Babes of Brawn The Dominion Derby girls roll into Hampton Roads
By E. David Vida Special to Soundings
But by the early ‘70s, roller derby took a blow that would knock it off its skates and send it barreling into obscurity.
Now, more than 20 years later, the revival of all-women roller derby is on the rise and rolling back for a second coming here in Hampton Roads. Leagues and teams are springing up across the nation, and the derby girls are gearing up to bring their matches, which they call “bouting,” and their derby theatrics back to the rink.
The Dominion Derby Girls, a local roller derby league, will be presenting their first official bout — “Derby Girls on the Loose” — Aug. 20 at the Haygood Family Skating Center in Virginia Beach. The Femme Fatales and the Dirty Diesel Darlins, two branch-off teams within the Dominion Derby Girls, will be competing for derby glory. But before the women start rolling and knocking each other around, it’s off to the rink to practice those derby bouting skills.
Derby days A Monday evening practice at the Plaza Roller Rink in Hampton brings the pain with the usual run of drills to test the ladies’ speed, agility and team tactics.
On this particular night, just a month from their first official bout, 20 women limbered up on the wooden rink floor with a few stretches headed by Femme Fatales team captain Lorraine Holler, better known by her derby name “Tsunami Tsue.”
Holler’s interest in roller derby peaked after watching “Roller Girls” on A&E one night. After meeting the Dominion Derby Girls, the rest all fell into place.
There are two track types in roller derby. There are flat tracks and banked tracks. The Dominion Derby Girls work on a flat track and turning at high speeds on a flat track requires that skaters know how to turn while crossing their feet over one another to keep their balance.
“The best thing to do is just show up at an open skate at a local rink and get on some skates,” Holler said. “Get the feel for skating if you haven’t done it in a while. Don’t expect perfection and practice your crossovers — that’s very important.”
Tryouts are held four times a year to enter a preliminary stage and once the skaters pass this stage, they go through a probationary period during their first three months with the league.
Newbies are considered the “fresh meat” of the team and they have to undergo a rigorous second and final tryout to see if they pass the test to be a bona fide Dominion Derby Girl and wear their special patch and, most importantly, pick a derby name.
