GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo.—Paula Daniels took in a bout in Oregon and instantly knew she had to strap on a pair of skates and give it a try.
Seeing a young girl roll by on Heelys, Gena Hawkins had an epiphany, of sorts, in, of all places, City Market.
Soon after, the two linked up and got the wheels turning—literally and figuratively—on Roaring Fork Roller Derby.
Very much in its infancy, the Glenwood Spring area’s newest sports league is already mighty popular. New faces constantly surface at the league’s twice-weekly practices at the Glenwood Springs Community Center rink, joining a core group of 10 to 15 women.
While the first bout is still a ways from becoming a reality, a sturdy foundation is taking shape. With the coffers brimming after successful fundraisers and overwhelming interest filling up the league’s roster, roller derby will be a reality in the valley soon enough.
And it all started when Daniels and Hawkins brought their ideas together this past spring.
The latter fondly recalls that fateful stroll through City Market.
“I’m sure there’s a universal cosmic thing going on,” said Hawkins, who’s known as “Smash Box” by her teammates. “I want to do roller derby because I want to wear the bad-ass clothes. I thought, ‘Am I on the right track?’ Right when I went through the grocery store at City Market, a little girl passed me. She had those Heelys on and started gliding right past me. I thought, ‘It’s a sign. I’m on the right track.'”
That was, as Hawkins puts it, her “come-to-derby moment.”
“I called a friend and said, ‘You know what? I want to start a roller derby league,’ and he goes, ‘That’s so weird. I just saw a poster at a tattoo shop in Glenwood. There’s another gal trying to start one.'”
So Hawkins gave Daniels, the other gal, a call. It didn’t take long for their idea to take off.
“It spread like wildfire,” said Daniels, whose tentative roller derby nickname is “The Phearless Phoenix.”
Like Hawkins, Daniels experienced somewhat of a “come-to-derby” moment.
“When I lived in Eugene, Ore., I went and saw a bout,” she said. “I was just really enthralled by it. I wanted to be a part of it, but my schedule did not allow me to do so. When I moved back to Glenwood Springs, I watched the movie ‘Whip It’ in January. That rekindled my love.”
As virtually everyone associated with the Roaring Fork Roller Derby quickly points out, flat track roller derby is one of the nation’s fastest-growing sports.
And it’s a sport that’s been around for some time. Only in the last 20 or 30 years, though, has it exploded in popularity.
“Roller derby has had quite the resurgence,” Deirdra “Devour” Harcourt said. “It actually started in the 1920s. About 1980 in Texas, it started coming back, and it’s been going for a while now. Most cities now have at least a team, if not several teams.”
The rules of roller derby, a contact sport, are simple enough.
Skating in formation, roller skate-donning players speed around an oval track with the aim of racking up the most points. Points are earned by each teams’ designated scoring player—the jammer. Jammers earn points based on how many opponents they pass.
The job of the jammer’s teammates is to create openings for her and to keep the opponent’s jammer from scoring points.
Most present-day leagues are flat track and governed by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).
Roller derby is much more than just a sport or source of fitness to the women of Roaring Fork Roller Derby.
“It’s a very empowering thing for women to be a part of,” Daniels said. “Unlike a lot of other sports, it’s kind of got that alternative edge. There are lots of girls with tattoos or crazy outfits. It’s kind of an experience you don’t get to indulge in every day. You get to play dress-up.”
Women pour their personality into their attire. Brightly colored socks and painted-up helmets add flavor to the black Roaring Fork uniforms, which feature a logo crafted by local tattoo artist Aften Willcuts.
“You can get real creative with the socks,” said league member Safron McElwain, known as “Kate-Deck N’ Sail” to her roller derby peers.
And the quirky outfits are as much about empowerment as they are about expression.
The women of Roaring Fork Roller Derby span all walks of life.
“We have a midwife, a vet tech, a couple waitresses,” Hawkins shared. “We have a graphic artist. Some of the girls, I don’t know what they do. We have a sport trainer, a school teacher.”
The age range is broad, too, with women from 18 up into their late 40s.
Some have skated before. Others haven’t.
All have to achieve a level of skating competency—set by the WFTDA—prior to participating in a bout.
Under the direction of league coach Chris Harrison, the Roaring Fork crew is working toward meeting the requirements.
“Really, at this point, the league is so young and everybody is so new, a lot of it is just focusing on skating fundamentals,” said Harrison, whose wife, Sherri, is in the league. “There are a lot of things to work on in preparation for the test.”
Harrison is learning the roller derby ropes, too. He has an instructional background as a skiing and snowboarding instructor, but is new to derby. When his wife said she was giving the league a whirl, he immediately began researching.
“I just kind of started getting interested in the game itself, how you play, understanding what the rules were,” Harrison said. “I went on a derby binge for a couple weeks. I was checking it out on YouTube and all these websites. Pretty soon, I was the local authority on derby.”
With a coach in place, an enthusiastic legion of skaters and a growing bank account, Roaring Fork Roller Derby is making significant strides toward becoming an official entity.
Hurdles do remain, however. Chief among them: The league needs a place to practice during the winter months. Soon enough, the Glenwood Springs Community Center rink will be covered in ice.
“What we need right now, more than anything, is a place to practice through the winter months,” Daniels said. “We’re hinging on the hope that something comes through. We practice at the Community Center. It turns to ice soon.”
If the league were able to secure a winter practice venue, we could see bouts in the Roaring Fork Valley as early as next summer.
League organizers hope to form at least two teams to allow for internal bouts. Those teams could then challenge other squads in Colorado—or wherever—to bouts.
Much work remains before the bouting begins, though. Once it does happen, those behind Roaring Fork Roller Derby believe they’ll have something special.
“It’s something that’s going to be incredible when it’s up and running,” Harrison insisted. “When it’s up and running, it’s going to be an absolutely powerhouse organization. People will just flip for watching it.”
