The Article that Changed It All

Here it is, the article that changed it all and was the official 'birth' of the Reedy River Rollergirls. As you can clearly see we only had 3 members at the time this article was published and we were practicing in the middle of each and every open skate on Tuesday/Thursday nights. The third girl in the picture was Lucy Diemond. She was the girl friend of one of my husbands friends and someone that I manage to talk into coming out. Of course she fell in love.




I was used to and even a little comfortable with training just two girls and me - so when this article hit news stands come that very Thursday panic set in when I saw 19 women stomping through the doors wanting to know more about Roller Derby.



I was never a very social person. I was a shy awkward child with only a few close friends. Even through high school I knew of a lot of people, but I only had a few close friends. I had taken speech, debate and did Forensics quiet actively through out high school, but I NEVER had to LEAD 19 women before. But on that night more women fell in love with Roller Derby. I met Roxie Moxie, Elly Dismay Clampett, Tornado Tosha, Storm A. Brewin', Feara Sheara, Stella Belladonna, Venemous Vixen, & Shotgun Chelle. Out of the initial 19 women that came through the doors that night, those were the ones that stuck around out the first initial wave. The weak were weeded out mainly because they didn't realize just how much it takes to be a true derby girl.

You had to practice twice a week, you had to drive to and from practice (I believe the furthest anyone drove was from Clemson to Berea where the practices were), you had to pay to rent skates, you had to buy your gear, you had to buy more comfortable clothes to wear during practice and don't forget the awesome derby socks! We knew that a girl was committed if she ordered skates right away.

We had to keep the publicity train a moving' so Roxie Moxie created the website for Reedy River Rollergirls and uploaded the article. We created fliers, posters, anything that we could create to get the word out and get more women involved.

When December 2007 rolled around - we were ready for our first official closed practice.