Talented Women Play a Unique Sport

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page Send by Email

In Recent Years Women Are Seen Playing Sports Once Considered Too “Aggressive.”

Marquette, MI – The game of roller derby is not one that is well known. I myself have never heard much about it nor did I know what types of rules were in place. The first thing that comes to mind when someone says roller derby is people smashing into each other while on roller skates. Little did I know there is much more to this unique sport.

Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby bout between Marquette’s Dead River Derby and Wisconson’s Northwoods Derby Knockouts at Lakeview Arena in July 2014. (photo by Ron Caspi)

I learned about roller derby after going to see a game in Marquette between the Northwood Derby Knockouts and the Dead River Derby team. Each team has a total of five women on the track during the game. These women are strong, tough, intelligent, and hard working. In just one game, I saw a group of fit females working together to achieve a unified goal.

DRD’s Soumi Smack scores for the team as lead jammer. (photo by Ron Caspi)

Some of the rules of roller derby are similar to other sports and participants hold specific positons. The “jammer” is the main player on the team because she is the one the team protects and the one who scores the points. Identified by a star on her helmet the object for the jammer is to lap the opposing team’s players with the help of her teammates.

During the heats each team has one jammer on the track. The lead jammer is the first person to break out of the pack and this person has the power score and strategically call off jams. The lead jammer has to make sure the other team’s jammer doesn’t score. The rest of the players are blockers with one of them being the pivot blocker.

Escanaba Rollin Hellcats skaters try to block the opposing team’s jammer Glory Sparks from breaking past them during their roller derby bout against the Dead River Derby in Marquette, MI. (photo by Ron Caspi)

The function of the blockers is to enable their own team’s jammer to score and to prevent the other team from scoring. The pivot blocker is an important positon because they are responsible for calling plays for the team, communicating to her team while in the pack and controlling the pace at which the pack is skating.

Roller Derby also has penalties. Like basketball, there is a limit to the number of penalties (fouls) a player can make in the course of the bout. Like hockey, if a player gets penalized they go to the penalty box (aka “sin box”) for thirty seconds. If the jammer goes to the penalty box this creates a power jam which is similar to a power play in which one team now has the advantage of scoring while the other is a player down.

Some things that would call for a penalty would be tripping, blocking a person in the back, hitting players in the face or chest with your elbows, and grabbing, holding, or pulling on an opposing skater. The games are considered bouts and they are played in two thirty minute halves.

While the game of roller derby is unique with flamboyant players flaunting tutus, fish nets, colorful leggings, and sassy game names like “Da Nipple Ripper” and “Soumi Smack”; at the same time it contains many aspects of other sports that can help sport enthusiasts relate to the game.

After experiencing my first bout, I encourage people to watch the sport and see these talented women play. The fun is contagious you won’t be disappointed!

This weekend our local Marquette Dead River Derby team will host their last home bout of the season against Canada’s Sault Ste. Marie Soonami Slammers at Lakeview Arena on August 23, 2014 at 7pm.

CLICK HERE TO GET MORE INFO ON THIS WEEKEND’S BOUT IN OUR CALENDAR SECTION

Dead River Derby girl “Crum” (42) breaks through the pack during the Spring Ice-Break Her bout against the Kingsford Krush at Lakeview Arena in Marquette, MI on Saturday, April 26, 2014. (photo by Caitlin Laing)