photo by Jamie DiVecchio Ramsay

Write a caption for this photo of Tori Adore and Payne D. Spencer, taken by Jamie DiVecchio Ramsay at the most recent WCR bout. The winner will be selected based on creativity, humor, and fit with the image. Captions that are vulgar or offensive will not be considered. Most importantly, have fun!

To enter: Email your name, phone number, email address, and submission to: contest@windycityrollers.com. Please put 'Caption Contest' in the subject title. We will accept submissions through March 19th at noon, and then a winner will be selected and notified. The winning caption will be posted on the Windy City Rollers website.

Univision

Lánzate a jugar Roller Derby

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Stockyard

Talk Derby to Me

These ruthless rollers, these terminators in tutus, achieved the fiercest display of athletic prowess in booty shorts and fishnets that I have ever witnessed... There is not the slightest hint of jade coloring the skaters, quite unlike their professional athletic counterparts. Such commitment in the absence of pay can only be attributed to a fierce love of the sport.

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Make it Better

Windy City Rollers Makes a Great Girlfriends' Night Out

Looking for a break from wine tastings and book club get-togethers? Feed your wild side with a trip downtown to watch a few of your North Shore neighbors on wheels with the Windy City Rollers.

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Photo by Matt Johnson

On Sunday, March 7th, a group of 13 Windy City Roller league members and family friends took part in the 10th Annual Chicago Polar Plunge benefiting Chicago Special Olympics programs. It was a record breaking year for the event, with over 1,700 participants willing to dunk themselves into the chilly waters of Lake Michigan to help raise over $325,000.

Donations are still accepted through April 15th, when prizes will be awarded to the team who raises the most money. Click here for the Windy City Rollers' fundraising page.

Loco Chanel: OK. So. You're the O.G. Windy City Roller, as you are one of the founders from back in the day ("the day" being 2004). How has your role in the league evolved over the past SIX years? What's your role now?

Juanna Rumbel: Yep! We started in 2004 and I'm so impressed that we just keep going and getting better every year. Over the last six years, I've been in every role that you can on the league. Except for finance because I hate dealing with money except when I bathe in it, which is never.

Currently, I am still the league founder, Executive Board member, the Rioters' Coach, a skater for The Fury, and all around bad ass. That being said, my skating still stinks.

LC: What was your sports background prior to WCR?

JR: I ran a 10 mile race once and did a 110 mile bike ride in one day. I thought that was impressive, but nothing like my career in fencing! That lasted for 2 hours until I took out my teacher's eye. But, he didn't need it, since he was a pirate anyway.

LC: What are you most excited about for the 2010 season?

JR: My retirement. I'm sick of all y'all. But, mostly I'm really excited about the fact that Eva Dead and I will be opening a donut/ice cream shop with treadmills. You can't buy dessert until after your workout. We're also considering a dancing bear for the lobby. But, it may be too radical of a concept for Chicago. We'll ease it in.

LC: One of your big roles in the league now is coach for the league's farm team, the Haymarket Rioters. What would you say to any women who are interested in trying out for the Windy City Rollers?

JR: IF YOU WANT IT! DO IT!! But don't irritate me. I still have my épée.

Chicago Now

Post-match interview with Julia Rosenwinkel and Val Capone

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Windy City Times

Megan Matteson Rolls on as Zoe Trocious

As a fellow Manic, Mo Vengeance, has [said] it before: what other sport can you think of where there are two balls in play at once? Roller derby is athletically challenging, but it's also mentally challenging and a true team sport.

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Gapers Block

The Derby Dame's Roller Derby Primer

There's a lot more to roller derby than just tough ladies skating in tight circles. Read further for a quick primer in roller derby game play.

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Throughout our sixth season, I'll be interviewing members of the Windy City Rollers. Our next bout is Saturday, March 27. Get tickets here!

Loco Chanel: This is your fourth year with the Windy City Rollers, can you compare and contrast the feelings of going into this season vs seasons prior?

