MAT-SU �” Roller Derby: An event where women roller skate teams get together, travel at high speeds, push and shove each other down and take a beating for points. Sound like fun? Most would agree.

Last weekend, the Black Ice Brawlers and the Sockeye Sallys saw the debut of the Rage City Rollergirls, an all-volunteer, non-profit skater-managed organization dedicated to developing, pzomoting and sustaining the competitive sport of flat track roller derby in Alaska.

Lisa Lackey, or as she’s known in the roller derby world, “Shove Elle,” is a Rage City Rollergirl from Palmer. As a member of the Black Ice Brawlers, Lackey said she first heard of the skating league last May from friend and Rollergirl co-founder, Heather (a.k.a. “Bad Weather”). Heather convinced Lackey to pull out her dusty skates and join the league. “I went to a practice last August and it was great,” Lackey said. “All these women were getting involved and I was instantly hooked.”

Lackey said she had seen roller derby before, but hadn’t skated since middle school. Watching other women competing at high speeds in front of a crowd looked like her cup of tea.

In no time, Lackey went out and got the appropriate gear necessary to practice the sport.

With safety in mind first and foremost, knee pads, elbow pads, a mouth guard, and helmet are all required tools of the trade �” next to a cool pair of skates, that is.

Players use quad skates, not roller blades, which allows for more sturdiness while cruising a paved track at high speeds, but doesn’t leave much room for control.

“Roller blades didn’t really do it for me,” she said.

Lackey said she knew she wasn’t very good at the beginning, evident by the barrage of bruises and scrapes she endured in practice.

“It takes lots of training,” she said. “A lot of the girls who joined hadn’t skated before at all. You pretty much learn as you go.”

Lackey said almost 99% of roller derby is a sport, not a pre-organized stage production with set-ups and theatrical antics.

“This is no fake derby,” she said. “Definitely not your mama’s derby.”

Female skating derbies first garnished attention in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a handful of popular television programs promoted events where scantly clad women tore at each other playfully in a wrestling style entertainment production. Girls pushed, shoved and caught an audiences attention with the physical brutality. Everyone watched, knowing the games were typically staged.

When asked if the Rage City Rollergirls would be putting on a similar show in Anchorage thirty years later, members clearly state, ‘Not even close.’

Samantha Jones, or “Killa Magilla,” met up with the Rage City Rollergirls after watching a tournament on television. Along with four other ladies, she started skating at a local rink, got all her paperwork in, and began practice at the Cell One Sports Center in Anchorage, the Rollergirls training headquarters.

“At the start, we would skate where we could,” Jones said. “The we started raising funds and essentially getting the word out.”

The Sockeye Sallys and the Black Ice Brawlers are two registered teams under the Rage City Rollergirls moniker in Anchorage.

Last week, they were ready to rumble.

Each team consists of between 10 to 14 players, with only five from each allowed on the rink during a bout.

In roller derby, players can be blockers, pivot blockers, or jammers. Four blockers typically position themselves according to the pace set by the pivot blocker in an attempt to prevent the jammer from passing. The jammer’s role is to make her way through the pack, lap the pack, and pass through the pack as many times as she chooses in a jam to score points, all in two-minute time periods.

Training teams from Outside were brought up to train the Rollergirls to become certified athletes with the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).

WFTDA rules state none of the players are allowed to throw elbows or hit below the knee and above the shoulders, but players are allowed to block, hit or check the opponent with other parts of the body. The rules are taken very seriously and despite popular belief, the action is real �” not staged.

Jones said there are physical injury risks involved with the sport, admitting she has had her fare share of broken bones to date.

“The challenging aspect of roller derby is obviously the physical brutality,” she said. “I have suffered injuries already.”

Last winter, Jones fell on the roller rink during training. Not wearing the proper gear, she caught her fall with her wrist, instantly breaking her arm. In practice before last weekend’s bout, she fell on her knee rendering her stiff for the competition.

“It happens,” she said. “The common injury is in the tailbone. The other challenge is getting ready for the sport. Everything has to be organized just right so the sport can be mastered.”

Jones said she would like to see people view roller derby as a real sport, and not a rehearsed production.

“There are leagues forming that are trying to do the stage shows, that’s not us,” Jones commented. “In derby, the girls do get hit, no fake fighting is needed. The staged action is innate. We want to be recognized as a real sport and not a WWF thing. We are real athletes with real regulations.”

At the Rollin’ Out Bout in Anchorage on May 17, more than 1,000 spectators came to see The Sockeye Sallys and Black Ice Brawlers bout it out. Live music and a busy beer garden kept the audience in the mood until the action started.

They had practiced all winter long. This was the Alaska roller derby’s Super Bowl.

But getting down and dirty on the roller derby track isn’t the only purpose of the Rollergirls.

Each derby participant must sign up for a community outreach project, volunteering their time to other non-profit groups, such as the Wounded Warrior project, Bean’s Cafe, Adopt-a-Highway, and a slew of other programs aimed at assisting the community.

Jones and Lackey said that if there are women interested in becoming a Rollergirl, that they must be at least 21 years old and be willing to be pushed around. Alcohol is served at most events and the action gets rough.

“I would start like I did, by practicing with quad skates outside on a paved trail,” Jones said. “It’s super good exercise, so grab a friend and go at it.”

Michelle Maynor grew up in the Mat-Su Valley, now runs a printing company in Fairbanks. She and some friends started up the Bank City Rollers, a group of roller derby girls not yet ready for competition, but in extensive training.

“We have two girls with previous derby experience on this team,” Maynor said. “We need a place to practice though, that’s been a challenge.”

Maynor said roller derby is the perfect sport for an active woman, such as herself, to get involved with, especially during the long winter months.

“There’s not a lot of stuff for women to do up here in the wintertime,” she said. “This is something physical I can do, plus I get to meet a lot of cool chicks.”

Maynor chose her player name, “Bad Lady,” based on the license plate on her 1953 Chevy pick-up.

Last weekend, Maynor came down to help out with the Rollin’ Out Bout in Anchorage. After that show, she said, she is ready to rumble.

“It was so exiting,” she said. “I want go skate now, but have a ways to go. I’m looking forward to competing with these ladies soon.”

The Roller Girls tentatively will schedule bouts and shows from October to May each year, but that things may get planned spontaneously throughout the short summer months. It also depends on how fast the competition gets ready to take them on.

To find out more about the Rage City Rollergirls and read player bios, visit Ragecityrollergirls.org.

Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife@frontiersman.com.