Derby Destruction

PALMER-The BoomTown Derby Dames will skate in their biggest bout to date this Saturday, Feb 24 at the Menard Center when they play the Rage City All-Stars. Roller Derby is only about a decade old, but has already seen major growth in the Valley.

The Denali Destroyer Dolls are the Valley’s original Roller Derby team. DDD hosted BoomTown for the first time in years Saturday, Feb 17 at Raven Hall. The surprisingly family friendly atmosphere featured barbecue, beer, firefighters fundraising, and of course the raw athleticism and carnage that go on inside the loop.

“I just started watching this season, and I’m hooked,” said Troy McGlashan.

To football purists, roller derby may bring back memories of a better brand of rough, tough, smashmouth competition. Each team’s jammer plays the role of the ball, making their way around both their teammates and opponents by force, flash, dance or leap of faith to score by lapping the rest of the blockers. A delicate balance of fancy footwork and raw physicality weaves its way in and outside of the loop, turning, swerving, and often colliding as players fight for position.

Denali started rolling in 2010, and BoomTown broke off to begin their own team in 2011. Both teams skate under the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, or WFTDA. Denali skates for fun, not seeking a ranking in WFTDA’s international competitive standings. BoomTown will face the Rage City All-Stars this weekend, seeking just that. The matchup will serve as a strength test for BoomTown to determine where they may end up being ranked at the end of the summer season. BoomTown is also traveling to Hawaii in May for more ranked matchups, hoping to gain recognition not just for themselves, but for a bustling Derby scene in the state. Rage City is the state’s highest ranked team, coming in at #62 in February’s WFTDA standings. Anchorage has other teams such as Orange Crush, Sitka has its own surprisingly strong team, and Fairbanks has seen a decline in the number of teams, but still rolls.

Denali is less experienced than BoomTown. The average skater on DDD has been on skates for two years, where BTDD’s average skater has been at it for four years. While DDD rolls for fun, there have been major improvements over the last few years under the guidance of head coach Justin Crowther.

“Him and his wife both go all out and look at videos, what to do, look at the trainers of what works and what doesn’t work. They also go to other games and scope out the other teams so they do their homework and it works and it shows,” said Jukin’ Cherry.

Crowther’s wife “The Tiffinator,” one of the bout MVP’s for DDD, started rolling four years ago. Crowther showed up and helped to run a practice and has been helping ever since. Crowther took a job in Colorado this winter, but flew back to Alaska for this bout.

“It’s mostly leadership and herding cats to keep them focused. It’s mainly being patient because we’re not competitive so we’re just out here to have fun and to learn. A lot of what the score is is experience. Our jammers have grown a lot the last few years and our blockers are starting to come around. They’ve grown a lot since our last game. This game they did well,” said Crowther.

While there is no shortage of girls to roll in the Valley, coaches have been harder to find. Dr. David Martin found himself seeing patients at his Chiropractic Clinic who were roller derby girls and decided to help out.

“I kind of started as a medic or trainer just on the sideline and not participating at all but because I was there week after week eventually I learned the rules and they asked me to be the coach in 2013. You can definitely tell when they hit the roller girl status. There’s rookies who are still learning it and it’s usually 4 to 5 years before they develop the skill set the and knowledge of the game and physically reach the peak of their performance,” said Martin.

Martin applauds the organization as a whole. Though he spent time training roller girls once a week over the past few years, he has given it up, though he has seen the team grow immensely. BoomTown continues to recruit new roller girls to learn.

“It’s fun to watch, I’ve enjoyed watching it. They’re always bringing up the next set and showing the love of the sport to the next generation,” said Martin.

Michael Schwahn is Athena Latina’s significant other who also volunteered to help. Schwahn is the PA for just about any Roller Derby bout in the state.

“For me watching there’s several great skaters on both team. You have powerful blockers on both teams, six foot tall women that are walls. The skater that I noticed that was the powerhouse of the game was FrostByte. When she was blocking she was on her own sometimes completely shutting down Fireweed Fury who’s an extremely talented jammer for DDD. Roller derby is a growing sport, only about 11 years old, started as an empowerment of women it’s a great way to support strong independent women in your community or of you wanted to get into it as a skater, but the thing is that its a sport that’s never slow, and never boring. You can make the comparison to football but in a two hour football game there’s only about 11 minutes of football being played. Of that hour there’s probably 45 minutes of just nonstop derby being played. If you want a sport that isn’t difficult to understand and you get a lot out of it even from watching, it’s a good sport to attend. Over the next year that we could potentially see a massive growth from teams from across the nation being willing to travel up here to Alaska purely to play our teams,” said Schwahn.

BoomTown defeated Denali 170-103 after two action packed 30 minute halves. While DDD has seen vast improvements in talent and experience over the last few years, BTDD remains the standard for teams in the Valley. Athena Latina scored 56 points for BoomTown. Pain Maker Sally was second with 54 points, and FrostByte scored 39. Fireweed Fury led DDD with 34, followed by Jukin’ Cherry at 33. Malicious Murphy scored 31. Fireweed Fury and the Tiffinator were named MVP’s for DDD. BoomTown’s MVP’s were Kandi Koated and Pain Maker Sally.

After throwing their bodies into one another and falling to the cement, the teams join together after the game. BoomTown selects a Jammer and a Blocker as MVP from DDD, and DDD does the same for BoomTown. The competition stays inside the loop, and outside of it the girls are friends with respect for one another and what they do. The two teams will square off again in March.

Jukin’ Cherry got her start with many others in 2014. She has learned all of her fancy footwork in the last three years, and had her talents recognized. She now skates with Orange Crush out of Anchorage but came back to the team she started with for the bout against BoomTown.

“I think it was just something to do and I liked it. It’s a bunch of women getting together and it’s a little bit of empowerment for us. We build each other up and it’s nice. It’s a lot of fun. You get more than just skating out of it, you get confidence, you get friends, you get a whole new family... You will always get the truth, it is never sugar coated. And if you are in trouble you will always have somebody there,” said Jukin’ Cherry.

DDD’s assistant coach goes by SemiAutomatic, but Crowther’s presence is missed.

“I miss it. Just going and helping these people grow and when you see them do the things that you teach them, they're having a good time and having fun,” said Crowther. “I don’t feel obligated but it’s exciting because I’ve been with this ladies for 3 or 4 years and I know them really well and they’re good friends so it’s good to see them.”