The Colonel’s Roller Derby Roundup

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has an article about women’s football and roller derby. It has some information about another women’s contact sport in town you may not be aware of: the Houston Energy.

Cached here for posterity:

Violent femmes

Women’s football and roller derby leagues give sports fans something else to cheer about

By MARK LOWRY
Star-Telegram staff writer

For a region that prides itself on athletics, there aren’t a whole lot of chances to see women’s professional team sports in North Texas. Strangely, we don’t have a Women’s United Soccer Association team or a Women’s National Basketball Association team.

What we do have, though, are a three-time championship Women’s Professional Football League team, the Dallas Diamonds, whose home season kicks off this week; and two roller derby leagues, both of which are winding down their seasons.

So now is a good time to look at the two rough-and-tumble contact sports, which star heavily padded women who aren’t afraid to break a nail — not to mention an opponent’s bones and/or spirit.

Derby does Dallas

The leagues: North Texas has two roller derby leagues. The Dallas Derby Devils, founded in 2004, play at Forum Roller World in Grand Prairie; the Assassination City Roller Derby is in its second season at a Garland rink. Both leagues are made up of several teams, with players from all over the Metroplex, and are members of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (visit www.wftda.com).

The teams: For this story, we focused on the Derby Devils, which claim to be the largest flat-track derby league in the South, with about 100 active skaters. This Saturday’s playoffs pit the Slaughterers against the Suicide Shifters; and the Wrecking Crew against the High Seas Hotties. At the championship game Sept. 8, the winners of those two games will face off for first and second place in the league; the two losing teams play for third and fourth place.

The game: Flat-track derby means that the action happens on a skating-rink floor, with the boundaries marked off with rope lights. Between the outer boundary of the oval track and the spectators is a 10-foot space. This is to protect the fans, as players who are knocked out of bounds sometimes crash into the audience.

Teams have five players on the track during each “jam”: one pivot (or pace-setter), three blockers and one jammer. The jammers score a point for each member of the opponent’s team she passes, without going out of bounds. The blockers, of course, try to keep the jammers from doing this.

Injuries do happen. At one July game, medics came to the track four times. In each case, the player eventually got up and walked off. Sometimes, though, players are carried off with concussions or neck or knee injuries. Donations are accepted for the “injured skater fund.”

The players: What’s great about roller derby is that teams and players go all-out creating their look. The Slaughterers, for instance, wear blood-splattered aprons, while some players add horns, devil tails or fishnet stockings to their outfits. Player nicknames get very creative, like “June Carter Crash,” “Ann R. Key” and “Pummela Slamderson.” Even better are the jersey numbers, which range from the traditional to off-kilter picks such as .44 and 2 r . Slaughterer LaShawn Sykes, for instance, goes by the name “Hard Drive” and sports the number 00100100.

Although the women knock into each other during the game, there is a lot of camaraderie between the teams. “At the end of the day, we’re drinking a beer together,” said 26-year-old Hottie “Barooski.” “That’s not to say there aren’t catfights sometimes.”

Adding to the excitement are entertaining announcers with names such as “Dawn Diamond” and “Bankshot,” and a mistress of the rink, if you will, known as “Vanna Fright.”

The crowd: Typically, more than 1,000 people attend, and it’s an odd mix of demographics. Heavy on the tattooed set, though.

Halftime: Denton-based wrestling league XCW hosts three bouts, with a ring set up in the far corner of the rink. Gotta say, after watching it close up, it looks more cheesily choreographed than the big-league wrestling stuff you see on TV.

Good to know: At the Devils events, it’s BYOB. Bring your coolers with any kind of alcohol, but not in glass containers. Concessions with food, soda and water are also available.

There are some bleachers set up on either end of the track, but it’s best if you bring your own collapsible chair. Get there early to stake out a good spot. Derby regulars know that the most crashes happen on the second and fourth turns. Some even make pyramids of their empty beer cans, hoping a derby girl will knock them down.

Dallas Derby Devils

7:30 p.m. Saturday
Forum Roller World
1900 S. Great Southwest Parkway
Grand Prairie
$12-$15
972-641-0661; www.derbydevils.com
Championship game: Sept. 8

Assassination City Roller Derby
7:20 p.m. Sunday
Texas Skatium
2020 Rowlett Road
Garland
$10-$15
972-240-6455; www.acderby.com
Championship game: Sept. 9

Diamonds in the rough

The league: The Women’s Professional Football League, founded in 1999 with two teams, now has 16 teams representing 12 states. In the league’s eight seasons, Texas teams have won the championship six times: The Houston Energy took consecutive titles in 2000-02, while our Dallas Diamonds have reigned the past three years.

Diamonds are a Houston girl’s best fiend: Not only have the Diamonds won three years running, they’ve only lost one game in three seasons. That was a September 2006 loss to Houston.

As you can imagine, Dallas and Houston are the biggest rivalry in the league, which is why the home opener against the Energy shouldn’t be missed.

The team: The Diamonds have 43 rostered players, led by head coaches Mikal Black and Todd Hughes. This year, the team moves to a new venue, Pennington Field at Texas 183 and Central Drive in Bedford.

The players: Like the women of the roller derby, the football women are mostly professionals by day who tear up the field at night. Our Diamonds cover girls include Ingrid Mitchell, 42, the 5-foot-10-inch, 265-pound defensive player nicknamed “Tiny.” During the day, Mitchell works with mentally challenged people, and says she enjoys the competition and workout the game offers. The blonde is rookie receiver Danilynn Welniak, 18, who postponed taking a scholarship to study marine biology at the University of Hawaii to play a year with the Diamonds.

The women play for many reasons. According to Diamonds general manager Shelley Burnson, one signed up a few years ago because she had several young kids and “wanted to let out some aggression.”

The game: It follows the same rules as the NFL, played on a 100-yard field, full tackle.

The crowd: Crowd sizes average about 2,500, says Burnson. Again, you can spot a cross section of types in the bleachers, although it’s largely a family event. This year, the Diamonds plan to have a bounce house and other activities for kids at certain games, and are planning a faith-based night.

And yes, we know that a lot of you guys out there are saying “women, football - yeah, right.”

When the teams are somewhat evenly matched, these games can be as exciting as those in the pro boys’ club.

“Once we get you there, you’re hooked,” Burnson says.

Good to know: You cannot bring food, beverages, coolers, glass containers or backpacks into the stadium, but concessions are available. There have been reports of tailgating before Diamonds games. Also, for the first time, the national championships will be played here this year. Can we expect another Dallas-Houston smackdown? Count on it.

Dallas Diamonds vs. Houston Energy
7 p.m. Saturday
Pennington Field
1501 Central Drive
Bedford
$7-$10
817-690-3126; www.dallasdiamondsfootball.com

Future home games
Sept 8: vs. SoCal Scorpions
Sept. 22: vs. New Mexico Burn
Oct. 6: vs. Las Vegas Showgirlz

mlowry@star-telegram.com
Mark Lowry, 817-390-7747

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 18th, 2007 at 10:48 am and is filed under inthenews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.