Ada Hatelace: Being on the Manics, each season has felt VERY different on the team, as well as the changes in my own development as a skater. As a team, going into the previous two seasons, we were coming off two full years of losses - we had nothing to lose and nowhere to go but up. This year, coming off of a Championship win, we have more of a target on our backs, but our team chemistry and confidence is a lot higher than it has been in previous seasons, because now we know how awesome we are capable of being, and we want to live up to the standard we set for ourselves last season.

On a personal level, this is the first season I'm playing regularly as a pivot. It has been fascinating to really delve into the strategic aspects of this role, which I worked on at the end of last season and over the summer with the WCR B-team, the Second Wind. I love roller derby strategy and the challenges of calling plays, gaining a much greater understanding of my teammates and what their strengths and weaknesses are and how this affects what roles in the pack I am assigning each of us, and becoming a much better communicator and leader on the track.

LC: You're one of the skaters who's been spreading the gospel of aerial/trapeze training and performance throughout Windy City. Can you tell us a little more about how you got into aerial work and how it fits in with derby?

AH: Aerial and trapeze training is awesome! I got into it nearly 2 years ago when the Manics signed up for a basic trapeze workshop at the Aloft Loft (http://aloftloft.com), just as a team-bonding experience, and I totally loved it, so I signed up for classes right away. The cross training benefits are huge. Derby focuses mostly on legs and core, while aerial training focuses on shoulders/arms/back and core - so it both balances out your body in general, while building up your abs like nothing else. My stability and strength for roller derby has increased tremendously since becoming serious about aerial training. It goes the other way too. Having strong derby legs helps a lot with trapeze tricks! The biggest challenge is trying to fit in aerial training alongside a derby practice schedule, but several of us in the league have managed to do it, so it's possible.

After we had taken classes for about six months, Beth Amphetamine and I started learning doubles trapeze - this is where two people share one trapeze and do tricks together. Becoming a trapeze duo with my teammate has helped our derby teamwork as well! We performed in our first circus show in December - check out our act here.

LC: The evolution of the Manictard. Please describe.

AH: The Manictard! How can you not love it? The history of the Manictard is often surprising, especially to people who feel the need to attempt to console us that we "have to" wear it. What most people don't know is that the Manictard was CHOSEN. For the 2009 season, our "official" team uniform was nothing but a loose set of color guidelines. Our intention was actually to let everyone on the team choose their own top and bottoms as long as they were the correct colors. Then, Wreck n' Shrew showed up at practice with a turquoise leotard with a full length yellow zipper, exclaiming about how awesome it was. Not everyone was convinced right away, and some of us started out by insisting we were going to stick with just a turquoise tank top and yellow shorts - but one by one, every Manic ended up deciding that the Manictard was the way to go. Its spread through our team was totally organic.

For 2010, we had to change our shade of blue to be less like the general WCR blue, and this also gave us an opportunity to try a different cut and fabric - so now we have shiny royal blue biketards.

My personal theory is that when a whole team decides to wear something that can be described as equal parts ridiculous, horrible, and awesome, what this really does for us is increase our team bonding. I'm totally serious. The Manictard helped us win the Ivy King Cup, which is one of my favorite WCR memories thus far. It was magical.

In the early going on Sunday night at the UIC Pavilion, The Fury looked like it might hang more points on the overmatched Hell’s Belles than the Double Crossers did in January. The old coaching axiom proved out, however—a young team grows most between the first and second games. No doubt the Belles lost big, 162-65, but the Red Rookies are skating in the right direction heading toward the mid-point of the season.

The Belles spent the night trying to adjust to Orange speed. Fury ace Kola Loka, something like the Wayne Gretzky of roller derby, lapped the Belles three times on the first jam before Belle captain Shocka Conduit could threaten the back of the pack. The Belles started the third jam down 18-0, and when Hermione Danger was sent off for a cutting-the-track major, Conduit tried to slow things down. But rookie Belle blockers had trouble moving laterally at the slow pace, and Jackie Daniels quickly rang up another 15 for the Fury.

