BY VANESSA PEARSON
JACKSONVILLE - Round and round they go. These skaters stop only when the whistle blows or they slam into the rink floor.
Roller derby comes with an inherent violence - it's like being in "a fist fight for an hour," Amber Ramsour said.
The 30-year-old nursing student, business owner and mother of two goes by "Homici-Doll" when she hits the track with the East Texas Bombers, the area's only flat-track roller derby team.
"This is a one-of-a-kind sport. You don't find sports like this anywhere else, with the amount of adrenaline, the amount of contact, the amount of action you get," she said. "There's no other sport like this for women, especially in East Texas."
But make no mistake - throwing elbows, tripping opponents and hitting on the back, above the shoulders or below the knees will land a player in the penalty box, a place to which Homici-Doll is no stranger.
"I'm not afraid of the box," she said, bragging about how often she was sent there during the June bout.
That doesn't prevent skaters from stopping opponents with their hips and knocking them down with blocks.
Bruises are a derby girl's rite of passage.
"I go home and beat mine to make them worse," Homici-Doll said.
Serious injuries are uncommon, especially with proper equipment; and emergency personnel are required to be on site during bouts.
"It feels like a car wreck the next day," said referee Phil Reynolds, aka "Lethal Librarian," as he strapped on pads and his helmet before helping out with practice Monday. The 44-year-old gets his rink name from his day job - a librarian at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches.
"It's like, 'Come on, everyone; let's go crash,'" Homici-Doll said during practice as she nursed a knee injury and filled out post-bout paperwork. Later, she said, "10 months - this is the first time I'm not in skates at practice."
Homici-Doll said roller derby girls come from all facets of society.
Skaters on the Bombers include nurses, a banker, physical therapists and an emergency medical technician. The most unique day job belongs to Christy Nitz, 26. She's a zookeeper for large mammals at Caldwell Zoo and goes by "Could Careless" on the track.
Monica Orchard, 37, who goes by "Cheekelicious" on the track, said, "We all have full lives outside derby."
These ladies wear plenty of short shorts and fishnets, but that's not what derby is about; they say it's the friendship, the athleticism, the fun.
The newest member of the team, Victoria Honey, 24, an attorney for a small East Texas firm, said she was drawn to the sport because of the "camaraderie of it" and her competitive streak.
Some said they got into the sport after watching Ellen Page zoom around a track in the 2009 film "Whip It" or reading the book it was based on, "Derby Girl" by Shauna Cross.
"There was no rugby team around. I played rugby in Austin, but then I read a book called 'Derby Girl,' and I really fell in love with the whole … scenery of what roller derby could be," Cheekelicious said.
Allison Day, 23, aka "Alli-Get-Her," got into roller derby because she liked skating when she was a girl.
What keeps Alli-Get-Her skating is that there is "always something I can work on … always improve."
The White Oak resident said a downside of derby life for her is the commute - one of the twice weekly practices is in Jacksonville. But "I'm not going to quit just because."
Homici-Doll said not having a space for practices and bouts in Tyler makes recruiting skaters difficult. The roster is short, so the team borrows skaters from teams in Texarkana and Arkansas when it's time for a bout. The skaters want to expand the team and say anyone is welcome to try out.
Michelle McCann aka "Shell Shock" said, "We're always recruiting for more skaters, refs, coaches and volunteers."
SELF-MADE SPORT
The popularity of roller derby picked up around the turn of this century in Texas. It began in Austin and spread across the globe.
The sport had cycles of popularity throughout the 20th century, starting in the 1920s with Leo Seltzer's touring Trans-continental Roller Derby races with collisions and falls, and it was first televised in the 1940s to larger audiences, according to the association's website. The business transferred to Seltzer's son in the '60s, when competing franchises started, but popularity dwindled in 1973.
Short-lived attempts to revive the sport appeared in the 1980s and 1990s, including the RollerGames that had stunts with alligator pits and stage action and storylines, according to the website.
