The local roller derby team Appalachian Hell Betties kicks off a new season.
Gypsy Trample, Mojo Jojo and Sunflower Smackdown are accustomed to wearing sporting attire ranging from sports bras and spandex shorts to bright pink tights and mini skirts.
The members of Appalachian Hell Betties, the all women, roller derby team are used to taking a beating in the full-contact sport.
They are the only team in the Athens Ohio Roller Derby League and on Friday they will host a movie screening of MurderDrome at Athena Cinema to raise money for the group’s expenses.
Roller derby gameplay comprises many short “jams,” where two teams have five members compete against each other with one member as the “jammer,” whose goal it is to lap members of the other team.
The four other players must assist the jammer while also trying to interfere with the other jammer — playing both offense and defense at the same time. Each jam lasts two minutes, and bouts are played in two periods of 30 minutes.
“Most people think of Whip It or how they did it in the 1970s,” said Mike “Straight Taco” Straw, a referee for the team and an application programmer at Ohio University. “Now, it’s becoming an actual real sport … one of the
fastest growing in the world.”
There are nearly 1,300 derby leagues worldwide, and there is a bid in for the sport to join the Olympics in 2020.
The team tries to attend three or four bouts a year. In the past, the team hosted three home bouts at Bird Arena, but are currently looking for a new venue so they can host more. Currently, the group’s next bout is scheduled for February.
“We’re more local than anything else,” said Loran “Gypsy Trample” Marsan, the team’s co-captain and a professor in women’s and gender studies. “We’re Athens’ only non-university affiliated team.”
The team practices three times a week: Sundays and Tuesdays at Dow’s Rollarena in Nelsonville and Thursdays in the basement of First Christian Church, 24 W. State St.
For Jolena “Mojo Jojo” Hansbarger, a junior studying printmaking and a third year derby player, the group is more than just a sports team.
“Most of my friends now are on roller derby,” she said. “I feel more like a local than a student at this point.”
According to Marsan, the team has seen women of all stripes, from professors to students to nurses to ministers, and is open to players of all skill levels.
“I didn’t even know what derby was before I joined. I wanted to join a full contact sport. I was planning on joining rugby,” Marsan said. “We do things like teach you how to stop, be stable, fall properly and get into derby stance, which is a particular way of standing so you’re in a squat and harder to knock over.”
Although the team is full of seasoned skaters, Sunday practices welcome anyone new to the team, to derby or even to skating.
“Our mission is that everyone should be able to do derby,” Marsan said. “We want to make it accessible to play. We don’t care if you haven’t skated before, we will help you. If you’re having fun, that’s all that really matters.”
Straw, who got involved with reffing the team when his wife joined last year and stayed even when she no longer was skating, can attest to that.
“They’re really good at teaching. I was that guy who would hold the rail. Within six months, I was starting to referee … you build the skills pretty quick.”
The team is coached by Luke “PunisHer” Johnson, who began as the team’s strength and conditioning coach but was voted head coach starting January. Oddly, Johnson said he can’t actually skate but said he makes up for that with an extensive knowledge of the game.
There are a variety of reasons the women join the team but one reason sticks out to many.
“(Roller derby) is just really empowering,” Marsan said.
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