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Sick Town Roller Derby
2.2k Plays1 year ago
ROLLER DERBY EPISODE! SRTN 202 drops you onto Oregon State University parquet with the skaters of Sick Town Roller Derby (Albany and Corvallis, Oregon)
Immerse yourself in the sounds and story of fighting for survival, being yourself, getting out your angst, sounding your barbaric yalp and having fun!
Sick Town Derby Dames is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in Corvallis, Oregon. We are a skater-owned and operated flat-track roller derby league based in Linn and Benton counties.
We respectfully skate on the ancestral land of the Kalapuya represented today by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and are committed to supporting the surrounding community through active participation in local events, volunteering for benevolent causes, and hosting charities at our sporting events.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ken Delante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
00:00:17
Speaker
It's
Meet the Sicktown Roller Derby Team
00:00:18
Speaker
Ken Vellante here with the Sicktown Rolla Derby talking the hot flash. I was interested but my job was such that I didn't have time to join practices or boot camp. A year ago I stepped down a little bit on my work and I wanted to try it.
Roller Derby as an Escape and Community
00:00:36
Speaker
I'm an older person and I wanted to try it and do something outside of work.
00:00:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's great to have something outside of that, something that that's your own and get away. And one things I know is you create a little bit of space away from work and add some space that's in there for yourself. And that must have been your experience. Talk to us a little bit about roller derby and what it means to you right now.
00:01:03
Speaker
Right now it means, like you said, it's my own. It's not work. It's a separate world. It's a world where I'm supported. I'm learning. I'm meeting wonderful women that I wouldn't have normally met. And I work hard and I laugh a lot. Yeah.
00:01:24
Speaker
Well, it's great to hear about the laughing. And one
Creativity in Roller Derby
00:01:29
Speaker
of the things about something rather than nothing podcast is that it's a creativity and an art podcast. Just was wondering if you have any particular ideas about art or there's art that you make or enjoy in particular.
00:01:45
Speaker
My family, my mom was a musician and a painter. My sisters are terribly creative. I've never gotten that gene. So when I do roller derby, that is something new that I have. Since I don't have those skills, I enjoy all of those things, but that's not where my skill set lies. And so this is different.
00:02:10
Speaker
Tell us what you expect from Sicktown roller derby team this season.
Expectations for the Upcoming Season
00:02:18
Speaker
I expect some amazing bouts. I expect some wins. I expect loud, crazy, wild crowds. Yeah, and very much look forward to seeing your hot flash out on the roller derby. The show is an art and creativity that comes in how people select their names. If you start talking with people on the team and hearing how they chose their name, there's a lot of creativity comes with that. Then choosing a number. So those are kind of the first two things that are hard for people when they first join is
00:02:46
Speaker
What are you going to be calling your name and what's the number two? And again, as well as the attire as you come out and see the people at the bouts.
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think I've been seeing on social media on Instagram and seeing the names and it's I think it's always fun to see names that just make you laugh out loud because they're so great and there's such, you know, wordplay. It's a really enjoyable part of it. I just wanted to ask just ask one more question.
Community Engagement and Roller Skating Awareness
00:03:18
Speaker
You talked about with the team.
00:03:20
Speaker
playing in different spots and now maybe a little bit better space, maybe more interest in it. Do you see that overall for roller derby and just people picking up skates and doing something different?
00:03:35
Speaker
Well, the nice thing about skating is, even if you're not on a team, you can go to a skate park, traditionally for skateboards and skate, or you can just go outside on your local park. And here in Corvallis, we have, you know, miles of bike paths where you can see people just roller skate. So whether you have a space inside or outside, you can get out. And, you know, skates are getting a little cheaper if you find them here and there, maybe not derby skates. But I've seen more people get skates and get out, kind of like bikes these days.
00:04:04
Speaker
Um, and our organization is starting to get juniors involved and Albany and around. So if we could spread the word, I think some people don't know that we're out there. So that's part of it. Yeah, it's great. Uh, thank you so much, rec. And of course
Personal Journeys into Roller Derby
00:04:18
Speaker
with the podcast and the great season coming up ahead, um, be great to see, uh, sick town Rula Derby develop really excited to meet, uh, bone daddy, uh, bone, uh, tell us about, uh, tell us about yourself.
