrow derby girls from other teams to fill the bout roster, including skaters from Saturday's opponent GRITS.
Now, the Bombers have 15 ready to roster and more in training. It means the Bombers can split the roster for exhibition matches and other events in the region.
But it's more than just how many women pepper the track - practice itself is more serious. Last season, music blared over the speakers as the women worked on their moves.
The laughter still bubbles forth, but the music is missing as Homici-Doll sprinkles her coaching with jokes and tips only a derby girl would come up with.
"If you can't talk with your mouth guard in, that's your job this week," she said while discussing potential penalties for not having a guard in on the track.
But she means business when she tells the fresh meat just what they need to improve.
This night, Homici-Doll's voice is gravely.
"It's always like this the day after the game," she said with a smile before turning back to the circling skaters.
Feb. 26 was the team's first bout this season, but the Bombers suffered a sound defeat against the Rocket City girls, 132-81.
Monica Orchard, an East Texas Medical Center nurse who skates as a jammer under the name Cheekelicious, said she was "so happy" about how the team performed considering all the new team members.
During the first half, Rocket City scored a lead that the Bombers couldn't catch, Cheekelicious said, adding that the team kept it neck and neck during the second half.
The team "did really well," Cheekelicious said.
The team's growth aided a new strategy for who skates when. Now, the team has three jammers in rotation and two sets of four for the pack skaters.
"No one had to think about who was going," Cheekelicious said. We "didn't have to think about it, just got on the floor."
Christy Nitz, who skates as Could Careless when she's not working as a zookeeper, said it's about taking what the women learn in practice and bringing it all together.
"You practice these things ... it's a lot different" when you get in the bout, she said. "But that's with any sport."
The bout marked the debut of the Bombers' "fresh meat."
I was "so nervous. I couldn't hardly eat beforehand - choked down two biscuits," said Angel Sherwood, a.k.a. Dottie Van Damage.
Candy Carnage said she was "glad I got the first one out of the way out of town." She said she expects a lot of people to turn out to watch her skate Saturday, including some from out of state.
She said she was excited to finally play since she began practicing in October.
It surprised her, she said, "how much of it comes to you that you already know. You think you're going blank 30 minutes before, and they blow the whistle and it snaps in."
But nerves aren't limited to the newest. The veterans remember that last bout and the last hit an opponent dished out last season.
"I'm way nervous for GRITS," team captain Homici-Doll said. "More than any other team for one reason: Daisy Fever. She is my derby mistress. I'm still feeling the hit she gave me last year."
And that's what she warns the team of during practice.
"GRITS is way more physical than this," she said.
During practice, Homici-Doll held court in the middle of the rink to go over what went wrong during the Feb. 26 bout.
"I'm disappointed. We broke the cardinal rule. ... We broke off (formation) to chase the jammer," she tells them.
She listens to them talk about what confused them in the heat of the jam before telling them it will only get harder with each new opponent.
"If you think that game was hard, you're in for a sorry surprise in a few months," she said.
But she also offered words of praise, telling the new skaters she was "so impressed" and said "building walls (to stop the opposing jammer) at the front is what the team is good at."
She said the team stopped letting the other team bait them and played the way the Bombers practiced during the second half.
Homici-Doll's biggest tip for Saturday's bout?
"Just think it's the second half all the time, and we'll be fine."
This story originally appeared in the Tyler Morning Telegraph on March 6, 2012.
Staff Writer
JACKSONVILLE - Long and lean, Tere Pruett skates around the track with her pale blonde hair sticking out of her helmet. She doesn't look like she'd last long in a hard-hitting roller derby bout.
When one skater mentions skinny girls and toothpicks in the same thought, she quipped back, "I'm not a toothpick - I'm more like a straw."
But the skater who goes by Candy Carnage on the track will tell you otherwise.
"I can take them, but I want my hits to be better," the 42-year-old Athens salon owner said. She's working with a trainer to get stronger.
Candy Carnage is one of the East Texas Bombers' "fresh meat" skaters. Not that the veterans returning this season are "old meat."
"We call them 'tenderized,'" said team captain Amber Ramsour, aka Homici-Doll, a nurse at Mother Frances Hospital.
The Bombers' first home bout of the 2012 season is at 4 p.m. Saturday at Skateland USA on U.S. Highway 69 in Jacksonville.
