It\u2019s like a band of sisters.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how 11-year-old Nicki \u201cBubblegum Brawl\u201d Davis described her team, the San Diego Juvenile Dollinquents, who squared off against Beach Cities Shark Bites in a tracked junior league roller derby match Jan. 20, held at the \u201cDollhouse,\u201d a 24,000-square-foot training facility in the East Village neighborhood of Downtown San Diego.<\/p>\n
The Juvenile Dollinquents are the all-stars of the San Diego Derby Dolls junior program, consisting of girls 7-17 years old.\u00a0They played on a twin bill that evening with\u00a0the San Diego Derby Dolls\u2019 B-Level adult\u00a0team, Sparks,\u00a0ages 18-48,\u00a0who took\u00a0on the Beach Cities Sea Gals.<\/p>\n
The matches are all part of the \u201cnew\u201d roller derby which, in San Diego at least, is youth-focused.<\/p>\n Isabelle Ringer, general manager of the San Diego Derby Dolls, said the old school\u00a0derby\u00a0days of hair pulling and catfights staged by female competitors are long gone.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout 12 years ago, there was a resurgence that most of us refer to as modern roller derby,\u201d Ringer explained. \u201cIt\u2019s an entirely different set of rules. And you\u2019ll find an entirely different age range of people playing.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest incarnation of roller derby is \u201ca lot more like hockey, pretty intense, with a lot of physical play and a lot of contact,\u201d\u00a0noted\u00a0Ringer. \u201cThere are pretty specific rules about the blocking, what part of your body you can use.\u201d<\/p>\n What hasn\u2019t changed about roller derby\u00a0through\u00a0the years,\u00a0however,\u00a0is\u00a0its\u00a0excitement\u00a0level,\u00a0and\u00a0almost mesmerizing\u00a0ability to engage an audience.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’ll still see pretty crazy stuff and you\u2019ll see that out of both the juniors and the adults,\u201d\u00a0Ringer\u00a0said.<\/p>\n Tom Griffen, who refereed the junior league match, agreed the sport has evolved over time.<\/p>\n \u201cThe difference is it\u2019s all real now,\u201d Griffen said of the changes. \u201cWhen before, it was all made for TV. They were great athletes back then. So that\u2019s the same. But it\u2019s all real now.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if his job was difficult, Griffen agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get people yelling at you,\u201d he said. \u201cBut other than that \u2026 it\u2019s a lot of rules. I learn something new every day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRic-A-Shea\u201d Conley, 14, said she she\u2019s involved in junior roller derby because, \u201cIt\u2019s such an empowering league.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt empowers women, makes you stronger,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone builds each other up. I love it so much. And, I made a whole new family. It\u2019s my second home.\u201d<\/p>\n Conley said the sport is helping her grow up.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so much more mature now and I\u2019m able to have adult conversations,\u201d she said. \u201cEverything about it just encourages me to be who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n Two adult Derby Dolls, Selenium Falcon and Killer Groove \u2014 who is captain of the Sparks adult team \u2014 said they wouldn\u2019t want to be anywhere else but at a roller derby match once a month when their teams play.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really interesting sport, an alternative,\u201d said Groove. \u201cIt allows people, who aren\u2019t normally into sports, an outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n One of those outlets involves selecting a derby moniker.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re real-life women, wives, mothers, all these things associated with our real names,\u201d Groove said. \u201cGiving us derby names gives us the ability to switch into more of our warrior roles.\u201d<\/p>\n Falcon agreed that roller derby is the sport for her.<\/p>\n \u201cI personally never owned a pair of skates in my childhood,\u201d she said. \u201cI saw my first derby match about six years ago and I chose to be a part of it and went out and bought a pair of skates. It is the most fun I\u2019ve ever had. It\u2019s the most mentally challenging game I\u2019ve ever played.\u201d<\/p>\n Falcon said roller derby takes strategizing \u201cto a whole new level.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re constantly calculating every little thing that you\u2019re doing \u2014 and changing up the plan at a second\u2019s notice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Kelly \u201cClocks\u2019 Em\u201d Coffey handles promotions for the Derby Dolls.<\/p>\n A single mom who works full-time in public relations, Coffey got involved in the sport about a year ago because she \u201cwanted to do something different.\u201d She\u2019s now happy to volunteer her time helping the Derby Dolls out with their networking and social media.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages,\u201d Coffey said noting it isn\u2019t such a bad responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Derby Dolls are pretty much an icon in San Diego,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are other leagues. But we\u2019re the only one with a banked track. So it\u2019s a lot more fun for spectators to come watch, as opposed to watching it on a flat surface. It\u2019s more exciting when we get out there.\u201d<\/p>\n February kicks off the new season for the Derby Dolls. To learn more about this exciting local, live, banked-track roller derby group and buy tickets, visit\u00a0sandiegoderbydolls.com<\/u><\/a> or email them at info@sandiegoderbydolls.com. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram @derbydolls, and Facebook.com\/SDDerbyDolls<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por Dave Schwab<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":238279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Rolling warriors","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"derby2webtop\"](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/derby2webtop.jpg\")
<\/a>
(Photo by Dave Schwab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n