00:04:32
Speaker
So, actually, usually I don't go by bone. I either go by dad or daddy, just because there's somebody else on our team who's already called Cinnabones. She's got the bones part, so it's either dad or daddy, depending on how you're feeling. Yeah, so I started roller derby back in October-ish. It's just something I've really wanted to do ever since I was a kid, and I, you know, haven't really been
00:04:58
Speaker
able to make time to do that for myself or really feel like I could break out of my shell and do something that was really challenging. So for me, roller derby has been kind of like, you know, testing myself to see, you know, like to see if I can do like challenging things. And by doing challenging things, it kind of pushes me just to keep going on.
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah. Um, well, tell, uh, tell me in particular about this team, uh, sick town roller derby and your experience skating and getting involved with this particular club. Um, I'm actually, I actually skate with, uh, Emerald city roller derby down in Eugene.
00:05:38
Speaker
And I've been coming up to Sicktown just because I want to get more practice and I love roller derby so much. I've come to practices three times a week now so my entire life has kind of become consumed by roller derby and this is just a way for me to get more of it.
00:05:53
Speaker
Wonderful. I was seeing, um, just earlier today, I was looking on Facebook and the Portland team, they had a Facebook live on that. So I'm hoping more video and more like capturing of the matches themselves. Um, there's a ton of creativity that comes along with roller derby and like personality and identity. Astrid from the sick town, roller derby. Uh, Astrid, uh, tell us about yourself.
00:06:19
Speaker
I am 35. I have not done skating for very long, especially not roller derby. Growing up in the 90s, I was very into rollerblading, skateboarding, things like that, but I never kind of stuck with anything. I actually dated somebody who got me interested in roller derby, but I still didn't pick it up. I was too afraid of being injured. It took a good 10 years to get around to just find somebody to say, hey, you should just try this out.
00:06:46
Speaker
Yeah, I like hearing that just at the end. You need somebody. I find that a lot of times. Hey, just try this out. And it's such a fun thing. I've actually watched roller derby for quite some time. I've seen teams out in Wisconsin. So I'm actually familiar with a bunch of roller derby.
00:07:05
Speaker
Not as familiar with Sicktown roller derby team and can you just tell us about what the experience has been like for you and getting involved with the team in this
Team Dynamics and Unique Identities
00:07:18
Speaker
way?
00:07:18
Speaker
Yeah, so my coworker is going to, was the one who recruited me and kind of pushed me to get more involved. I went to a league meeting for the first time, which I noticed that I was the only person in boot camp to show up, which felt awkward.
00:07:35
Speaker
But my co-worker was nice enough to say, hey, look, this is the boot camper. They're here. Everybody nice. And everybody was. I made a nice potluck. I got to listen to more of the intricacies of running a league, which is not something that anybody in boot camp really gets a chance to observe. But it was really important to see how it all works.
00:07:55
Speaker
It's great. It's great to hear a little bit more about, um, about the development there. And, uh, one of the questions, um, I have just generally is there seems to be a ton of creativity involved with a lot of the athletes, but also, um, like within creation of your identity. Do you have any thoughts about like creativity, your own creativity, um, you know, tied to tied to this?
00:08:20
Speaker
Yes, you hit the nail on the head, I think, with mentioning identity. I think that people come from all walks of life. They try to create a very unique persona, and I know a lot of derby rules for, probably since the dawn of time, has always been, you have to be a unique, individual, unique name, and no one else in the history of derby can have it. But because so many people have been interested in it more recently, it's been harder to find
00:08:46
Speaker
that very perfect unique name. I think that a lot of people end up picking names that are based off of power words like crush and slam because it just kind of sinks in with the sport. I have yet to figure my name out and I'm gonna take as long as I possibly can because I do appreciate the value of that artistic uniqueness.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah, take your time. It'll develop unless you have to fill out the forum. Really excited. I think I should pronounce it GRRR or GRRR. I'm going to let you pronounce it. I'm going to let you do the pronunciation and tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.
Adaptation During the Pandemic
00:09:30
Speaker
I'm Ger. I'm Sicktown's webmaster and I do the majority of their marketing and design. I have been skating with the team for probably about three years. I was one of the last class of boot camps that passed up right before the pandemic hit. So it was like a little bit gnarly there for a while practicing with the team, but we managed to get through it and now we are playing. So come see our bout.