Today, the Women's Flat Track Derby Association has 117 member leagues and 72 apprentice leagues. In 2010, more than 470 roller derby leagues existed globally.
The East Texas Bombers started in 2004, disbanded in 2008 and came back in 2009. The team is working to gain apprentice league status for next year's season.
Leagues are operated by the skaters.
Everything the Bombers need - gear, travel expenses, rink fees - is financed personally, with dues, ticket sales or through fundraising.
Dues are $40 per month per player and help cover the costs of travel and renting practice space. The women had a car wash in June to raise money.
The team rents Skateland USA on U.S. Highway 69 in Jacksonville for $70 for every practice, but the owners give the team two free Mondays each month.
When it's time for the next bout, it's the team that does the work of selling the tickets and promoting it. Homici-Doll said it costs about $2,500 to put on one bout.
Shell Shock got a job to support her derby habit. The 37-year-old started serving at the Jacksonville Jalapeño Tree so she could buy skates and travel to bouts.
Skates can cost from $100 to $1,000. Most cost $150 to $250. Homici-Doll said her custom-made skates set her back $750. A starter set of pads and a helmet costs about $40, she said.
THE BOUT
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 the remaining skaters, a pair of jammers, begin catching up and trying to burst through the pack. The blockers try to stop the opposing jammer while helping theirs get through the pack.
The jammer's goal is to break through first and become lead jammer. Jammers race around the track to catch the pack and begin scoring.
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 passed counts as one point.
Each pass can add up to five points if the jammer passes her opposing counterpart.
Bouts have two 30-minute halves. The term "bout" comes from boxing, because roller derby is "a fight to the end," according to the derby association.
The Bombers practice twice weekly.
In late June, the team starts practice with laps around the track, then moves into stretching to warm up. Cheekelicious takes the lead, calling out the next move and counting for the team.
Homici-Doll joins the warm-up late, and the whirring of her wheels as she circuits the rink breaks up Cheekelicious' calls in the warm-up. The women chat about this and that while they stretch their muscles in the center of the rink. Topics switch faster than the jams in the bout do. It's just like any other team warming up - save the clatter of their skates bumping the wooden floor as they switch positions. The session is punctuated with some women breaking into Tiffany's rendition of "I Think We're Alone Now."
Practice kicks off with racing "snakes," where the back skater weaves between other skaters until reaching the front as the line circuits the track. Then the lead skater races the weaver around until they reach the snake, and it repeats until everyone has gone.
When it's Cheekelicious' turn, her speed and grace shine as she circuits the track and makes the weaving look effortless.
Homici-Doll takes a more boisterous approach to helping a group of blockers master the power drive. It's a move in which players use the hip and upper thigh to slow opposing blockers and make holes for the jammer to zip through. It's a move that can be used effectively on any size of girl, Homici-Doll said.
"Positional blocking is the No. 1 way we play the game. Eighty percent of the game is noncontact," she said.
Power driving also is an aggressive move, one Homici-Doll said she's used on a much bigger girl during their June bout in Baton Rouge.
Ms. Honey, an attorney, has been skating with the team for less than a month. She quickly picks up on how to block and get up fast when she falls, but she struggles during sprints and the racing snake.
Weeks later, she's improved, but she said she wants to be better.
"I'm a very competitive person," she said while taking off her pads. The hardest part for her is "trying to keep up with everyone."
At this point, she's been with the team for less than two months.
She said she thinks, "'Why am I going so slow?' I want to be good today … to be excellent today."
SHOWTIME
The day of the bout, supporters pile into Skateland USA to watch the Bombers take on the Capital Defenders from Baton Rouge, La.
"Right before a game, I get all nervous … and I think that's just the best thing is being able to exert some energy and the adrenaline going from competition," Cheekelicious said.
Ms. Honey is at the ticket booth in a bold-colored, floral print dress. She's not skating yet; she said she hopes she'll pass the skills requirement and debut in September's bout. She's helping with anything that needs to be done, including selling tickets and passing out signs to support the team. Before the bout, she leans against the counter, chatting with her boyfriend, the skaters and those who've come to see the women battle it out.