In The Southern Brawl, the Bombers will face Girls Rolling In The South, aka GRITS, from Jacksonville, Ark.
Tickets to Saturday's bout cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Suicide seats on the floor cost $15. Doors open at 4 p.m.; the bout starts at 5 p.m.
Basic roller derby play is a five-on-five match.
For each 2-minute jam, eight blockers, four from each team, take off at the whistle. Once the pack passes the line, a second whistle blows, and two opposing jammers begin the task of trying to burst through the pack and become lead jammer. The blockers try to stop the opposing jammer while helping theirs get through the pack.
The lead jammer controls the jam and can call it off before the two minutes are up by putting her hands on her hips. Each opposing player the jammer passes counts as one point.
Bouts have two 30-minute halves. The term "bout" comes from boxing, because roller derby is "a fight to the end," according to the Women's Flat Track Derby Association.
The team is different these days. In July, the team had to borrow derby girls from other teams to fill the bout roster, including skaters from Saturday's opponent GRITS.
Now, the Bombers have 15 ready to roster and more in training. It means the Bombers can split the roster for exhibition matches and other events in the region.
But it's more than just how many women pepper the track - practice itself is more serious. Last season, music blared over the speakers as the women worked on their moves.
The laughter still bubbles forth, but the music is missing as Homici-Doll sprinkles her coaching with jokes and tips only a derby girl would come up with.
"If you can't talk with your mouth guard in, that's your job this week," she said while discussing potential penalties for not having a guard in on the track.
But she means business when she tells the fresh meat just what they need to improve.
This night, Homici-Doll's voice is gravely.
"It's always like this the day after the game," she said with a smile before turning back to the circling skaters.
Feb. 26 was the team's first bout this season, but the Bombers suffered a sound defeat against the Rocket City girls, 132-81.
Monica Orchard, an East Texas Medical Center nurse who skates as a jammer under the name Cheekelicious, said she was "so happy" about how the team performed considering all the new team members.
During the first half, Rocket City scored a lead that the Bombers couldn't catch, Cheekelicious said, adding that the team kept it neck and neck during the second half.
The team "did really well," Cheekelicious said.
The team's growth aided a new strategy for who skates when. Now, the team has three jammers in rotation and two sets of four for the pack skaters.
"No one had to think about who was going," Cheekelicious said. We "didn't have to think about it, just got on the floor."
Christy Nitz, who skates as Could Careless when she's not working as a zookeeper, said it's about taking what the women learn in practice and bringing it all together.
"You practice these things ... it's a lot different" when you get in the bout, she said. "But that's with any sport."
The bout marked the debut of the Bombers' "fresh meat."
I was "so nervous. I couldn't hardly eat beforehand - choked down two biscuits," said Angel Sherwood, a.k.a. Dottie Van Damage.
Candy Carnage said she was "glad I got the first one out of the way out of town." She said she expects a lot of people to turn out to watch her skate Saturday, including some from out of state.
She said she was excited to finally play since she began practicing in October.
It surprised her, she said, "how much of it comes to you that you already know. You think you're going blank 30 minutes before, and they blow the whistle and it snaps in."
But nerves aren't limited to the newest. The veterans remember that last bout and the last hit an opponent dished out last season.
"I'm way nervous for GRITS," team captain Homici-Doll said. "More than any other team for one reason: Daisy Fever. She is my derby mistress. I'm still feeling the hit she gave me last year."
And that's what she warns the team of during practice.
"GRITS is way more physical than this," she said.
During practice, Homici-Doll held court in the middle of the rink to go over what went wrong during the Feb. 26 bout.
"I'm disappointed. We broke the cardinal rule. ... We broke off (formation) to chase the jammer," she tells them.
She listens to them talk about what confused them in the heat of the jam before telling them it will only get harder with each new opponent.
"If you think that game was hard, you're in for a sorry surprise in a few months," she said.
But she also offered words of praise, telling the new skaters she was "so impressed" and said "building walls (to stop the opposing jammer) at the front is what the team is good at."
She said the team stopped letting the other team bait them and played the way the Bombers practiced during the second half.
Homici-Doll's biggest tip for Saturday's bout?
"Just think it's the second half all the time, and we'll be fine."
This story originally appeared in the Tyler Morning Telegraph on March 6, 2012.