North East Times Article on PJRD
The roller derby is on a roll
By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer
Mayfair’s Rachael “lateTbug” Ferguson, a secretary at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, loves the physical aspect of roller derby.
“It’s not often you get to hit somebody and not get in trouble,” she said.
At the same time, Ferguson said there’s plenty of sportsmanship in roller derby. Competitors are friends on and off the track.
Bensalem’s Natasha “Classy Chassis” Tunaitis, who manages a shoe store in Franklin Mills mall, echoes that view.
“We beat the living hell out of each other, but afterward we kiss and make up and party,” she said.
Roller derby has been around for decades, but hasn’t been prominent since the mid-1980s. The local professional team was the Philadelphia Warriors. Games were played at a high speed on a banked track.
In 2004, a couple of entrepreneurs founded the She Devils, an all-women’s league that held practices and games at the Cornwells Skating Center in Bensalem. Roller derby legends Judy “The Police Ace” Sowinski and Arnold “Skip” Schoen served as volunteer coaches.
The league later moved to Jamz Roller Skating Center, located 7015 Roosevelt Blvd., and to the International Sports Centre in Mount Laurel, N.J.
At all three locations, the ladies practiced and played on a flat track with a hard surface.
Recent years have brought some major changes. The league became skater-owned and operated, added men and was renamed Penn Jersey Roller Derby. The owners purchased a 96-foot-long by 50-foot-wide banked track – the first one in Philadelphia in a quarter-century – and rented a warehouse at 18th Street and Indiana Avenue.
Participants agree that the banked track presents challenges, but the plywood surface and foam-cushioned rail make the sport safer.
“The falls aren’t as hard. There’s lots of give to it,” said Bristol’s Christina “Lucky” Luciano, the league president and captain of the Sadistic Sweethearts.
All skaters wear knee and elbow pads and wrist guards for protection when they fall.
Still, a skater could get hurt in other ways, such as being knocked over or under the rail to the floor.
Years ago, roller derby was sometimes about showmanship as much as the skating. Today, the game is real, the skaters say.
“We like to entertain, but the hits are real, the falls are real and the injuries are real,” said Luciano, a licensed sales assistant for a brokerage firm.
In fact, to avoid injury, Ferguson is taking some time off so she doesn’t limp up the aisle at her September wedding, where Luciano will serve as maid of honor and other skaters will make up the bridal party. Ferguson’s fiancŽ, Robert Wyatt (known as Bobby Carnage), is also on hiatus until the wedding.
The league features more than 50 skaters ranging in age from 19 to 40-something. Rosters are filled with housewives, hairdressers, computer programmers, tattoo artists, nurses, real estate agents and chefs.
Games consist of four 15-minute quarters, with each jam lasting 90 seconds. Teams have five skaters apiece on the track, including a pivot to control the speed of the pack and a jammer to score points.
Players are allowed to hit each other with their hips or deliver a hit with their shoulders, followed by a shove with the triceps. The “booty block” can also be effective.
There are penalties for fighting and a game misconduct for the third-skater in.
“Wedgies are OK if it’s not seen,” joked Ferguson, an accomplished, veteran skater who coaches the rookies.
New players are welcome. They take part in a three-month program to get them ready for the circuit. The only requirements are that they be at least 18 years old and in good health. Dues are $50 a month. And time commitment and dedication are musts.
The current batch of new skaters will compete in a “Rookie Rampage” game on Saturday night in Mount Laurel, with existing teams scouting the talent for an upcoming draft.
On July 17, the Sadistic Sweethearts will square off with the Dishonor Roll.
By the fall, the league hopes to have its first game on a banked track.
Tunaitis is Ferguson’s co-coach of the rookies and captain of the Dishonor Roll, a team of villains. She made her debut after an acquaintance, who knew she worked at a skating rink, learned that she got into a fight at a concert.
“She needs to join roller derby,” the acquaintance said.
Among the new skaters that Tunaitis and Ferguson are coaching is Dave Pope, a Collegeville resident and science teacher at Excel Academy in Castor Gardens.
Since signing up, he’s learned how to maneuver, jump, squat and deliver and absorb a block.
“It’s physically challenging, especially with me being a novice skater,” he said. “But everybody has been beyond supportive.”
Tim Spann joined the Hooligans, a men’s team, in 2007, one year after his wife, Stephanie, – a research scientist known as Hard Licker – started to skate. She’s unlaced her skates, temporarily, to give birth.
A resident of Hightstown, N.J., Spann’s skater name is “Maschine,” the German spelling of the word machine. He started as an announcer, referee and security guard before skating full-time. He describes the men’s game as a combination of speed and hard hits.
“It’s really cool to be able to play a game I’ve seen on old videos,” he said.
Some of those old videos feature Sowinski, a Chicago native and current South Philadelphia resident who was roller derby’s top villain from 1959 to the early 1980s. Her archrival was fan favorite Judy Arnold.
Sowinski, the coach, is excited about the banked track, explaining that it will add speed to the game. She joined the circuit two weeks out of high school and made it a full-time job, with money generated through television revenue.
A member of the Roller Derby Hall of Fame, she yearns for a return to the sport’s glory days.
“I would love to see it come back in full force,” she said.
For more information, visit pennjerseyrollerderby.com or write to recruitment@pennjerseyrollerderby.com
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com
