4 • ISSUE June 2010
Volume 16, No. 9
ROCKIN’ ROLLERS
Derby team brings girl power to SETX WITH BLARING ROCK MUSIC, pounding skates and alter egos, the Spindletop Roller Girls have hit the Beaumont scene in a big way. The women on wheels have Photos by found a following and are here to stay. The crowd at the team’s Andy first scrimmage at Manning’s Coughlan Texas on Wheels exceeded seating capacity and nearly 700 attended their first hometown bout in April at the Ford Park exhibit hall. “Its like NASCAR with a skirt. You have two teams trying to get their guy through. Its exciting,” Doug E. Flesh, Roller Girls trainer, said. Rollermania has come to Beaumont courtesy of a husband and wife duo having an interest in the sport and skating away with it. Doug and Jessica Corral, who go by the “skater names” or alter egos Doug E. Flesh and Messica in the rink, began the venture with a couple of friends and it grew from there. Vidor resident Robbi Murphy, aka Pluckey Devil, met Messica at a local concert and got on board with forming the league. “We started with five people and it just grew and
Story by Jacqueline Hays
snowballed into the greatest group of women I have ever had the pleasure of working with,” Pluckey Devil said. “The first official practice was Nov. 11, 2008. I’ll never forget it,” Messica said. The interest originally came from Doug E. Flesh’s mom when he was working as an EMT and living in Houston with his wife Messica. His mom had a friend in the roller derby league there and invited him to come watch. Soon he was volunteering his medic services and Messica had joined a recreational team. “I hadn’t been on a pair of roller skates in 10 years,” Messica said. Then Messica’s job relocated them to Beaumont. By the time of the move, Messcia was so enamored with the sport; she was willing to commute five times a week for practices. That’s when the couple decided to start their own team in Beaumont. “The first people I talked to were Pluckey Devil and Melissa Wright,” Messica said. Wright eventually moved to Colorado. They began recruiting by word-of-mouth, handmade fliers at nail salons and roller rinks, and a few ads in local newspapers to stir interest. Pluckey Devil, like Messica hadn’t skated since
