Roller derby brings hot action to Gunnison

Next bout in Crested Butte Saturday, June 13

by Than Acuff

Eleanor Bruisevelt is my favorite flat track roller derby name, or maybe Dyke Ditka. That’s pretty much all I can say with confidence when it comes to the Gunnison Valley Roller Girls (GVRG) Mix-Up bout Saturday, May 30 at the Jorgenson Events Center. Well, that and the fact that Betty D’Brawl pretty much owned the track as a jammer.
To be perfectly honest, roller derby is a little hard to follow, but not impossible. I’ve been to three bouts so far and pretty much have a laymen’s handle on what’s going on. Most of the crowd in Gunnison appeared to be pretty confused at first, and they like their Mohawks, but they started getting the gist as the bout wore on and things really fired up in the second half.
Still, despite the confusion, the sport of flat track roller derby is no less exciting and well worth the price of admission. Furthermore, our upstart GVRG team has come a long way since they first started four years ago. They won a bout in April and then put on a tremendous show of rising talent in Gunnison Saturday as they split up into two teams and mixed in with roller girls from throughout Colorado and Utah to give the crowd an informative display of female physicality.
“The event overall was a huge success,” says GVRG co-founder Renee “Crash Nasty” Newton. “It was fun getting to play against each other and seeing how far we’ve come from even the game in April. The girls who came were amazing and we learned a lot from them.”
Prior to the mix-up bout, Crash Nasty assured that, while it was a scrimmage and teammates would be split up onto opposing squads, they would still be going 100 percent, and they did just that.
In rugby it’s called white line fever. Once opponents step across the white line and onto the field, they’re foes. Once they step back over the white line and off the field, they’re friends. The same was true Friday in Gunnison. Despite being teammates off the track, they were adversaries on the track, and not one single woman let off the throttle during the 60-minute bout. There was plenty of hitting, plenty of open track high speed skating and even some insubordination as one player finger-signaled her displeasure with a call.
And the fans, when not totally confused, appreciated the effort.
Things ramp up for the GVRG on Saturday, June 13. With a win and a scrimmage under their belts, they look to defend Big Mine Ice Arena against the SLV Scarlet Rollers, the same team they beat in Alamosa a month ago.
“I think there will be a lot going on with that so we will be determined against them,” says Newton. “We’ve been working on some things that we picked up when we played against them in April.”
This is no mix-up scrimmage, this is the real deal and the Scarlet Rollers will be coming in looking for revenge.
“Crested Butte is such an amazing crowd so I think being on our home turf will fire us up even more,” says Newton. “That extra juice will help us bring it to the next level.”