Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Derby Dames

*** DERBY DAMES ***

ERIC WHITNEY: Colorado Springs is home to a shadowy, aggressive, all-female sporting society that is honing its skills, recruiting new members and preparing for dominance in the future. It’s the Pikes Peak Derby Dames, twenty-three otherwise unassuming women who like to roller skate in circles and, occasionally, knock each other down. David Marks infiltrated a recent practice, and lived to tell this tale.

[sound of practice at roller rink]

DAVID MARKS: Walking into a Pikes Peak Derby Dames practice can be a little daunting for the uninitiated. Of the twenty-three women here tonight, many wear black, are tattooed, and have at least a few visible piercings.

At first impression, you might guess these girls attend a lot of punk and rockabilly shows. Some sport large battle bruises from previous skating bouts. I had the distinct feeling of entering a unique psychological space. My first hint came as some of the girls introduced themselves.

JENNY LUBY: My skating name, or my real name? My real names Jenny Luby and my skating name’s Rita Slayworth.

“BRAT BENATAR”: Brat Benatar. I’ve been here since the first day.

MARKS: What’s your name again?

BENATAR: Brat Benatar, you know like Pat Benatar.

MARKS: Right.

BENATAR: I like puns. Yeah.

DAISY: I’m Daisy. I’m the Swiss Missile. Like Swiss Miss.

MARCIA FLOWERS: My name is Marcia Flowers. My skating name is Hanky Spanky. I’m number seven. I own Holy Rollers and Knock ‘Em Down Whiskey Productions. My name being Hanky Spanky would mean that I come out of the SM-fetish community and enjoy being spanked.

KARA LUGER: My name is Kara Luger. Skate name is Typhoid Mary, number thirty two.

COURTNEY MANSFIELD: My name is Courtney, Slugs and Kisses, number thirty three. I’m the founder of the Pike’s Peak Derby Dames.

MARKS: Courtney Mansfield, aka Slugs ‘n’ Kisses number thirty three, is the founder of the Pikes Peak Derby Dames. She’s blonde, svelt, and pauses to remove her mouthguard to answer my questions.

MANSFIELD: I pretty much started this thing this summer, cause it just sounded like a really awesome thing to do. I read an article on some of the Texas girls in a tattoo magazine, and I kind of just blown away. I decided that was what I wanted to do, and I made it happen.

Right now we have about twenty three paid girls. Like I said, there’s the thirty-day trial period so there’s still some girls waiting it out, seeing if they want to do it, which I think they’re probably gonna sign up. Right now we have twenty three paid, official girls, and that’s growing pretty fast.

It started off as word-of-mouth. I started telling everybody I know. They told everybody they know. I just flyered today. There’s flyers going out everywhere. And of course this kind of stuff we’re working on. It’s eighteen-plus and that’s pretty much it. If you’re a hundred and you can rock the rink, come forward. Maryanne was in her fifties and she unfortunately got hurt. She’s willing to come back though, when she get better. I know there’s some forties and thirties. Majority is about twenty something, but eighteen-plus.

MARKS: Roller derby isn’t that complicated of a game. There are two teams of five women each. Four from each team skate off together in a pack, and then, a few seconds later, the last remaining skater for each team, the jammers, sprint off at the same time, and try to make their way through the pack. They get a point every time they lap a player from the other team. They also get knocked on their butts a lot. There are other rules regarding what can and can’t be done to block other players, however...

FLOWERS: People break the rules all time. Yeah, we want to take that bitch down.

LUGER: Yeah, pretty much you identify who you need to take down and it’s like bullfighting or something. You just kind of like, like I know the gal who took me down last week. She’s like “All I say was red. I saw your red shirt and went for it.”

MANSFIELD: The main thing about the sport nowadays which differs from the past is that the actual sport is real, the falls is real, the violence is real, the pain is real, the bruises, broken bones, that kind of thing is all real.

There’s definitely a theatrical side to it, but nowadays it’s more on the sidelines. It’s more for halftime and that kind of thing. So the sport more, nowadays is real, but there’s definitely theatrics involves. Some fake fighting for fun, but there’s definitely gonna be some real fighting for sure. I’ve heard stories, so yeah we’ll see.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And her boobs are real.

MARKS: Despite the sport’s no-holds-barred nature, there is no typical roller girl. I asked Kara Luger if appearances can be deceptive on the rink.

LUGER: Yeah definitely absolutely. There’s some girls here who are just completely the most petite, feminine things, and then they tell me, “yeah, I’m here for blood.” And I think that’s amazing.

LUBY: There is definitely a rock and roll attitude around the whole rebirth of this sport. Overall, but it’s definitely really diverse. There’s some moms, there’s some businesswomen, there’s tattoo artists, hairdressers, all sorts of girls. You just gotta be willing to kick ass and put yourself out there. That’s the main requirement.

LUGER: I think that’s one of the things I like most about it. Is that it’s not all just one girl, not all just punk-rock chicks. I don’t know if you can say “a genre of person,” but there is really every type of person here. And I really enjoy that. I’ve met people I never, ever would have met before.

MARKS: Not only are appearances deceptive regarding who you might think would be a roller girl, or join an all-girls roller derby league, but as I found out many women surprised even themselves.

LUGER: For me, the best thing about it would be the camaraderie, as well as I’ve kind of a weird self-esteem issue. Like I’m not someone who normally would have thought of herself as athletic or, almost even in shape. Because of this, I’ve realized I’m really strong, and that makes me feel really sexy. So I’ve come out of it. I definitely love it.

ANGELICA BENCOMO: My real name is Angelica Bencomo. My skate name is B.B. Barrio. I’m from El Paso, Texas, so I was trying to tap into that ethnic, angry oppressed Hispanic. No I’m just kidding. I am Hispanic though, but. I joined this, which really surprised me, as well as a lot of people, because I’m really kind of shy. And since doing this, it’s amazing just how much I like to hit people and get hit. So I think that’s probably gonna make me a pretty good player, because I don’t mind getting thrown around.

You know it’s so strange because I’m pretty girly. I have my peddies and my mannies every month and like to wear pink. But there’s something happens when you put on the pads, the skates, and then the helmet. I mean it wells up inside you, like this inner Amazon. Just, you’ve just got to get out there… adrenaline! And you’re just, like, “GRRRR!”

It’s so hard to explains. It only happens when you suit up. And you see that game face that all the women have. Cause you come in here laughing and joking and we’re all having a good time. But as soon as we get on there, we’re all focused and we’re all ready. And then we have fun, you know, that comes with it, but something about just hitting people, it’s kind of like this primitive, just primal [grunt]. You know? I love it! It’s great.

MARKS: The Pikes Peak Derby Dames are looking forward to checking out two all-girls Denver teams, the Sugar Kill Gang and the Red Riding Hoods, in Denver September seventeenth. The Derby Dames plan on competing in bouts of their own in the spring. At an undisclosed practice location in Colorado Springs, I’m David Marks for Western Skies.

WHITNEY: And that wraps up this edition of Western Skies. Stephen Raher is our associate producer. Delaney Utterback is our IT Wrangler. Special thanks to David Marks for helping out with the website in recent weeks. I’m Eric Whitney, thanks for listening.

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