“All of our hits are real”

Roller Derby hits the Gunnison Valley

Gone are the times of the clothes lines and hip checks off the banked turns into the stands of the roller derby old days. Roller Derby bouts, derby speak for games, these days are on flat tracks and there are rules to keep it under control, though there is still plenty of contact.
In fact, Gunnison Valley Roller Girl and seven-year veteran of the sport, Renee “Crash Nasty” Newton, believes the contact in flat track roller derby is far superior.
“Banked track roller derby is like the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) and flat track is like MMA (Mixed Martial Arts),” says Newton. “All of our hits are real. The full contact is awesome.”
Flat track roller derby has a litany of rules but, in a nutshell, runs like this.
There are five skaters per team skating at once, three blockers, a pivot and a jammer. Bouts last 60 minutes and are broken into two-minute jams during which points are scored. Points are scored when a jammer passes the other teams skaters during a jam. Teams can rack up penalties and skaters are sent to a penalty box and must skate with four giving the opposition an advantage known as a power jam.
The roller derby resurgence, specifically flat track roller derby, can be traced back to 2001 in Austin, Texas. Since then it has taken off with over 1,000 teams registered worldwide. In fact, roller derby is one of eight sports under consideration for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games and the U.S. just won the World Cup in Canada.
Colorado has 10 teams, including three in the Salida/Buena Vista area, that are either officially part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) or under consideration for joining the WFTDA.
Flat track roller derby started here last spring with a public service announcement on KBUT, a couple flyers hung up throughout the Gunnison Valley and an informational meeting. Newton, Cabell “Tits McVenom” Bryan and Cara Radca thought flat track roller derby would be a good fit for the Gunnison Valley and decided to start a team.
Both Newton and Bryan started a team in Wilmington, North Carolina, Cape Fear Roller Girls, and skated for five years with the team. By the time they left, Cape Fear Roller Girls bouts were selling out with 1,000 fans packing the arena to watch.
“They get extremely loud,” says Bryan. “You get people that are really into it.”
They held an informational meeting and at the peak of interest last summer, there were close to 15 women showing up for practice at the indoor ice rink in Gunnison.
But the team was limited by space and when they started covering the indoor rink in ice, the Gunnison Valley Roller Girls closed the season with a few frigid workouts on the outdoor rink before calling it.
They’re back at it this spring with practices on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Gunnison indoor ice rink.
The Gunnison Valley Roller Girls have at least 10 women on board this summer with a core of returns from last year as well as some new faces.
Their practices are a mix of skate skills, strategy, jamming and blocking. They spend a lot of time on their blocks and jams taking turns as jammers trying to work their way through as many as three women at a time on a tight track.
“We work hard, we’re actually athletes,” says Newton.
“It’s a full body sport and it’s a rough sport,” says Gunnison Valley Roller Girl and mother of five, Nancy Schodorf.
Bryan’s and Newton’s experience is obvious but the new skaters have been quick to pick up the tricks of the trade. Sioux Emery has the skill set from her years of town league hockey in Crested Butte. In addition, her slight frame makes it possible to slip through tight seams on the track whether it’s the inside corner, an outside move or a double move that opens up a shot between two blockers.
Schodorf relies on deception. “I have to be sneaky because I’m not that fast,” says Schodorf.
The Gunnison Valley Roller Girls are a mix of women from both ends of the valley and a variety of backgrounds. For example, one woman is a geologist who works for oil and gas companies, two work for a property management company in Crested Butte and Schodorf “manages five children.”
The team’s next step is to take an individual skills assessment test. According to Schodorf, if enough pass, they can take the next step as a team.
“Everybody has to pass a skills test in order to compete, it’s for safety reasons,” explains Schodorf. “Once we get the assessment test done, we can scrimmage against other teams.”
It is their hope that they will be able to host a scrimmage with one or more of the Salida teams by the end of the summer.
While the team is good on practice space for the summer, they still need to find somewhere to skate in the winter months to build the Gunnison Valley Roller Girls into a force on the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association scene in Colorado.
“Right now things are going really well,” says Schodorf. “Right now, space is our biggest problem.”
The team is still looking for more women to join in. Anyone interested can check out the Gunnison Valley Roller Girls Facebook page or just show up for practice. All you need is skates, helmet, mouth guard, knee and elbow pads, and a little bit of edge.
“We’re all alpha females with some aggression,” says Newton.
Bryan adds that it’s just a matter of getting out once, to get hooked on the sport.
“Once you get that fever, it’s hard to stop,” says Bryan. “You don’t get that many people that try it and then don’t keep coming out. It’s addicting.”