Once upon a time, there was a social networking site called MySpace.  Being a stay-at-home mom at the time, I spent unhealthy amounts of time on MySpace. One fateful day while 'stalking' a friend I saw a skull and crossbones icon with wheels bearing the name "The Windy City Rollers." "What's this?" I asked myself as I clicked the icon.  Thus began my journey down the rabbit hole.

That click led me to a teal-colored profile proclaiming that the Windy City Rollers was Chicago's premiere all-female flat track roller derby league. Did they say roller derby? Immediately, fond, nostalgic images of banked-track mayhem from my very early childhood raced through my head. No way...roller derby?!  In Chicago?!

After some picture viewing I quickly realized that this was different than what I had envisioned, but I was intrigued nonetheless. Further browsing led me to info on tryouts. I've been roller skating my whole life and I have an affinity for aggressive contact sports (I am a former water polo player and football nut). This was kismet. Upon closer review these girls looked tough and scary. Yes, but this looked amazingly fun and I can be tough and scary AND I know how to skate. Screw it...what do I need to tryout? Skates - check. Helmet, wrist guards, elbow pads, knee pads, mouth guard - all easily purchased. Health insurance...my heart sank. Staying at home with my little one required some cutbacks and my health insurance was one of them.

So I put my dreams of roller derby greatness on temporary hold but I joined the recruitment message board anyway. I watched and listened and waited as I knew eventually my day would come.

For my 30th birthday, a girlfriend bought me tickets to my first bout. It was a travel team bout against a team from Wisconsin.  Watching the Windy City Rollers All-Stars run up the score, I was like, I can do this. I WANT to do this. This is amazing!  Watching the girls skate into the locker room, I saw what were obviously other derby skaters come down from the stands and join the sweaty All-Stars in beers and celebration. I wanted to be part of this secret circle of camaraderie.

At this point I had rejoined the workforce and had insurance. I procured some protective gear and started skating. Mostly I hit the streets but I also went to a few open skates.  I also figured out that I should be going to speed skating and started that up the week before tryouts.

As part of recruitment, WCR invites recruits to come view a practice scrimmage and answers all your burning questions. Being this close to roller derby, I gotta say, was a bit intimidating, but watching the contact made me hungry. I missed contact sports and regular activity. I missed being part of a team, and seeing girls hug their friends and laugh about things made me miss it that much more.

I sent my name in to officially sign up for tryouts. *Gulp* This is it. Am I really going to do this? I'm crazy, but I guess I already knew that.

The day of tryouts arrived and about 20 girls stood nervously in the stairwell leading up to the practice space. We had heard horror stories of girls vomiting at tryouts. I figured I'd been through some pretty hellacious practices after playing all kinds of sports from grade school through college and that I could handle this. The team captains introduced themselves. Juanna Rumbel, league co-founder was there, as was Beth Amphetamine, who I remembered from the all-star bout I saw. Athena DeCrime was the head of recruiting was also there and, although she has a thin frame, she can be just as intimidating as the rest.

Tryouts seemed to fly by as captains shouted at us throughout the drills. I threw myself at tryouts; my muscles quivered and shook while doing a plank. I remember going to do a toe stop spin stop, which I was pretty proficient at, and promptly fell on my face (the practice space track is a lot different than a rink surface). Ohmygod, did they see that? I got the hang of the floor and was able to regain my composure.

After the physical part of tryouts, recruits wait in the hall and are called in one by one for an interview. I wasn't too far down the list so my turn was up pretty quickly. There were 5 or so leaders within WCR seated in a row and a single chair set up to face them. This was more nerve-racking than a job interview!

Needless to say, I made the team. I worked my tail off and was in the first group of Haymarket Rioters drafted to home teams.

Now I am currently heading up recruitment WITH Athena DeCrime. Now I'm the one in the panel of interviewers sitting across from nervous recruits. Now I'm one of the skaters the recruits watch at the scrimmage question-and-answer session.  Every recruitment cycle I relive my tryout journey. Every recruitment cycle I hear girls' desire for friendship and their desire to be as bad-ass as we are. Every recruitment cycle I smile inside as I see a little bit of me coming into our league through every new Rioter.

Talk Derby with your Friends!

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