00:09:56
Speaker
playing. That's so great. Um, I hadn't, I've been talking to other skaters. Um, could you just tell a little bit about with the club coming together, the pandemic and the reformation that, that, that kind of story? Uh, it was extremely difficult because basically, I mean, you can't have a physical sport when you can't have physical contact. So there were a lot of different logistics that we needed to figure out. And at the same time we had lost our rink because
00:10:25
Speaker
If we're not playing and we don't have a large membership, it's hard to pay for the roof costs and keeping the lights on. So basically we scrambled and we created kind of like our own little sub-team within Roller Derby to make sure that Roller Derby continued to survive in this town like in the meantime.
00:10:45
Speaker
It was interesting and challenging, but it's super rewarding to then sit here now and look at all of our new classes. And as our league has grown exponentially in the last year or so, it's just amazing to watch new skaters come up. And having found love of roller skating during the pandemic as one of the main hobbies that people were picking up, they just kind of came in and now we're building a whole new league with a sport that needs to be revitalized again.
Fostering Creativity and Community
00:11:13
Speaker
It's great.
00:11:13
Speaker
I'm really excited about it. I love roller skating. I'm not particularly good at it, and I've watched Roller Derby for a real long time, so it was really cool to connect with the team and just see the visibility and what it was doing for players and to be able to
00:11:33
Speaker
Create yourself within the Derby team speaking about the creativity around that tons of creativity tons of creatives with a lot of the players just some thoughts upon the creativity that you'll find in roller derby and
00:11:49
Speaker
Oh man, we have all sorts. Basically, I think roller derby attracts a lot of people who are that alternative off-brand. And the creative types really need a way to have an outlet of real physical energy.
00:12:05
Speaker
I don't know about how anyone else feels but like rejection is hard and having to like be confident and like advertise yourself these are all really difficult vulnerable positions that you find yourself in but when you're skating you have this like you're not only protected by your pads and physically protected but you also have like these people that you can suddenly rely on that you just don't get anywhere else and it's it's really nice to see this sort of um
00:12:32
Speaker
It's like the misfits getting together and finally finding a community for themselves. It's really nice. I really love that. I'm an organizer, a union organizer, so I do a lot of collective work. And there's something about being in that group and knowing somebody's going to have your back on principle or whatever that's just incredibly empowering.
00:13:02
Speaker
Any thoughts or predictions on what you might expect to see with the Sicktown Roller Club this season? Well, you're going to
Season Predictions and Team Growth
00:13:12
Speaker
see us hitting a lot of ourselves and a lot of other people, a lot of other teams. We have our bout in May coming up. We have another bout in October coming up. And I'm honestly thinking that we're going to double our team size between now and then.
00:13:26
Speaker
between now and the end of the year because with the classes and with renewed interest, I think it's just going to be fantastic. We're going to have so many great new faces and new personalities to skate with. I'm so excited first. It's great to hear that. Okay, so the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast is one of the top 5% podcasts in the world and a lot of people will hear
00:13:50
Speaker
Download it and listen to it art philosophy roller derby everything What would you say to people are like? You know like you mentioned roller derby you get a little face or something like what do you what would you say? The folks about roller derby and you know what it really means and what it does
00:14:07
Speaker
Um, I would say try it. I mean, the adrenaline that you get the first time you knock somebody down is like, it's, it's almost like the first time that the doors open for you. It's the first time someone invites you into a gallery and says, we want to hang your work. It's like, it's like all of those great moments kind of like combined and.
00:14:27
Speaker
When you're skating with different teams and different players, you can almost have that feeling with individuals. Like, you know, if you went up against someone before and you couldn't take them out, but like the next time you skate against them, you did, it's that same feeling over and over again. So it's a great way to replicate like success in small scale. Yeah. Meeting the sick team Rola Derby makes me real excited for the team play coming up.
00:14:58
Speaker
Continuing talks with the sick town roller derby have lady guinevere Here and I'm so excited to talk to you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you encounter roller derby Hi, nice to meet you. Glad to be here my How did I get here? I started skating like 50 years ago like literally and I started when I was two and I was a speed skater in my youth and
00:15:25
Speaker
and roller derby was something I watched in the 70s and 80s and just in like a natural progression. It took me a while to get here. I didn't start until 2016. Yeah, that's how I got here and I chose my real name is Gwendolyn.
