DOWN FOR DERBY: Roller girls bring fast action, excitement to the Valley

WASILLA — Dressed in red and green, throwing hip checks and sliding to a stop on their kneepads, the Rage City Roller Girls made their second appearance in the Valley Saturday.

And, if all goes according to plan, the Valley could soon be home to its very own roller derby league, the Denali Destroyer Dolls.

A relatively new sport to Alaska — Rage City is in its third season and has been around as an organization for five years — the roller derby bout began at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center with a quick primer on the rules of the sport coupled with a slow-motion demonstration. Women holding staffs topped with question marks circulated through the crowd to help answer questions.

But with the demonstration out of the way the show was on. Girls from Anchorage’s Devil’s Club squad with derby names like Shocker Khan and Pain Maker Sally battled girls from Anchorage’s Sockeye Sally’s named things like Spenard Itch and Barracuda Barbie.

And they battled right to the end, starting the last “jam” — derby-speak for round — with just 28 seconds on the clock. In the end, Devil’s Club emerged victorious, despite being the newest of the three Rage City teams.

Angie Ramirez, the Anchorage league’s sponsorship chair, said the bout was great. It was competitive, with the lead changing hands multiple times over the course of the night. That seemed to keep the crowd interested, she said.

The event, like the one from November 2009 at Raven Hall, drew a large, enthusiastic crowd. Even without a hometown team, the Valley has been a part of roller derby from almost the beginning.

“We have such a big Valley fan-base,” Ramirez said, that it just made sense to bring events out here.

The crowd Saturday certainly appreciated it. Estimates put attendance between 1,300 and 1,500. A number of fans came to cheer particular players on one or the other team.

Ramirez, who was there as her derby persona Sarah Impale’em – the number on her jersey? 2012 – said that the hope is to eventually be able to compete with – or “bout” with – a Valley team.

“When they’re able to skate to an ability up to the roller girl level where they’re able to bout us they’ll be able to house all of their bouts out in the Valley,” Ramirez said.

Saturday’s event was something of a coming out party for the Denali Destroyer Dolls. The nascent league’s president and coach, Jane Bondage; who has thrown herself so thoroughly into the derby project that she won’t talk about derby unless inhabiting her derby persona and using her derby name, said Dolls have been quietly building up a team since July.

She said the Dolls organization has been quiet for a reason – there is a whole lot of preparation going into this and the Dolls want to make sure they have a firm foundation in place before making too many public appearances.

“Especially here in the Valley the way sports teams have come and gone, our goal is just to stay quiet with our nose to the grindstone so that we can be here for a very long time,” Bondage said. “We want to make sure that all the Ts are crossed and Is are dotted.”

The best-case scenario, she said, is that by August the Dolls will be trained, sanctioned by the national league’s governing bodies, and ready to bout with some of the less experienced Alaska teams like those in Juneau and North Pole.

Bondage said she came to the sport first as a fan.

“About two years ago a friend and I started going in to see the Rage City Rollergirls in Anchorage and just kind of became fans of the whole thing from start to finish, the derby lifestyle the physical end of derby, the connectivity of an organization for women, just all of it,” Bondage said. “We got to know some of the Rage City girls and we just started to talk about what if. What if the Valley had Roller Derby?”

So they went for it. Bondage said that Rage City has been extremely supportive and they have found mentor leagues in California and Texas.

She said that a lot of people’s notions of roller derby from its early days in the ’70s and ’80s are no longer correct. The bouts aren’t staged, they’re competitive. And it’s no longer a blood sport.

“It’s a safer, smarter sport. The safety aspect of it evolves monthly,” Bondage said. “Just like boxing, once there’s blood you have to stop everything.”

Which appeals to her. And it seems to appeal to a broad swath of Valley women as well.

“I have teachers. I have bankers. I have nurses. I have firefighters. I have moms that stay at home,” Bondage said. “We have people in management, and in derby it doesn’t matter.”

And it’s not like derby is just a hobby though. The Dolls practice three times a week and members are required to attend 80 percent of derby meetings. The team is a non-profit and there is also a community service component. Dolls have painted faces at carnivals, helped out with community dinners and at Christmas gift-giving events.

The Dolls have a website – denalidestroyers.org – and a Facebook page where fans or aspiring derby battlers can get in touch with organizers and team members. The plan is to become a big part of the community for as long as possible, Bondage said.

“We have a one- a three- a five- a seven- and a 10-year plan,” she said. “If anyone really wants to get in touch with us about land and a building get a hold of me.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.