As Skates Go On, Gloves Come Off

There has to be more to life than going to work and home, right? Dozens of women in the Washington region would answer: Yes, there is roller derby.

Take ice hockey's bone-crushing collisions and add women in cutoff shorts and glittering silver stockings. Wives and mothers and students by day transform into "Deja Bruise" or "Velvet Landmine" at night as they take to the rink amid hearty cheers from the audience.

More than 200 spectators watched the latest District competition of the DC Rollergirls roller derby league Saturday night at its new venue, the D.C. Armory. The league has been in operation since 2006 and last year held its competitive events at the Dulles Sportsplex.

Fans included parents pushing their toddlers in brand-name strollers to little girls such as 7-year-old Destiny McGowan. Destiny, her sisters and mother had come from Baltimore to visit relatives in the District for spring break. "I like that the girls get to fight each other," Destiny said as she sat on the floor of the flat track. Her eyes widened each time a pack of skaters whizzed by.

Back in the day, her aunt, Roberta Barksdale of Northeast Washington, used to go to the roller derby with her father and sister at the old Washington Coliseum, near where Union Station is today. It was something different to do, Barksdale said, recalling with affection the girls with their flashy costumes and the rough-and-tumble skating that sent players to the ground. While surfing the Internet recently, Barksdale came across the event and bought tickets so her nieces could catch a glimpse, she said.

For the uninitiated, the game can look like an endless loop of skating and collisions around an elliptical track on a gym floor, with referees intermittently blowing whistles to stop and start play. But strict rules govern the skating chaos, and players train for months to acquire the needed speed, endurance and skill to compete -- and hopefully avoid injury along the way. The matches are called bouts and are played between two teams. Players play positions of jammer, pivot or blocker.

The sport has a history that stretches back to the 1930s, when, as roller derby lore has it, sports promoter Leo A. Seltzer organized an endurance race on roller skates. Fans and players say the sport's popularity ebbed and flowed in later decades with some national attention in the 1970s and 1980s, which included television coverage. Its recent resurgence was fueled in Texas and spread nationwide, leading to the creation of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, which includes more than 50 members, from the Windy City Rollers in Chicago to the Pikes Peak Derby Dames in Colorado Springs.

Saturday night was a double-header. First, the Cherry Blossom Bombshells (wearing lots of pink) took on the Secretaries of Hate. Then it was the black-clad Scare Force One vs. the DC DemonCats and their devil mascot.

Skater Sarah Barr, 32, of Falls Church commutes to Georgetown daily to work as a graphic artist. As a member of the Cherry Blossom Bombshells, she's known as Pam Backhand. She got up at 6 a.m. Saturday, ate breakfast and prepared for battle. She scrubbed her skate wheels with soap and water. Dust in the wheels can affect traction on the floor, she said.

"I love this; it's a great outlet," said Barr, whose team beat the Secretaries of Hate. "I love to win, but I love to have fun even more."