00:15:42
Speaker
I chose Lady Guinevere because I like all things about King Arthur and Lancelot. It just seemed like a perfect name and a friend of mine picked it and suggested it. I changed the spelling a little bit from what they suggested and here I am.
00:15:59
Speaker
Wonderful. Um, tell me about, uh, tell me about the team and team coming together and some of the dynamics I've heard from a lot of the athletes of, um, everybody being different. Everybody feeling like there's a good space for them to work in. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah, Sicktown has a long history of surviving things. They started back in 2008 and they
00:16:31
Speaker
you know, people went their different ways and then we came together and more of us formed together and then COVID hit and we scattered again and so we're rebuilding right now and it's pretty great. We have all the ages. 18 is our obviously youngest because it's an adult league and I'm the second oldest on our league currently.
00:16:55
Speaker
but we've had people we have people in my boot camp right now that are older than I am and so it's open to all ages and which makes it great and wonderful and we have people from
00:17:08
Speaker
For me, I don't like to bring our stuff in from outside, but we do have a lot of people from different walks of life. And that does start to come in and be seen and be celebrated and supported in all of the ways that we can do that the best way we can. Even if we don't necessarily agree or understand something because we all are different ages and stuff,
00:17:35
Speaker
More times than not, we we talk about it. We love each other. We work it out. We educate. We help nurture and grow and understand that we're all coming from this place of love and good intentions and not not to be assholes. Can I say assholes? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. OK. Yeah. So yeah. So we love everybody. Yeah.
00:18:07
Speaker
all the crowns, every crown on my helmet. One of our skaters gifted me with her artwork on my skate for my 50th birthday. So I just emulated, is that the right word? Emulated a crest from England. I'm also obsessed with England and Scotland. So emulated me a crest with my name and things that I love. And then I got a tattoo of it. So that's one way we do it. We have lots
00:18:25
Speaker
Thank you, it's really inspiring to hear.
Personal Expression in Roller Derby
00:18:35
Speaker
of people that, you know,
00:18:36
Speaker
do their make-up, their bout make-up, but it's all about the bout fit. What we're wearing on the day. So I do that in my shorts that I wear. I tend to get shorts that go with the theme or match my jersey, whatever. So I have Christmas shorts. I'm getting some shorts special for the bout coming up in May.
00:19:00
Speaker
So yeah, it's a lot of fun and like I said a lot of people will do makeup I'm not very good at makeup, but I will do my makeup But it's just like what I wear every day We do stickers in our helmets. It's really where you'll see our personalities as well as on our helmets With all of our you know, it's just stickers is what it is and so I
00:19:25
Speaker
Yeah, like I have one here that says the bigger the ass the harder to pass and we really do embrace like all body types too and so it gives me permission to like my big ass. I've always liked my big ass but other people like my big ass too now.
00:19:43
Speaker
It's great talking to Lady Guinef here. I was just thinking a miss of Avalon and the power and the power in Rolla Derby. Next! They're working hard right now skating in boot camp and practice. And I'm lucky to have another skater. Could you introduce yourself to us? I'm Blade Maiden. I go by Blade.
00:20:14
Speaker
Thank you, Blade. And one of the questions I've been asking, folks, I adore Rola Derby. A lot of folks in this room do, but why Rola Derby for you?
00:20:25
Speaker
I used to play basketball in high school and I really enjoyed the camaraderie that a team brought and also the physicality of it and I played women's league when I got a little bit older but that dissipated here in Corvallis and so I think I was just sort of searching for something that would bring the same
00:20:47
Speaker
you know, give me teammates and that social circle and some of those same things. And you get to hit people that are willing to be hit. So one day I was just passing by the old roller rink and saw the sign for roller derby. And I thought, you know, give it a try. It was a lot harder than I expected. Wanted to quit right away. But I thought, you know, I'm just going to push through. And now six years later, here I am. I'm the president. So
00:21:14
Speaker
Wow, well, it's it's it's a pleasure to talk to you and in talking to the skaters, it's it's it's an ordeal. It's it's it's a lot to put in. And I know the movements of skating are different for the body than other type of movements. What has it been a little bit deeper going in, seeing the team dynamics of a team of different folks working together on those things? What have you seen?