Down 33-0, at the start of the fourth, February poster girl Zombea Arthur, who was brutalized by the Crossers in January, shook loose on the first of her four lead jams to pick up the opening Belle points. The Belles rallied again near the middle of the first half, scoring 28 on four consecutive lead jams. In the tenth, a major penalty on Fury blocker Tori Adore and a fourth minor on her teammate Juana Rumbel gave Deb Autry an easy line to lead jammer status; Pominatrix and Mya Ssault pestered Red Zeppelin  into her fourth minor, and Conduit picked up her 14th point of the jam on a slick move that left Jackie Daniels blocking air. Autry pulled the Belles within 18 on a third consecutive power jam in the twelfth.

Enter Loka. The Belles had no answer for number 911, who would go on to put up 57 points on 12 jams that yielded just six Belle points. Interleague transfer players Daniels (44) and Ska Face (41) accounted for most of the Fury’s other points. Zeppelin, Go-Go Hatchet, and Tori Adore doled out the bruises for The Fury, with a noticeably improved Ivy Sedation pitching in on defense.

With the score 75-39, and Conduit looking capable of exploiting seams in the Fury defense, it still looked like a game at the start of the second half. The Fury went on a 37-0 run across the first five jams, however, and simply racked points, yeoman-like, to the final whistle. Each team gave fans reason to stick around; Daniels and Loka combined on a star pass in the thirteenth jam, the latter going on defense for perhaps the only time of the night to hold up Pominatrix. The feisty Belles never quit.  Danger bounced up after being leveled by Zeppelin to score two grand slams in the ninth jam. And Arthur—using nifty footwork, speed changes, and upper-body fakes to offset her diminutive stature—seemed to show measureable progress with each jam. Overall, the Belles demonstrated much better team play in the pack. Ssault, who is stepping into an anchor role on defense, registered 14 defensive actions, looking particularly strong when playing alongside Pominatrix and veteran Gotham transfer Dinah Party, who played just one jam in the second half before leaving with a sore back.

The winless Hell’s Belles line up in March against the Manic Attackers. Perennial doormats in the Cicero years before winning the Ivy King Cup in 2009, the Manics are 1-1 and searching their roster for a fourth jammer. The Belles are hanging loose and hanging together. Both teams want to take a win into the season’s second half.

If Round One of the 2010 Windy City Rollers home-league season featured speed on speed when the Manic Attackers lined up against the Fury, this past Sunday night, February 21, 2010, the Double Crossers kept their game against the Manics turning at 33 1/3. In a game with just one jam total over ten points, The Double Crossers  shut down the Manics 105-84 and blocker Sassy Squash grabbed Player of the Game.
The Double Crossers, who now at 2-0 sit atop the standings, took a page from the Denver playbook and slowed down the Manic attack. Able to sustain a thick, deliberate pack for much of the first half and the game’s last ten minutes, the Crossers repeatedly left the Manics looking flat. In the seventh jam, a low-block major on Beth Amphetamine created a power jam situation for the XXer’s IndyCent, who finished with 26 points.  The Black and Silver trapped Wreck N Shrew and added to the lead that they would maintain through most of the first 30 minutes.

With seven minutes left in the half, Zoe Trocious ignited the Manics with a pretty jam during which she burst past game MVP Sassy Squash and made Nina Millimeter whiff. The precocious Trocious led five of her eight jams. Amphetamine fought off wicked defense by Georgia on Yer Behind and Norma Lee Wright to pick up five on the next jam, and the Manics were within 4.  Di Richmond laid a trio of big hits on XXer captain Julia Rosenwinkel in the next jam, and with help from Rose Feratu, Ruth Enasia put the Manics ahead going into the last jam of the half, with the score 38-36 at halftime.

Enasia started the second half where she left off, putting up ten on the first jam. Wreck and pivot Ada Hatelace bottled up Indycent and forced a backblock major, setting up a Trocius power jam and five more points. With Indycent in the box, Amphetamine racked up two grand slams in the third; just three jams into the second half, up 63-46, the Manics looked like they’d figured out the Crossers. On the fifth and seventh jams, however, Manic penalties revealed the potential of the slow-down game. With just two Manic blockers on the track, XXer jammer Donna Party cut their lead to eight points.  When Enasia was sent off a few minutes later, Millimeter ran up a 20-point jam while her blockers rode the brakes. The Manics would briefly pull within five at the 12-minute mark, but Squash and Donna Party rolled wide and slow from there, creating a wall of black that Manic jammers couldn’t bust.

