Sprindletop Rollergirls

ROCKIN’ ROLLERS

Derby team brings girl power to SETX

Story by WITHBLARINGROCKMUSIC, Jacqueline Hays 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 Andy stay. The crowd at the team’s

Coughlan first scrimmage at Manning’s 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 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

childhood, but said it all came back to her when she started practicing.

Now, the derby divas have created a community of area athletes including nurses, bank tellers, teachers, stay-athome moms and heating and air conditioning repair people. They come in all shapes and sizes, with ages ranging from 23 to 40.

The Rollergirls have achieved apprebtice team status with the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, the international governing body of women’s flat track roller derby. They also have a recreational team for up-and-comers and those that cannot commit as much time to the sport.

They haven’t forgotten about the surrounding community either. They frequent charity events in full Rollergirls garb and skates to raise awareness for area causes and showcase an area charity at every bout.

The Rollergirls have acquired a male following of derby husbands and those like Ray Gregory that are just interested in the sport and come to help with bouts, training and fundraising. They are affectionately referred to as Derby Widows or Derby Brothers.

“The guys are an intricate part, “ Pluckey Devil said. “Like Ray who doesn’t date any one here but helps out. In the beginning he said ‘I want to see this get off the ground. I want to see Beaumont have this.’

“The camaraderie is amazing. We are like a family with acommon purpose,” she said. “These women are true athletes. We train very, very, very hard. We have three mandatory practices a week and we also have land drills.”

The teammates must make the practices or they can’t compete.

“I’ve seen these girls take hits that guys would have to sit on the couch after. There is a lot of heart out there,” Doug E Flesh said. The Rollergirls have fans from all walks of life, he said.

“Roller Derby has been around forever. They used to roller derby with the metal skate strapped to their shoes. It just went out of fashion in the eighties and they started trying to bring it back in Austin about five years ago. We have a good, older roller derby crowd that haven’t seen it in years.”

Fans range from old to young, with cool kids, punk kids, grandmas, and just plain Beaumont residents, Pluckey Devil said.

“Some people come just to see girls go flyin’,” Doug E. Flesh said. “The biggest draw here is — it’s not like the basketball or the hockey teams. We didn’t import players from Ontario — these are local girls.

The Rollergirls are all hometown girls and they have built interest in the sport to a full-fledged business, completely skater operated. With nearly 40 league members, the Rollergirls are non-profit and can accept tax-deductible donations.

“Everything we make goes back into our league,” Messica said. There are traveling expenses when they go to bouts out of town and training equipment to be paid for. She said the team would like to start furnishing the protective gear for the girls as well.

“The girls make all the decisions. It’s a big democracy,” Doug E. Flesh said. “The only part I do is help train. These girls do all the paperwork, legal and recruiting.”

Messica encourages others to take their passion and develop it, because the Rollergirls are proof that grassroots projects can really work in this community. “I would rather try and fail than never try at all. If you don’t try you’ll never know,” she said.

“What these women go through is amazing. It’s hard-hitting, rough and tough and fast. It’s a full-contact sport.

“I have never been into any kind of sport in my life, but this sport is such a good way to let out your aggression,” she said. “When we are there, we can hit each other, knock each other down, go for blood—except off the rink we are all friends. That’s the fun of it.”

“One of the best things about derby is one of the girls can knock me on my behind during a game and afterwards I can walk up to her and say ‘Wow! That was really a great hit,’” Pluckey Devil said. “It is no more violent than football, and it is definitely not as violent as hockey.”

“When we are out there, its like any other sport,” Messica said. “We are not a mom or a bank teller anymore, we are in the game, we are our alter egos.”

For more information, including schedule and sign-up info, visit www.spindletoprollergirls.com.

Jessica, center, and Doug Corral, who go by the “skater names” or alter egos Messica and Doug E. Flesh in the rink, relax on the sidelines during the Spindletop Roller Girls’ bout April 12 at Ford Arena. The fast and furious bouts are like “NASCAR on skates,” team cofounder Doug said. The team all adopt “skate names” such as “Holy Miss Moley,” “Emma Propriate,” and “Mazzy Scar.”

Derby FYI

The Spindletop Roller Girls’ roller derby league is different from what one would see in movies like “Whip It”. In the movie they play on a banked track, which is “old school derby,” Messica said.

The women compete in two-minute jams for points with two 30-minute halves.

“You have a jammer, which is the girl with the star on her head and a pivot, the leader of the pack basically,” Messica said. “ And you still have blockers.

“It’s the same principles. The jammer is scoring the points and blockers and pivots are stopping the opposing jammer or helping ours.

“The jammer is scoring points with each girl she passes after her first lap through, but on the banked track, they are doing clotheslines and stuff like that. I don’t know a lot about it, but from what I have heard, they have staged falls. It is more show-based where ours is more sportbased.

“Its more of the WWE where we are more the UFC,” she said.

Blocking is strictly regulated.

“Your legal blocking zone is from your shoulder to your elbow,” team member Pluckey Devil said. “But you cannot use your shoulder and stick out your arm like a chicken wing.”

Players also can use their hip to their knee to block, she said.

“You are allowed to block with your whole body, basically.”

Players are not allowed to hit people in the back, though.

“I can’t come up behind someone and try and nudge them forward,” Pluckey Devil said. “That’s called a back block. You can block with the back of your shoulder in their chest.”

The team competes on different types of flooring at different locations. At home they compete on concrete.

They are required to wear a mouth guard, kneepads, elbow pads, wrist guards, and a helmet.

Some girls wear shin guards, but large pads like a linebacker’s is not acceptable. Pluckey Devil said.

There were many requirements the Roller Girls had to meet before being accepted to the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, including the type of skates used, number of bouts performed annually, ownership rules and many others.

For a list of the rules and regulations including things like referee hand signals and track design requirements, visit www.wftda.com.