00:21:40
Speaker
Well
Encouraging Skill Development
00:21:41
Speaker
you start off as a boot camper and you start off not knowing anything or many of our skaters know nothing and some of them are very different learners, some are visual learners, some are verbal so we really have to accommodate how people learn but as you develop and
00:22:04
Speaker
move into different levels we really see different skaters develop different skills and we encourage them and just they gain that you know empowerment that we are really looking for and we really try to it's one of our our our goals here is to empower and make sure that people find that inner strength so
00:22:29
Speaker
Yeah, I've been particularly sensitive and seen a lot of the kind of groups or spaces, I don't know, after the pandemic where we're folks who felt isolated or that type of isolation, whether things are reconnecting or reconfiguring. I've just seen a lot of energy and inspiration, you know, within team sport and feeling that you can do things with others and develop with others.
00:22:55
Speaker
About the creativity that I see in Roller Derby around whether it's expression of personality or the fact that many of the skaters I talk to are creatives or have a creative bent to begin with, what's your thoughts about the connection of creativity, in particular with Roller Derby, for instance?
00:23:15
Speaker
Well, you are definitely free to express who you are or be who you are in roller derby and you are accepted for that, whatever that may be. We do have a lot of people in our league that are creative in many different ways. I'm a chef, which is a little bit creative in a different way than say an artist, but one might say it's an artistry of its own.
00:23:38
Speaker
We express ourselves through how we might dress or how we might pick our derby names or what we might do in our fundraisers and our thought processes and how we work together on our board and within our league. So there's a lot of creativity just working as a group together so we do express ourselves in many different ways.
00:24:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's so wonderful to see. I wanted to ask one more thing. What do you expect to see from Sicktown, Roller Derby in the next few months? What do you see developing? More people involved? Bootcamp? More ideas? More people? What do you expect to see?
00:24:20
Speaker
Well, we were really lucky to actually survive the pandemic. A lot of leagues didn't. So the fact that we have grown to this number, I'm really excited about. And so I'm just excited to see we have our first bout coming up, which is really exciting. And actually we have two this year. So I'm just excited to see the players that we have grow and develop and our skill level improve.
00:24:46
Speaker
We're getting new trainers moving up so just growing our league and developing our skill level to a higher level so it's exciting to finally get to that point after with the pandemic not having a practice space not being able to do what we you know we're doing even though we were doing it to a minute level all along just in safer ways and different ways.
Accidental Beginnings and Deep Involvement
00:25:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's really inspiring to hear what's coming up for the team and ran into Mountain Pony. Tell us about yourself. Hi, I'm Mountain Pony. You can call me Pony for short. I am an artist and homesteader and am addicted to roller skating.
00:25:33
Speaker
All right, that's the lead homesteader artist addicted to roller skating. Going into the question that I think everybody wonders, I get excited to ask it, why roller derby?
00:25:50
Speaker
Why roller derby? Roller derby actually happened on accident. I joined boot camp a year ago, a little over a year ago, last winter. I do dance and trail skating mainly, previously mainly. And it rains here a lot, as you may have noticed. So I signed up for boot camp because you got access to open skates. So I just wanted to be able to skate inside during the winter.
00:26:17
Speaker
And I'm not a team sport person, so I didn't even consider that roller derby would actually be a thing for me. But the bug bit me. And here I am over a year later. I'm an advanced skater. I'm on the board of directors. And it has consumed my life almost entirely.
00:26:33
Speaker
All right, that's the type of dedication I myself and when I look at things, I really appreciate. What I wanted to ask you a little bit more too is about talking to a lot of athletes about how important the team dynamic is or maybe feeling isolated, want to jump into something else that's part of them and how important it is to be able to do that with others.
00:27:04
Speaker
Want to talk a little bit about that?
