One is the Lonliest Number...

Once I got some formal training under my belt and all the gear that I needed - save my skates. The next step in creating a league was to find other skaters. I knew roller-derby was the shiznit, now I just needed to convince all the other females in the greater Greenville area.


I spoke of roller-derby and nothing else where ever I went. My co-workers got pissed sick of me bugging them to join and only came out to think rink out of sympathy or to get me to shut up. She said she'd join, she said her friend was interested as well, but I think they only came out to take picture's of themselves, because you see - roller derby is hot!

A LOT of women are attracted to the IMAGE of roller-derby; they just want to be called a 'derby girl'. It takes a special kind of woman to stick with derby for the long haul and love it for what it truly is. A smelly, hard hitting, gut wrenching, shin splinting, bone breaking, crotch bruising, estrogen filled, and puke spewing sport. Roller Derby is not for the faint of heart.

See the picture above? Only the girl in the gray shirt stuck around after that night. Luckily she was my neighbor and it was quiet easy to tie her down, tape her eyes open and force her to watch the A&E series Rollergirls with me. J/K she was more willing than that. It was also super easy to kidnap her and drag her to the rink with me every Tuesday and Thursday night. She was for the longest time my only roller derby recruit.

We emailed each other everyday discussing potential names for our league and potential derby names. I quickly named her Mama M.I.A because I joked that she had a habit of being 'missing in action'. I also decided upon my original derby name - Hellen Debauchery. I wanted something that completely clashed with my goodie two shoes image and conservative upbringing and that was the best I could think of.

I stumbled across a website called twoevils.org that kept a master roster of all registered derby girl names, team names and league names. Greenville Roller Girls was taken by Greenville, NC, SC Roller Girls didn't sound that great, and I low and behold I discovered that Blue Ridge Roller Girls was already registered. I quickly googled them to find out where they were located and rejoiced when I found out that they skated in Hendersonville, NC - just a quick 45 minute drive up hwy 25. I got in contact with the founder of BRRG, Chell O'Shoot 'er and pumped her for as much information as I could. She quickly invited us up to their next practice and we happily hit the road for our first derby road trip.