Q: You're one of the captains for the Manic Attackers this year and dang! I gotta say the Manics are looking fearsome at scrimmages! Either y'all are putting steroids in their Wheaties or you've got some mad captaining skills... What's the secret??

A: Well, Malice and I work well together since we have different strengths and weaknesses, both as skaters and as people. The big change for the Manics this year is that that everyone on the team is more experienced; five of us were lucky enough to skate on the travel team for at least part of this past successful season. The extra training and game play with other cities really helped us hone our skills. Also, we scored some awesome new players. Look out for Amy Nonamey as a nominee for Rookie of the Year 2009!

Q: You started your derby career on another league, and that travel team pretty much got creamed by almost every other league that they played. What was it like to play with The Windy City Rollers in the national tournament and take 2nd place?

A: At nationals, in the first game versus Seattle, we were up by a lot of points so my captains graciously allowed me the chance to jam. I was just sooooo shocked and honored to think that a year ago from that moment, I had JUST been drafted as a new Manic. That says a lot about the training MACHINE that is The Windy City Rollers. If you want to dedicate the time (I was skating five or six days a week in the weeks before nationals) you can really become as skilled as your body will let you.

Q: I know you used to box at a national level. What got you started in boxing and what ended your boxing career? Do you ever think about having an exhibition boxing match with Kola Loka? I think I smell a WCR fundraiser...

A: I was a boxer from 1999-2000 at Gleason's Gym in New York (fought at 112 pounds, was second in the Golden Gloves there) and then out of Windy City Gym in Chicago from 2000-2002 (fought at 119 pounds, won the Golden Gloves twice and fought in the national Golden Gloves
tourney in 2002). I started in 1999 when my martial arts teacher in Chicago suggested I switch to traditional boxing since I was too 'aggressive' for most of the other students at the school. While training in New York in the summer of 2001, I had a terrible accident; I was hit in the back of the head hard enough to knock me out and tear the tendons that held my head still on my neck (thankfully, not all the way through). Despite terrible pain and only partially healed tendons, I fought a month later in the national tournament in Augusta, Georgia. I did very well, but the fight I had with a really great opponent was lost on a decision. I was beat up so bad in that fight (and she got her nose busted, too!) I ended up in an out of hospitals, pain and headache clinics for the next eight months. I was barely able to finish my college degree because of constant migraines. Luckily, I had some great doctors and physical therapists. Now, six years later, I am almost off all of my pain medications and only have moderate pain.

As for an exhibition match with Kola… I can't get hit in the head anymore or I could DIE. So, unless I was really sure I could get through an entire match without Kola hitting me even once, no.

I don't have any pictures from my boxing days, but here is a video from when I was in Sargam, a bhangra troupe. I start in the back left corner as you face the screen. Yes, Beth Amphetamine used to dance semi-professionally! Don't laugh. I had rhythm, promise!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0FJWXpojj4

--interview by Donna D. Apocalypse