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's, it's interesting cause like, so I work from home, we live kind of in the sticks. Um, so I don't communicate verbally with other human beings very often. Um, and like I said, I hadn't been planning on joining roller derby and I am not a team sport person. It gives me anxiety and I'm very competitive. And so it's like not any fun. Um, and when I joined that bootcamp, it was like, you know, we all clap for each other when we fall and we clap for each other when we,
00:27:36
Speaker
Try something and like oh you get did a little better than last time and it was kind of amazing. They're like, oh I'm a human being human beings are social animals. I had forgotten that and then when I Advanced out of boot camp. I did two boot camps because I was not reliable at stopping yet. I thought
00:27:59
Speaker
No, wait a second. Not reliable at stopping. I've had that problem throughout my life, yes. Yeah, I technically was promoted, but I wanted to do another boot camp because I didn't think I was good enough at stopping. But so when I joined the team, especially since I made an advanced skater and were getting ready for this bout in May, I have really felt like I'm part of a team. And I've never felt that before. Like high school,
00:28:24
Speaker
awkward, not team person. This is really the first time in my life I'm 41 years old. This is the first time in my life I've felt like I'm part of a team and friendships, you know, the whole thing and like showing up for each other and giving each other moral support, saying thank you when people do things for you, you know, like it's pretty great. That's great to hear. I understand that you're an artist, creative. Tell us, tell us, tell us about that. What do you do?
Creative Careers and Roller Derby Personas
00:28:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's a pretty weird thing that I do for a living. I stab wool repeatedly until it looks just like a cute version of your dog or cat. Fibrefriendsonline.com. So I was previously a children's book illustrator. I guess I'm still technically a children's book illustrator, but with the great recession, I didn't have an agent. Fast forward, I get this puppy named Pocket, a Corgi. And you may have noticed that Corgis are rather popular.
00:29:21
Speaker
Um, we got her 13 years ago, so we were before the trend. But, um, so I have a lot of clients that are corgis, but I do all different kinds of animals. Um, but yeah, so I am up in my little hermitage studio upstairs, and we live right on the corner of two logging roads. So I'm like the CEO of Busy Bodies Anonymous, noticing, oh, Jerry left his list. He's just thrown back to go home. Um, but yeah, so I make pet portraits for a living, which is strange, but
00:29:51
Speaker
I don't know, it's pretty cool. When I was a freelance illustrator, you work for editors and stuff, art directors, and they're not the most fun of bosses. My bosses are people all over the world who love their dog enough to spend a couple hundred bucks to make a tiny version of them that they can't play with, that they can just look at.
00:30:10
Speaker
I actually, I really love hearing about that. I think just the emotional content of art really speaks to me. And I know that's so exciting to hear. Any any final predictions for what we're going to see from sick town roller derby 2023?
00:30:31
Speaker
Oh man, I mean our numbers are growing all the time. I have a feeling we're going to have a lot more bouts. I'm hoping that we're going to start doing away bouts. I'm personally going to miss our October bout. We have a bout in October and I'm pretty bummed about that. But I think you're just going to keep seeing more awesome roller derby in your local area.
00:30:55
Speaker
I have just bumped into Slade Marion. Please introduce yourself. Hello, my name is Slade Marion. I skate with the Sicktown Roller Derby and I'm also the merch maiden on the team. Merch maiden as well. It's been so great to talk to so many roller derby athletes. I wanted to ask you the question I've asked others. Why roller derby?
00:31:21
Speaker
I love the community. It's very inclusive and it's fun to be badass and you get a workout from it. It's amazing.
00:31:29
Speaker
It's fun to be badass. I'll definitely agree with that. About the team, I've talked to a lot of the athletes and they've talked about themselves, but also connecting to the team and doing something that can be a huge challenge in doing it with others. Can you talk about your experience with that?
00:31:52
Speaker
Um, it's nice to be included in a team that really, um, gets along well. And the entire community in general is just very inclusive. Like you can go skate anywhere and just immediately have somewhere to like go, um, actually went out of town to Montana once. And I randomly hit up their roller to believe. And I said, Hey, can I come skate with you for today? And they said, absolutely. We would love to have you. So it's the entire community is like one large team. And it's very welcoming. That's wonderful. Um, whereabouts in Montana.
00:32:19
Speaker
Missoula, I believe in Missoula and you run into a roller derby team and they they took you in for the practice. It's great to hear that. All right. So athletes I talk to, they're super creative, both in like how they approach their their their person or the identity within like roller derby to talk. Talk to me about the creativity that you're involved with or see in roller derby.
