Derby is a real battle royal

By John Enrietto Eagle Sports Editor

August 27, 2011 Last Updated: August 27, 2011 12:16 PM Community

An unidentified player of the Steel Hurtin' team ices her shoulder after taking a spill.

GLENSHAW — Bumping and grinding are part of it.

So are guts, glory — and plenty of bruises.

It's modern-day roller derby, and some women don't want to live without it.

“Once you get involved, it's almost like a small business,” Jessica Holland, 25, of Meridian said. “It's a life choice you have to make because of the time commitment.”

Holland is among 75 women — and one of a handful from Butler County — involved with the Steel City Derby Demons, a roller derby organization that plays its home games and practices at the Romp N' Roll skating rink in Glenshaw.

This isn't the roller derby of 40 or 50 years ago, when men and women skated together on curved tracks with predetermined results, staged fights and players flipping over rails.

The new roller derby is competitive — teams practice three or four times a week — and painfully real.

“It's not professional wrestling,” Sarver resident Amy Crisman said. “People think what we do is a staged performance. It's fun, but it's not acting.

“It's always real competition and that floor is always hard.”

Now retired from active competition, Crisman — known as Trippin' Daisy on the rink — fell and broke her cheekbone during tryouts with the Derby Demons.

“Doctors didn't allow me to skate for eight weeks after that,” Crisman said. “One night, I fell and hit my butt so hard during a game that I gave myself whiplash while falling backward. I've had pulled and strained muscles. ... You play through that stuff.”

Meridian resident Jen Remaley Kennedy, known as The Maestro on the rink because of her duties as a band director in the Mars School District, suffered a spiral fracture in her left ankle in March and has since returned to action.

She's been involved in the sport since 2007 and, at 29, sees herself on the back side of her playing career.

“Roller derby isn't something we grew up doing,” Kennedy said. “There's only so many years you can play this game because of the brute force that's involved. Your body wears out.

“I've always skated. My parents met when they were roller skating, so as soon as I could walk, I could skate. But this goes well beyond skating.”

The Steel City Derby Demons have three teams that represent different levels of play. Steel Hurtin' is SCDD's top team, with B-Unit and the Blitzburgh Bombers being a notch below in talent level.SCDD is affiliated with the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, an international organization with teams in more than 100 cities across the country.The WFTDA had only 30 members a few years ago. The Steel City Derby Demons did not form until 2004 and became a competitive travel organization three years ago.“We used to have four teams and only played against each other,” B-Unit team member and SCDD publicist Pam Ellis said. “We were getting tired of that.“When we saw how the sport was growing, we wanted to grow with it. Our membership took a vote and elected to become a traveling organization.”SCDD's practices and game nights are run “by the skaters, for the skaters,” Ellis said. Crowds can surpass 1,000 for home games — at $15 a ticket — and the organization isn't looking to turn a profit.SCDD does plenty of fundraising activities and makes a donation to a small charity after every home game.“This isn't about money for us,” Ellis said. “This is a unique and fun way for these women to express another side of themselves.”Hence the nicknames that each skater is introduced by before each game. Their real names are not used.Each player's nickname is filed with the WFTDA and no nickname can be duplicated by another derby member anywhere in the world.“In a way, it's a salute to the legacy of roller derby,” said Katie McGinley, a mechanical engineer in Cranberry Township known as Joan of Snark on the rink. “It's fun to have an alter ego.“Some skaters use the nicknames to stay separate from their real-life identities. This is a way to escape real life and simply let loose for a little while.”• Emily Grey, 29, of Butler works for Butler Ambulance and is known as Public Emily in roller derby.• Gale Hauck, a nuclear engineer for Westinghouse in Cranberry Township, is known as Inc-Knee-Her.“We engineers, we're considered to be a bit geeky,” Hauck said. “Stepping out of that mold every time I put on skates ... I can't describe what that feels like.”• Holland, a cytologist (studying blood cells) at Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh, is called Wreck Defy.• Ellis is known simply as Wham Bam Pam when she suits up.• Crisman was Trippin' Daisy when she played because “I'm nothing but a clumsy country girl.” Crisman and her husband, Harry, own a tattoo and body piercing shop in Sarver.Harry Crisman served as a non-skating official during games when his wife played. Most game officials, who also go by nicknames, are husbands or boyfriends of skaters and go through a training session to become certified.All skating officials must be certified by the WFTDA.“I was attending the games anyway, so I figured I might as well help out,” Harry Crisman said. “All of the officials are volunteers. We pay for our own insurance, so that's like a donation.“When Amy told me she wanted to do this, I told her to go for it. It's no crazy show, it's a bunch of women playing roller derby.“My wife is a good-looking, thin blonde woman who changes her own oil, changes her own tires. ... I expected this out of her. I'd have been more surprised if she didn't do it,” Crisman added.

