Dixie Derby Girls empowered by roller rink competition

By Jennifer R. Hill
jennifer@athenenews-courier.com

April 14, 2008 04:48 pm

— The screech of rubber on hardwood floors echoes in the background as packs of women resembling Vikings on roller skates battle for points during a roller derby bout.
Replace the barbaric horns, fur and weapons with short shorts, little skirts, fishnet stockings and roller skates and you have a pure warrior, a Dixie Derby Girl.
The Huntsville-based Dixie Derby Girls are part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, founded in 2004. The association is part of a revival of the old roller derby team, made popular in the 1970s and dating back even to the early 1900s. The roller derby carries a reputation of being a theatrical production of fights and staged interludes between players, but the WFTDA is different.
The WFTDA incorporates referees, league rules and even penalty boxes for players who intentionally get too rough with one another.
“We play the game to play the game,” Michelle Neilson said. “This is throw up, sweat and blood. This is real, 100 percent real.”
Nielson, 25, of Huntsville also is known by her derby name, Asian Invasion. The bartender is in her second season with the roller derby.
“I just thought it would be really fun,” Nielson said. “It’s kind of for the underdogs. It’s not your typical sport for girls.”
The only theatrical aspect to the league may be the players’ names and attire.
Part of the fun of the games is coming up with a stage name for each player of the game, Nielson said. Her name “Asian Invasion” comes from her Korean heritage.
“Your personality should be played up in your name,” she said.
Their skater outfits are staples distinctive of the derby girl style.
“Either you dress this way because of derby, or you like the derby because you dress this way,” Ebbin Flow said.
Ebbin Flow, also known as Cori Smith, 26 of Huntsville, is in her third season on the team.
“If we can’t ‘clothesline’ girls at least we can let [the audience] see our skirts flying up in the air,” Smith laughed. “Clothesline” is a term from old-style days for taking out another skater by putting out an arm at neck height.
The referees also have derby aliases. Jaison Mirandy, or Grand Master Smashed as he’s called on the rink, became a referee because his girlfriend, Smith, was on the team. She would come home covered in bruises and banged up and he wanted to see want it was all about, he said.
“They’re a pretty eccentric collection of women,” Mirandy said. “The only way to really describe them is they like to have fun and they’re all just a little crazy. The girls can get emotional.”
Bloodshed Bonnie, aka Bonnie Ferguson, 19, of Huntsville is one of the youngest players on the team. She is a student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Ferguson is in her second season with the roller derby. She saw a flyer for recruitment in the now defunct Sunburst Record store.
“It just seemed like a lot of fun,” she said.
She has seen players get several injuries including broken wrists and ankles and a few ACL tears, as well. Everyone has bruises, Ferguson said.
The girls say injuries are part of the game, though. They wear their bruises and the waffle iron “road rash” marks from their fishnet pantyhose like medals earned in battle.
They get mad at each other and sometimes they get penalties and have to sit in the penalty box but they are all ladies when the skates come off, Mirandy said.
Carla Naves, 33, of Huntsville is an Athens native. She is known as Pistols McGee on the rink. She is a physical therapist assistant by day and the daughter of Pasty and Larry Naves of Athens.
She’s been with the league since December 2005. She became interested because some of her friends originally started the Dixie Derby Girls in 2004.
She likes being on the team because it’s empowering to women. It’s played by women and run by women, she said.
“We’ve got [skaters] young and old. In their 40s down to 19 years old,” Carla Naves said.
It is a game for all walks of life to watch and to play, she said.
The Dixie Derby Girls will play their first home bout of the season Sunday, April 20 at Roller Time Skate Rink in Huntsville. They will battle the Nashville Music City Rollergirls in the Grand Ole Derby at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and admission is $10. An afterparty will take place at Benchwarmers with more entertainment and local bands.
For more information about the Dixie Derby Girls visit www.dixiederbygirls.com.

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