Philly Roller Girls bring return of roller derby

By Lauren McGlone
Senior Staff Writer
February 21, 2007

Any sports fan searching for a unique and competitive sport involving fast-paced action and girls on skates is in luck with the reinstitution of roller derby.

The Philly Roller Girls is a league comprised of four all-female teams, clad in skating accessories and competing to out-skate and defeat their opponents. The squads are the Philthy Britches, Broad Street Butchers, Heavy Metal Hookers and Hostile City Honeys, as well as an all-star team named the Liberty Belles. The women are part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), supporting the sport by “facilitating the development of athletic ability, sportswomanship and goodwill among member leagues,” according to the assocation’s Web site.

The sport has been reinvented, with flat surfaces rather than banked tracks. Girls skate around the track at an average of 10 mph, with the positions of blockers, jammers and pivot skaters. Throughout the course of the bouts (games), which generally consist of three 20-minute periods, the women use any means possible, including knocking the opponents down or out of bounds, to score and defend. Illegal moves include clotheslining, punching, tripping and grabbing members of the opposite team. With the added effect of blasting music, the event provides a fast-paced and action-packed sport.

The tryouts and audition process have become increasingly more difficult as the sport has gained more and more popularity. Basic requirements, skill, style and agility are all factors in choosing the next Philly Roller Girl.

In the 2006 season, the Philthy Britches won the championship undefeated, and look forward to the 2007 season to be held at the Sportsplex in Northeast Philadelphia.

The East Coast Derby Extravaganza is set to be held March 17-18 and features two full days of mini-games, workshops and open scrimmages for teams and leagues from not only the East Coast, but from all over the country.

Heather Fischer of La Salle’s Mathematics and Computer Science Department is the head referee for the Philly Roller Girls.

“This sport has a great energy to it and we take pride in it because we run the league and the bouts ourselves—total DIY,” Fischer said.

These fierce females all have team MySpace pages and their own Web sites promoting roller derby and the events sponsored by the WFTDA. For more information about the Philly Roller Girls, visit www.phillyrollergirls.com.

mcglonel1@lasalle.edu