The majority of SCDD members learned of the organization via the Internet or by knowing someone involved.Once a woman expresses interest in joining, she must pass a series of tests, including skating ability, rules of the game and handling contact.“I went to Skate Castle a lot when I was a kid,” Grey said. “The training is intense. Once you pass the basic skating skills test, you pretty much go into a month of training to play the sport.“You learn about hip checks, shoulder checks, how to execute them and the proper way to fall. The entire process probably takes three months.”McGinley described the testing as “a true curriculum” of roller derby.“There's so much you have to learn ... how to fall properly so you don't hurt yourself, how to hit legally and safely, and how to get hit,” she said.Ellis said there are 28 women currently in the “fresh meat” class of SCDD, meaning they are still in the testing process.Once players pass the testing, they are drafted on to one of the three Pittsburgh teams. Grey was recently selected by the B-Unit.

Holland became interested in roller derby after watching the movie “Whip It,” which depicted the game, last fall. She was a member of the first girls lacrosse team at Butler High School.“I Googled Pittsburgh Roller Derby and found this group,” Holland said. “I didn't even own a pair of skates.“I came, I watched ... I bought a pair of skates. Girls' lacrosse is noncontact and there's no checking in women's hockey. This is actually a girls' sport where you can hit people.”Roller derby is all about physical competition requiring stamina and toughness.“I'm a competitive person and I like to push myself,” Kennedy said. “I can bring it all I want, working out alone in my living room.“Being part of a team atmosphere, traveling to different parts of the country, joining other women who have come together paying to play the game we love — there is just nothing else like this.”

Here are a few notes about the Steel City Derby Demons:4 The Steel City Derby Demons consist of 75 women forming rosters for three teams: The A-Division Steel Hurtin' and B-Division teams B-Unit and Blitzburgh Bombers.4 The Steel City Derby Demons belong to the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) and play in the 28-team East region.4 All of the team's practices and home games are held at the Romp N' Roll Skating Rink in Glenshaw.4 WFTDA consists of 117 roller derby organizations: 34 in the West, 28 in the North Central, 27 in the South Central and 28 in the East.4 Games are played about once a month with the regular season running from February through October. The next and final home game of the season is Oct. 15 against San Diego.4 Steel Hurtin' is 9-5 on the year and ranked fourth in the East Region, trailing the Gotham Girls (New York City), Philly Rollers (Philadelphia) and Charm City (Baltimore).4 The Steel City Derby Demons were formed in 2004 and had four teams until they voted to become a competitive travel team organization in 2008.4 The first Roller Derby World Cup takes place Dec. 1 to 4 in Toronto. SCDD's ‘Snot Rocket Science is one of 20 players to earn a spot on the United States roster. Other participating countries include Austria, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand.

Here are a few alter ego nicknames — and in some cases, uniform numbers — of roller derby women in the Steel City Derby Demons organization:PlayersNo. 1945 — Atomic BombinoNo. 36DD — Busty BrawlerIna Gadda Da BeatchaNo. 007 — Mission ImpassibleSpeeder RottentailTower O' TerrorWham Bam PamNo. 1812 — The MaestroAlly McKillCruisin' B. AnthonyDakota SlammingDeath Cake For CutieFriction VixxxenMean Burrito‘Snot Rocket ScienceJudy SqueakersSteel City OfficialsBig CasinoBlueberry SlamcakesBuford T. JusticeColin ShenanigansFonda BruisesEric The RefHannibal RefterMickey McPainRef'N Tumble

The roller derby action between the Steel Hurtin' and the Cincinnati Black Sheep intensifies as players from each team go to the floor. There are 117 organizations across the country, and the Pittsburgh teams compete in the 28-team East Region.

The Steel Hurtin’ and the Cincinnati Black Sheep jostle for position during their regular season matchup. The Steel Hurtin’ are 9-5 on the year and ranked fourth in the East Region, trailing teams from New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Hurricane Heather laces her skates at the Romp N? Roll in Glenshaw. The Steel City Derby Demons consist of 75 women on three teams that represent different levels of play.