The Rocky Mountain Roller Girls take part in a very exciting sport at the Fillmore Auditorium, and show how tough women can be.
Artwork by Mia Nogueira, Photo courtesy of Rocky Mountain Rollergirls
A crowd roaring, the sound of roller skates crashing together, and whistles being blown by referees are sure signs of a roller derby. Being new to this sport, I had no clue what to expect going into my first roller derby match. I soon found out that that to play this sport one needs very strong endurance, skills on the good old-fashioned roller skates, and no sense of fear whatsoever.
Before I attended this derby with my family, I decided to study up and figure out how this game works. After searching on the Internet and reading websites, I must admit I was very confused. I read names like the jammer, pivot and blocker. The girls who have a star on their helmets had to stay a certain distance away from the “pack”, or the girls with plain helmets. The object was to get through the pack without being knocked down by the other team, which their teammates should have been blocking. Sound confusing? Well as soon as I stepped into the Fillmore auditorium to watch the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls, all my confusion melted away.
Upon walking into the auditorium, there was a long line of people waiting anxiously to see the match. After security checked our tickets and purses we were able to make our way toward the loud crowd. The first thing that caught my eye as I walked in was a six-foot tall Drag Queen standing greeting the crowd. She had a short skirt on, fish net stockings, high heels, and the best of all were her long blue eyelashes. By seeing this I knew it was going to be a fun night.
My family and I found seats on the third floor of the auditorium sitting on the cement-carpeted blocks. They weren’t the comfiest seats, but we had a great view of the roller derby rink. The setting reminded me of a stadium because there were three levels of seating and the rink was right in the middle on the first floor. I really liked our seats as the game started because the players would occasionally slide off the rink into the people seating on the side, and I was glad I was protected from that.
Everyone’s attention was caught when a man in the roller derby girl short-shorts came onto the floor. He asked how the crowd was doing in a Donald Duck kind of voice, encouraging the crowd to get even more excited and causing the auditorium to sound like a zoo. After the host in the shorts and his co-host gave their speeches, the time everyone was waiting for came. The roller girls were coming out to introduce themselves and get the game started.
As the girls were skating around I couldn’t help but notice two of the girls on the team. They caught my eye because both of them had their faces painted: one like the joker from batman and the other just had a white face with black circles around her eyes. Not only did I like their face paint that made them appear very intimidating, but also I really had fun hearing the clever names the girls created for themselves. The girl that looked like the joker was named Psychobabble, and the Captain of the team labeled herself Captain Crunch.
After Psychobabble got the crowd rowdy the game began. Five players rolled onto the rink from each team, including three blockers, one jammer, and one pivot. The jammer is the girl with the star on her helmet and her objective is to get through the “pack” and score points. To score points the jammer must go past the pack and for every blocker she passes from the opposing team she gets a point,.The blockers, who make up the pack, try to block the other team’s jammer from getting points. The pivot is also a blocker but has a stripe on her helmet. The pivot controls the pack’s speed by giving signals with her hands. As the girls got into formation it was very easy to tell who was who.
The referee blew his whistle and the pack of blockers took off already bumping into each other. Once the pack was 20 feet in front of the jammer the referee blew his whistle for a second time, signaling that the jammers could start in on the action. The jammers took off trying their hardest to block each other and already there were girls falling. This game was already intense and it was going to last for another hour!
The jammer, who was Psychobabble at the time, had been scoring a lot of points for the team and was getting very tired. If the jammer wants to stop at any time to take a break and send in another jammer, she has to hit her thighs to signal to the referee. The girls were also getting penalties as the game went on. To get a penalty the girls may block illegally, start a fight, or just have unsporting behavior. If one happens to get a penalty she is sent to the penalty box or is forced out of the game.
After the first 30 minutes it was half time. My dad went to the snack bar and bought us some drinks as the Roller Girls cheerleaders came out on the floor and did a couple of dance routines that kept the crowd pumped as the roller girls took a breather. When the thirty minutes was up it was time to finish the game which I had been anxiously waiting for.
In the second half of the game it became very intense as each team took turns scoring. As the clock counted down I found myself inching closer and closer to the edge of my seat. It was now or never for the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls because they had ten seconds to score and they were only one point behind. It was neck-and-neck, so these ten seconds really counted. Psychobabble was the jammer again and would not settle for a loss. As she skated around she made signals to the crowd to stand up and cheer for her. By this point everyone was on their feet cheering like it was the end of the world if she didn’t score. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, but at the last second Psychobabble pulled through and scored! Everyone shouted with excitement and then took a breath because they realized how tense they had gotten.
After the game my family and I made our way to our car and talked about the fun experience we just had. All in all my first roller derby was a success. I was confused at first but then when I got there it was a very easy game to understand. I recommend for everyone to go to a roller derby game sometime in his or her life. To find ticketing and pricing at the Fillmore, one can either look them up on Facebook.com, or search or go to their website at http://rockymountainrollergirls.com.