Her eyes light up when asked about her skate name - she doesn't have one yet, but they are tossing two or three around.
"But I want one real bad," she said with enthusiastic conviction.
Sara Callahan, Shell Shock's cousin, helps in the DJ booth by volunteering to call her first roller derby bout.
"I really admire all of them," she said. "They are real athletes. … I go to all the bouts, so I just want to help out where I can. I'm not fit enough, but I can use my voice."
After Alli-Get-Her sings the national anthem, the Bombers start strong. Cheekelicious takes the first lead jammer spot after an early pileup, starting the game in the lead.
From the bench, Homici-Doll reminds blockers on the floor to "keep your buddy." When Cheekelicious is on the bench, she warns the pack by calling out "jammer's coming on" so her team can be ready to prevent the jammer from scoring.
As the pack rounds the track during the second jam, a Bomber takes a hard hit and slams into the wall.
Midway through the first half, Cheekelicious gets low and picks up speed as the jammer. She makes two easy laps and grabs eight points. She'll grab 24 more before the bout ends.
The Capital Defenders held the score close throughout the game. Jammer "Uni-Psycho," in white rumba shorts, gets whipped - a move where a blocker grabs the jammer's hand and propels her forward to pick up speed and pass the pack.
Erin Sullivan, 29, of Baton Rouge, got her skate name Uni-Psycho from her interesting mode of transportation - a unicycle.
She was spotted riding when someone urged her to join the team, so she's been skating since February.
At halftime, the Bombers are up 74-68.
Ms. Honey said this game was "a vast improvement from last time."
Last time was the June 18 bout when the teams met on the Capital Defenders' home turf and lost, 168-64.
Shell Shock said it was a "pretty strong first half" as she stopped by the counter. "Keeping the lead jammer - it's the strategy. … (We want to) keep up and push the momentum" in the second half.
And that's what the Bombers do for the most part in the second half.
But the Defenders' Cailla Sinclar has other plans. Known as "C-Murdaa" on the track, the 21-year-old nanny and college student from Prairieville, La., attacks on the jam, slamming into the Bombers' blockers several times.
From the seats, friends and family from both teams cheer.
Ms. Honey's boyfriend, Emmanuel Agyemang, perches on a pool table and yells for the Bombers: "She can't handle you, Homicide." He said he liked watching derby and was surprised with how it's played.
"(There's) a lot of strategy - more than I thought. It's more about timing. ... I thought it would be more physical," Agyemang said.
As the clock runs down, the last jam is on. The Bombers are down, 143-139.
"Sassie Longlegz" - Rebecca Stover - breaks through the pack three times to score 12 points.
The 28-year-old top scorer, with 55 points for the bout, is a borrowed player; she skates with the Breakneck Brawlers in Jacksonville, Ark.
"Derby: there's nothing like it," she said. She played sports in high school, and roller derby is the hardest, she said, but most rewarding. Sometimes, the coach wants the jammer to end the jam, but she said she's often saying, "Please let me keep going."
"If the jammer has the energy, why not?"
The final score is 151-143 for the Bombers. The audience erupts, and the women are sweaty but ecstatic.
Could Careless said her favorite moment was "when I took down the big girl."
"I like to hit the big girls and bring them down," she said. "It makes you feel good because it's harder (to do)."
"This was a real physical game - a grudge match," Lethal Librarian, who was head referee, said after the bout. "It's brutal."
rolling
Practice is sparsely attended on Monday after the victory.
But the women feel good, talking about how they won and improved. "We baited them into playing our physical game," Homici-Doll said.
She was feeling it, with her right knee in a thigh-to-calf brace.
She did it falling and sliding. She blames the fishnets.
"I never wear fishnets - I hate them … because you slide in them."
But it's not about the victory for her.
"Win or lose, I'm still happy," Homici-Doll said. "I love this game, these girls."
This story originally appeared in the Tyler Courier-Times--Telegraph on July 24, 2011.
