Thursday, July 31, 2008
Rachel Trader’s friends couldn’t believe it when she tried out for a roller derby league in Kansas City. At the time, Trader was a 19-year-old biology major working for Sprint — hardly the image of a typical roller derby girl.
“When I tell people I do roller derby they say ‘I don’t see you as that type of girl,’ but really there is no ‘that type of girl.’ We have people of all kinds doing this,” Trader said.
Once a month at Hale Arena in Kansas City, Mo., 80 girls lace up their skates and compete for the Kansas City Roller Warriors. Each player has a skater name; Trader, a member of the Dreadnought Dorothys, skates in front of thousands of people as she unleashes her alter ego, Archie Lee. She said it gave her an opportunity to show fans an aggressive side to her personality.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
“You really are a different type of person, and that is the joy of having a different kind of name,” Trader said. “It is a different feeling to have an outlet to blow off that steam because a lot of us don’t have a way outside roller derby to get rid of that stress.”
The league was started four years ago when the girls would practice in parking lots filled with broken glass and debris. Word spread about the women, and the league quickly drew fans. An average crowd at Hale Arena ranges from 1,000 to 3,000 people. There are even plans for a reality TV show about the league, that will air on Metro Sports in Kansas City next fall.
Roller derby fans are also passionate about the league.
Mary Burleson drove from Arkansas to cheer on The Knockouts in last Saturday’s event. Burleson, who sported a white wig and a long blue dress, serves as the team’s unofficial mascot, and has been a fan of the league since it began.
“You have girls beating up on each other,” Burleson said, “There is no greater entertainment if you ask me.”
The league is trying to showcase its athletic side, and shed unwanted stereotypes from its past. In the 1970s, bouts were scripted, putting roller derby in a category with pro-wrestling, rather than an actual sport.
Tonya Hagedorn, Lawrence resident and police call dispatcher, is constantly asked whether the sport is real.
“We don’t work this hard in practice to not try our hardest to win,” said Hagedorn, who made the team despite breaking her arm in tryouts.
The girls practice three times a week, and injuries range from torn ligaments to concussions.
For Joy Durham, also known as DurHammer, roller derby takes a lot more effort than people think.
“I played soccer for eight years and that was nothing compared to this in terms of how physical this is,” Durham said. “You have to be a serious athlete to play roller derby, you can’t just do this for fun.”
Brooke Leavitt, one of the founders of the Kansas City Roller Warriors, said she has seen girls try out and quit after realizing how tough it was. Leavitt, who skates with only one arm after a bus accident at the age of three, said she thought the league finally had the right mix of girls.
“Knowing that there is 80 girls that come back week after week and give it their all is what is so special about this league,” Leavitt said.
For Trader, roller derby changed her life. She is transferring out of the University and moving to Kansas City, Mo., in part, so she can focus on roller derby, and be a part of the sport as long as she can.
“It is nice to have that nervous feeling then look up in the stands and see people you love and even people you don’t know cheering you on,” Trader said.
— Edited by Gretchen Gier
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Comments
Roller girls get physical
this article is so blatantly sexist I dont even know where to begin....I'm appalled
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