00:32:49
Speaker
Um, it's really nice to have like, um, like a brand or a theme with, uh, your identity in roller derby. Like for me personally, I was named after Robin Hood in my real life. And so I took that into my roller derby life as well. So I have, um, Slade Marion, like made Marion and 73, my derby number is the year that Disney's Robin Hood came out. Wow. Um, thanks. Thanks. Uh, thanks for letting us know and telling us about, um, about that. Uh, what was about the 73 again?
00:33:17
Speaker
the year that Disney's Robin Hood came out? Aha! Okay, when you said 73, my brother was born in 73. I got terribly distracted for a moment. What do you expect to see from Sicktown Roller Derby 2023? It's our comeback year. We lost a lot of skaters during COVID and even before that we were kind of dwindling down so it's really nice to see everything like building back up.
00:33:43
Speaker
Huge rebound, tons of skaters, boot camp and everything. I'm so excited for the team. I've run into the Roller Derby referee. Might you introduce yourself to us? Hi, I'm Carmen Unglude. Carmen Unglude. I want to ask you, which I've asked a lot of the athletes, why Roller Derby?
00:34:08
Speaker
So I started back in 2011 and I saw the movie Whip It and I watched it like three more times and I was 40 at the time and I was like I can do that so I looked it up on the internet and I found a team and I just went and joined one day.
00:34:24
Speaker
Love it. It was just just just that quick. You like you like what you saw. Tell us about in particular as as as a referee and being around the league and all this incredible talent. What what that's a very unique role a ref for the roller derby. Tell us tell us all about it.
00:34:47
Speaker
A lot of us start as skaters, so I skated for about eight years, and then I had some injuries that I don't want to do contact anymore, but I still wanted to be part of the team, and so I learned the rules a little better. It's a little different when you're reffing than when you're playing. I'm just glad that I'm still here and still around and still skating.
00:35:11
Speaker
you know it's interesting being an official either a skating official or a non-skating official because it takes so many of us to put on about that we really I'm just trying to advocate for the inclusion of not just every skater and how badass they all are but every volunteer every skating official every non-skating official and how important every single one of them are to
00:35:35
Speaker
To just just the team as a whole let alone putting on the bouts and everything that goes on outside of that You know just I think that just a shout out to appreciation to all of those people I think needs to needs to happen. Yeah
00:35:51
Speaker
Thank you for spending the time to say that because it really is so important and you look at the amount of volunteers and people putting in their time and administrative things and talking about going through COVID and where do you practice and
00:36:06
Speaker
And it's really special to mention all those contributions. And I think for listeners, too, getting excited and hearing about something that's important to folks is energizing in and of itself. So we'll have ways to support a sick town roller derby.
00:36:23
Speaker
for the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast listeners. But one of the pieces I also wanted to ask you is about what you see as a referee about how important the team is in teamwork and working and learning this.
The Importance of Teamwork and Community
00:36:43
Speaker
A lot of the athletes are saying, well, they had gone through maybe a period of not being connected to folks out of the pandemic or being able to work together physically.
00:36:50
Speaker
How big is the team aspect from what you see? You know it really is the biggest part of it. You know you can do trail skating and you can go to the skate rink and whatever and practice your own skills but if you're not getting together with the team and working on
00:37:06
Speaker
You have to do offense and defense at the same time. That takes years to learn how to do. And you can't do that without as many people here as possible. And so it's really important. I went through COVID in Derby too, and we just skated outside because I was in New Mexico at the time.
00:37:25
Speaker
You know, it's important to actually be able to skate together and touch each other and hit each other. And if you don't do those things, then you're not really ready to bout. So it's really important. The communication is important. The working together, knowing how to touch each other, how to hit each other, how to fall. All those things are just so integral. It's a team sport in every sense of the word. So it's definitely not a solo thing. I mean, you have your superstars, but they can't do it without everybody else either.
00:37:54
Speaker
Thank you so much for what you do, and best of luck keeping all the athletes that I just met in check. I don't know if that's possible, but that's part of the fun. It's a rebellious sport for a reason, you know? It's a sport we can appreciate. Thanks so much for spending the time. This
Podcast Conclusion
00:38:19
Speaker
is something rather than nothing.
00:38:45
Speaker
one more gurr gurr