JACKSONVILLE - Round and round they go. These skaters stop only when the whistle blows or they slam into the rink floor.
Roller derby comes with an inherent violence - it's like being in "a fist fight for an hour," Amber Ramsour said.
The 30-year-old nursing student, business owner and mother of two goes by "Homici-Doll" when she hits the track with the East Texas Bombers, the area's only flat-track roller derby team.
"This is a one-of-a-kind sport. You don't find sports like this anywhere else, with the amount of adrenaline, the amount of contact, the amount of action you get," she said. "There's no other sport like this for women, especially in East Texas."
But make no mistake - throwing elbows, tripping opponents and hitting on the back, above the shoulders or below the knees will land a player in the penalty box, a place to which Homici-Doll is no stranger.
"I'm not afraid of the box," she said, bragging about how often she was sent there during the June bout.
That doesn't prevent skaters from stopping opponents with their hips and knocking them down with blocks.
Bruises are a derby girl's rite of passage.
"I go home and beat mine to make them worse," Homici-Doll said.
Serious injuries are uncommon, especially with proper equipment; and emergency personnel are required to be on site during bouts.
"It feels like a car wreck the next day," said referee Phil Reynolds, aka "Lethal Librarian," as he strapped on pads and his helmet before helping out with practice Monday. The 44-year-old gets his rink name from his day job - a librarian at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches.
"It's like, 'Come on, everyone; let's go crash,'" Homici-Doll said during practice as she nursed a knee injury and filled out post-bout paperwork. Later, she said, "10 months - this is the first time I'm not in skates at practice."
Homici-Doll said roller derby girls come from all facets of society.
Skaters on the Bombers include nurses, a banker, physical therapists and an emergency medical technician. The most unique day job belongs to Christy Nitz, 26. She's a zookeeper for large mammals at Caldwell Zoo and goes by "Could Careless" on the track.
Monica Orchard, 37, who goes by "Cheekelicious" on the track, said, "We all have full lives outside derby."
These ladies wear plenty of short shorts and fishnets, but that's not what derby is about; they say it's the friendship, the athleticism, the fun.
The newest member of the team, Victoria Honey, 24, an attorney for a small East Texas firm, said she was drawn to the sport because of the "camaraderie of it" and her competitive streak.
Some said they got into the sport after watching Ellen Page zoom around a track in the 2009 film "Whip It" or reading the book it was based on, "Derby Girl" by Shauna Cross.
"There was no rugby team around. I played rugby in Austin, but then I read a book called 'Derby Girl,' and I really fell in love with the whole … scenery of what roller derby could be," Cheekelicious said.
Allison Day, 23, aka "Alli-Get-Her," got into roller derby because she liked skating when she was a girl.
What keeps Alli-Get-Her skating is that there is "always something I can work on … always improve."
The White Oak resident said a downside of derby life for her is the commute - one of the twice weekly practices is in Jacksonville. But "I'm not going to quit just because."
Homici-Doll said not having a space for practices and bouts in Tyler makes recruiting skaters difficult. The roster is short, so the team borrows skaters from teams in Texarkana and Arkansas when it's time for a bout. The skaters want to expand the team and say anyone is welcome to try out.
Michelle McCann aka "Shell Shock" said, "We're always recruiting for more skaters, refs, coaches and volunteers."
SELF-MADE SPORT
The popularity of roller derby picked up around the turn of this century in Texas. It began in Austin and spread across the globe.
The sport had cycles of popularity throughout the 20th century, starting in the 1920s with Leo Seltzer's touring Trans-continental Roller Derby races with collisions and falls, and it was first televised in the 1940s to larger audiences, according to the association's website. The business transferred to Seltzer's son in the '60s, when competing franchises started, but popularity dwindled in 1973.
Short-lived attempts to revive the sport appeared in the 1980s and 1990s, including the RollerGames that had stunts with alligator pits and stage action and storylines, according to the website.