Squash, the big and increasingly nimble third-year veteran, wore the Denver boot well. Playing opposite a trio of the best defensive blockers in the league—Wreck, Di Richmond, and Amy Nonamey—Squash loomed large, both plugging holes and blowing them open. She registered 15 defensive and nine offensive actions, including seven jammer force-outs.

The March 27th bout shapes up like a Spring Halloween—Black on Orange. The Crossers-Fury match-up will pit the two deepest, if not best, teams in the league. In its two games so far, the Crossers have used six different jammers, and mostly sat their rookies; Riley Coyote, who added both muscle and speed last year, has yet to skate this season.  The Fury will blow in with a roster packed with travel-team aces, A-List transfers, and home-league veterans. Scary!

NBC 5 Chicago

"You Love Roller Derby. You Just Don't Know It Yet"

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Chicago Now

Roller Derby Diary: Where Roller Girls Get Their Nicknames

I first met Val at the WCR season opener a couple weeks ago and I was so taken by her, I asked her if she'd like to drop in from time to time and share some of her experiences as a 'roller girl.'  Never being one to back down from a challenge, Val agreed and makes her debut today with her take on where she came up with her 'derby name'

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Hoy!

Guerreras de la pista

A primera vista, las Windy City Rollers pueden parecer un grupo de chicas rudas y que pueden atemorizar a cualquiera con nombres de batalla como "Ruth Enasia", "Blazing Inferno", "Rose Feratu", "Bring 2 Hell", "Ska Face", o "Kola Loka", pero detrás de esa fachada hay hermanas, hijas y madres que encuentran en la pista un lugar para expresarse y divertirse.

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Hermione Danger: When I was a rookie, I fought to earn my spot on the track. This season, I’m fighting to keep it. My drive to become a better player hasn’t changed from one season to the next.

My dad used to tell me that I’m becoming a better athlete when I push myself on the hard days. The easy days only count for fitness. The hard days count for greatness! Mostly, I just want to play roller derby and play it well.

LC: What was sports background before joining WCR?

HD: In seventh grade, I rollerbladed down a hill into a tree and broke my arm. That was the last time I put on skates before I joined derby.

Aside from a few years on my high school soccer team, a sad attempt at little league softball and a formidable four years on my high school color guard squad, my athletic background has been primarily self-motivated and quasi-antisocial. I was a gym rat, frequented bike trails and had more than a handful of personal trainers.

It’s hard for me to remember my life without roller derby, even though this is just my second WCR skating season. In 2006, I decided I wanted to play. When I make a steadfast goal, you can bet your ass I’ll achieve it. After a year on a league that has since disbanded, a series of setbacks and injuries, a year on our amazing referee squad and a lot practice, I tried out for Windy City and was drafted to the Belles for the 2009 season. Then I played on the first ever Windy City B Team, the Second Wind, last summer.

LC: You and Shocka stepped up to captain the Hell's Belles this season and are both first-time captains. Along with two new leaders at the helm, there are a lot of new faces on the team. How has the experience been thus far and what can fans expect from the 2010 Belles?

HD: The Belles are a team of fighters. Many of the skaters have been working for years to get on a team, and I am so proud of all they have accomplished. I knew this season was going to be a challenge, but I’m not one to do things that are easy. I’ve been Shocka’s No. 1 fan since she started skating, and I’m honored to be standing beside her. I want our fans to be proud of our skaters, and I want our skaters to be proud of themselves.

LC: What's been your favorite WCR memory/experience thus far?

HD: Probably the first Belles practice after the first draft this season: I remember looking around the practice space during warm ups and feeling excited for the team we were starting to build. Or perhaps about a week before the first game this season when I realized that I was finally a jammer. That was surreal and felt damn good. Or… winning games with the B team and knowing that I had been a part of making that happen.