Hell on Wheels

Meet the 417-landers who have developed passionate love affairs with roller derby, a game that’s been gaining interest and popularity both nationally and in 417-land since 2006.

By Savannah Waszczuk

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Springfield Roller Girl Jessica Dunn isn’t worried about being ladylike. Her body is always covered with bruises. She once snapped all the ligaments and tendons in her ankle, and she has broken a kneecap. But no matter how many times she turns black and blue, she never misses a chance to lace up her skates, hit the track and crash into people. Nothing can keep her away from the game. “I fell in love,” Dunn says of her experience with roller derby.

So, what exactly is roller derby? It’s a fast-paced full-contact team sport that requires speed, strategy and athleticism, and it’s gaining popularity all over the country. During a game (which is called a bout), two teams roller skate counter-clockwise around a track. Every game consists of jams, which are short match-ups in which both teams designate a scoring player (called a jammer) who scores points by lapping members of the opposite team. The team members actually play offense and defense at the same time as they attempt to assist their own jammer and hinder the opposing jammer.

Jessica Dunn is a member of the Springfield Roller Girls’ A team, the All-Stars, and she can play as a jammer, a blocker or a pivot. “Really, I just play anything that can keep me out on the track,” Dunn says. She has been playing roller derby since 2006. That was the year that Jason McDaniel put together the Springfield Roller Girls team (springfieldrollergirls.com), Springfield’s premier all-female flat-track roller derby league that started with approximately a dozen skaters. Today, the self-sustaining Springfield Roller Girls league is owned and operated by the 40-plus women who skate for it. “It’s for the skaters, by the skaters,” says Chris Schwader, who is a member of the Springfield Roller Girl’s B team, the Battle Broads, and also the committee head of the advertising, merchandise and media committee of the Springfield Roller Girls. Schwader says that thanks to things like the Roller Derby World Cup being televised on ESPN, the sport has been getting more attention nationally, regionally and even locally.

In June 2011, the Springfield Roller Girls league became a member of the south central region of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). WFTDA is the governing body for women’s amateur flat-track roller derby, and by being a member, the Springfield Roller Girls are able to collaborate and network with other teams around the country. It gives them a chance to get more recognition, as well as play teams located all across the United States.

During their roller derby season, which runs from February through October, the Springfield Roller Girls practice two to three times per week, and they have games almost every weekend during the peak of the season. It takes up a lot of time, and it becomes much more than just a hobby for many of the players. In fact, it’s almost another life.

Jessica Dunn knows all about this. By day, Dunn is a 27-year-old mother, a server at Flame Steakhouse and a full-time nursing school student. But at nighttime, she becomes Amber Lager. Amber Lager is Dunn’s roller derby name (all derby girls pick roller derby names unique to their roller derby persona). Amber Lager is the co-captain of the Springfield Roller Girls. She can play every position for the Springfield Roller Girls All-Stars team, and she isn’t afraid to get hurt. In fact, she says her favorite thing about the sport is that she gets to hit people. “It’s really nice that I can go into practice really frustrated, then I start skating and sweating, and I get to crash into someone,” Dunn says. “It’s like the best anger management ever.”
When she first started playing, she didn’t have much experience. “I was out one night and saw a flyer advertising that they were looking for girls to play,” Dunn says. “Aside from school skating parties and friends’ birthday parties, I hadn’t really done much skating.”

But she had played team sports before. She had played volleyball her whole life, and she played volleyball and basketball and ran track in high school. “After high school, I had chosen not to continue with sports,” Dunn says. And she didn’t realize how much she missed it until she started playing roller derby. “The camaraderie and everything—it puts you back in a good place in your life,” she says.

Amy Leary, who is a 25-year-old Battle Broad skater, has an opposite background. “I did marching band, color guard and things like that, but they were never as athletically taxing as roller derby,” says Leary, whose roller derby name is Thugz & Kissez. But Leary became interested in the game after seeing a live bout, so she went to the next recruiting session. She started playing in August 2010. “I wasn’t good at it, at all, but I fell in love with it,” Leary says. Team members teach you what you need to know, and they’re really supportive of achieving personal and group goals, Leary says.