Today, the Women's Flat Track Derby Association has 117 member leagues and 72 apprentice leagues. In 2010, more than 470 roller derby leagues existed globally.
The East Texas Bombers started in 2004, disbanded in 2008 and came back in 2009. The team is working to gain apprentice league status for next year's season.
Leagues are operated by the skaters.
Everything the Bombers need - gear, travel expenses, rink fees - is financed personally, with dues, ticket sales or through fundraising.
Dues are $40 per month per player and help cover the costs of travel and renting practice space. The women had a car wash in June to raise money.
The team rents Skateland USA on U.S. Highway 69 in Jacksonville for $70 for every practice, but the owners give the team two free Mondays each month.
When it's time for the next bout, it's the team that does the work of selling the tickets and promoting it. Homici-Doll said it costs about $2,500 to put on one bout.
Shell Shock got a job to support her derby habit. The 37-year-old started serving at the Jacksonville Jalapeño Tree so she could buy skates and travel to bouts.
Skates can cost from $100 to $1,000. Most cost $150 to $250. Homici-Doll said her custom-made skates set her back $750. A starter set of pads and a helmet costs about $40, she said.
THE BOUT
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 the remaining skaters, a pair of jammers, begin catching up and trying to burst through the pack. The blockers try to stop the opposing jammer while helping theirs get through the pack.
The jammer's goal is to break through first and become lead jammer. Jammers race around the track to catch the pack and begin scoring.
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 passed counts as one point.
Each pass can add up to five points if the jammer passes her opposing counterpart.
Bouts have two 30-minute halves. The term "bout" comes from boxing, because roller derby is "a fight to the end," according to the derby association.
The Bombers practice twice weekly.
In late June, the team starts practice with laps around the track, then moves into stretching to warm up. Cheekelicious takes the lead, calling out the next move and counting for the team.
Homici-Doll joins the warm-up late, and the whirring of her wheels as she circuits the rink breaks up Cheekelicious' calls in the warm-up. The women chat about this and that while they stretch their muscles in the center of the rink. Topics switch faster than the jams in the bout do. It's just like any other team warming up - save the clatter of their skates bumping the wooden floor as they switch positions. The session is punctuated with some women breaking into Tiffany's rendition of "I Think We're Alone Now."
Practice kicks off with racing "snakes," where the back skater weaves between other skaters until reaching the front as the line circuits the track. Then the lead skater races the weaver around until they reach the snake, and it repeats until everyone has gone.
When it's Cheekelicious' turn, her speed and grace shine as she circuits the track and makes the weaving look effortless.
Homici-Doll takes a more boisterous approach to helping a group of blockers master the power drive. It's a move in which players use the hip and upper thigh to slow opposing blockers and make holes for the jammer to zip through. It's a move that can be used effectively on any size of girl, Homici-Doll said.
"Positional blocking is the No. 1 way we play the game. Eighty percent of the game is noncontact," she said.
Power driving also is an aggressive move, one Homici-Doll said she's used on a much bigger girl during their June bout in Baton Rouge.
Ms. Honey, an attorney, has been skating with the team for less than a month. She quickly picks up on how to block and get up fast when she falls, but she struggles during sprints and the racing snake.
Weeks later, she's improved, but she said she wants to be better.
"I'm a very competitive person," she said while taking off her pads. The hardest part for her is "trying to keep up with everyone."
At this point, she's been with the team for less than two months.
She said she thinks, "'Why am I going so slow?' I want to be good today … to be excellent today."
SHOWTIME
The day of the bout, supporters pile into Skateland USA to watch the Bombers take on the Capital Defenders from Baton Rouge, La.
"Right before a game, I get all nervous … and I think that's just the best thing is being able to exert some energy and the adrenaline going from competition," Cheekelicious said.
Ms. Honey is at the ticket booth in a bold-colored, floral print dress. She's not skating yet; she said she hopes she'll pass the skills requirement and debut in September's bout. She's helping with anything that needs to be done, including selling tickets and passing out signs to support the team. Before the bout, she leans against the counter, chatting with her boyfriend, the skaters and those who've come to see the women battle it out.
Her eyes light up when asked about her skate name - she doesn't have one yet, but they are tossing two or three around.
"But I want one real bad," she said with enthusiastic conviction.
Sara Callahan, Shell Shock's cousin, helps in the DJ booth by volunteering to call her first roller derby bout.
"I really admire all of them," she said. "They are real athletes. … I go to all the bouts, so I just want to help out where I can. I'm not fit enough, but I can use my voice."
After Alli-Get-Her sings the national anthem, the Bombers start strong. Cheekelicious takes the first lead jammer spot after an early pileup, starting the game in the lead.
From the bench, Homici-Doll reminds blockers on the floor to "keep your buddy." When Cheekelicious is on the bench, she warns the pack by calling out "jammer's coming on" so her team can be ready to prevent the jammer from scoring.
As the pack rounds the track during the second jam, a Bomber takes a hard hit and slams into the wall.
Midway through the first half, Cheekelicious gets low and picks up speed as the jammer. She makes two easy laps and grabs eight points. She'll grab 24 more before the bout ends.
The Capital Defenders held the score close throughout the game. Jammer "Uni-Psycho," in white rumba shorts, gets whipped - a move where a blocker grabs the jammer's hand and propels her forward to pick up speed and pass the pack.
Erin Sullivan, 29, of Baton Rouge, got her skate name Uni-Psycho from her interesting mode of transportation - a unicycle.
She was spotted riding when someone urged her to join the team, so she's been skating since February.
At halftime, the Bombers are up 74-68.
Ms. Honey said this game was "a vast improvement from last time."
Last time was the June 18 bout when the teams met on the Capital Defenders' home turf and lost, 168-64.
Shell Shock said it was a "pretty strong first half" as she stopped by the counter. "Keeping the lead jammer - it's the strategy. … (We want to) keep up and push the momentum" in the second half.
And that's what the Bombers do for the most part in the second half.
But the Defenders' Cailla Sinclar has other plans. Known as "C-Murdaa" on the track, the 21-year-old nanny and college student from Prairieville, La., attacks on the jam, slamming into the Bombers' blockers several times.
From the seats, friends and family from both teams cheer.
Ms. Honey's boyfriend, Emmanuel Agyemang, perches on a pool table and yells for the Bombers: "She can't handle you, Homicide." He said he liked watching derby and was surprised with how it's played.
"(There's) a lot of strategy - more than I thought. It's more about timing. ... I thought it would be more physical," Agyemang said.
As the clock runs down, the last jam is on. The Bombers are down, 143-139.
"Sassie Longlegz" - Rebecca Stover - breaks through the pack three times to score 12 points.
The 28-year-old top scorer, with 55 points for the bout, is a borrowed player; she skates with the Breakneck Brawlers in Jacksonville, Ark.
"Derby: there's nothing like it," she said. She played sports in high school, and roller derby is the hardest, she said, but most rewarding. Sometimes, the coach wants the jammer to end the jam, but she said she's often saying, "Please let me keep going."
"If the jammer has the energy, why not?"
The final score is 151-143 for the Bombers. The audience erupts, and the women are sweaty but ecstatic.
Could Careless said her favorite moment was "when I took down the big girl."
"I like to hit the big girls and bring them down," she said. "It makes you feel good because it's harder (to do)."
"This was a real physical game - a grudge match," Lethal Librarian, who was head referee, said after the bout. "It's brutal."
rolling
Practice is sparsely attended on Monday after the victory.
But the women feel good, talking about how they won and improved. "We baited them into playing our physical game," Homici-Doll said.
She was feeling it, with her right knee in a thigh-to-calf brace.
She did it falling and sliding. She blames the fishnets.
"I never wear fishnets - I hate them … because you slide in them."
But it's not about the victory for her.
"Win or lose, I'm still happy," Homici-Doll said. "I love this game, these girls."
This story originally appeared in the Tyler Courier-Times--Telegraph on July 24, 2011.