FMDG in the Media
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5/7/09 High Plains Reader FMDG is the cover story
FM Derby Girls Unlaced
Written By Richard Schaan, HIGH PLAINS READER
When you hear the words roller derby, what comes to mind? That cheesy sport on TV when you were a kid? Choreographed crashes that look like pro wrestling on skates? The 1975 (not too bad) or the 2002 (awful) version of the movie Rollerball?
If you answered yes to any one these, prepare for a shock when you find out what the once decidedly un-hip sport of roller derby has evolved into since its reemergence at the beginning of the new millennium.
Following a peak in popularity in the early 1970s (when the sport once drew 50,000 fans to Chicago’s Comiskey Park) roller derby suffered a steady decline in interest for almost 30 years. In 2001, the sport rose from the ashes in Austin, Texas; however, it was not only reborn but also transformed into something exceptionally unique.
Gone were the banked tracks and the head-over-skates flips over the guardrail. Same goes for the preplanned routines a la the WWF. The male skaters were sent packing and the blond all-American women replaced with pink-haired, punk-inspired riot grrrls. And in the DIY (do-it-yourself) spirit of punk, for-profit promoters were eschewed for a self governed system of local leagues that operate as non-profits under the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association’s (WFTDA) motto: “By the skaters, for the skaters.”
Most significantly, after dying out as a spectacle, roller derby resurrected itself as a serious sport and as something even greater as well. There is nothing contrived when it comes to both the new roller derby competitions and the women who organize and compete in them.
“It’s not just a sport,” said the Fargo-Moorhead Derby Girls (FMDG) President who skates under the name Athena Barbital (a reference to Pheno Barbital, a drug that slows you down and knocks you out, just as she tries to do as a defender on the track. Her jersey number, 95 mg, is the lethal dosage). “It’s more like being involved in a movement.”
A movement that is quickly snowballing into a feminist evolution. (Revolutions are so last century, no?) Just look at the exponential growth in the number of leagues over the last four years: 2005 – 50; 2006 – 108; 2007 – 235; 2008 – 379. Four months into 2009 and that number has most likely grown yet again. The WFTDA has 66 official leagues divided into four regions, and a new league must operate for one year before applying for membership. Official WFTDA leagues can put together traveling all-star teams that compete at regional and national tournaments.
In October, the FMDG plans to add one more digit to the total. While the board of directors is still working within the start-up stage of the project, this endeavor looks nothing like the unorganized disaster that some baby boomers might expect from a group with more tattoos than MBA degrees in the mix. These non-profit alt-trepreneurs combine a natural understanding of alternative culture with a mature acceptance of the traditional ways of “doing business.” They have established themselves as an L.L.C., have created an impressive business model and media kit, and have built up local interest through networking websites and attention grabbing promo posters. Just as President Obama showed us the archetype for the post-baby boomer politician, derby girls may be the models for the post-boomer businesswoman.
“The sport is taking punk rock girls and turning us into polished professionals,” Barbital said. Polished? No doubt. Prim and proper? Not a chance.
When asked if one of the WFTDA’s goals was to teach women how to run a business, Dr.Purrr-fection – a PhD student in Communications, former English professor, and another founding member of the FMDG – showed the aggressive edge that is sure to make her one of the league’s fiercest competitors.
“I take offense to that question,” she snapped back. “It’s like saying these little ladies need to be taught how to run a business.”
She was right. The question should have been: Is it one of the WFTDA’s goals to help some women who normally work (or were educated) in fields that exist outside the traditional business world to learn new skills and take on new responsibilities? To that question, Athena Barbital offered an emphatic yes based on personal experience.
After earning a degree in fine arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Barbital found herself in the same position as so many talented college grads in creative fields of study: brimming with knowledge in a subject that the nine-to-five world seemed to have little use for.
“Before roller derby I just worked regular jobs,” she said. “But when I started skating, we needed posters to promote the events, so I taught myself graphic design and that has become my career.”
Because the athletes serve as both the competitors in the bouts and the promoters who make the events possible, the concept of victory in roller derby carries two distinct meanings. The obvious one occurs on the track itself, but perhaps the more important accomplishment comes from the behind-the-curtain battle to establish, grow and maintain a successful enterprise.
In order to win that match, the FMDG plan to draw upon the unique talents of each individual member in the group, a collection of multifaceted women who must all wear multiple hats – or helmets perhaps – ranging from tender mother at home to vicious mauler on the track, from individual in style to universal in shared purpose.
While such flexibility may sound like a difficult thing to pull off for some, a big part of being a roller girl involves embracing the alter-ego. Take the case of Abby Synthe, a software engineer for a large IT firm and a mother of an 11-year old son who will wear the number 750 ml, the size of a bottle of the hallucinogenic liquor absinthe. By day, she’s the epitome of the modern woman – maternal yet no shrinking violet – but come October she will step into a phone booth once every month and emerge not as someone else but as a part of herself she keeps hidden most of the time.
“It’s very empowering,” Synthe said. “You can be the woman you want to be.”
With ten such women already onboard, now the next step for the FMDG is to recruit 70 more in order to begin practicing for the league debut; so, they will be holding a recruitment party from 3-6 p.m. on Saturday, May 16 at The Aquarium. While skaters must be female and must be over 21, the party is open to men and all ages as they are looking not only for skaters but also for referees, coaches, cheerleaders, mascots, statisticians, security, announcers and more. At the party they will be showing the derby documentary Hell on Wheels, and afterwards anyone is welcome to join them at Skateland for an open skate from 7-9 p.m.
For those who attend, expect to feel an instant camaraderie emanating from this group of women. Their enthusiasm is infectious, so don’t be surprised if you catch the skate flu within minutes of initial contact. Those who join can pick both their own name and jersey number, which are guaranteed to be unique because each skater must check against a database (http://www.twoevils.org/rollergirls) of the 16,317 (as of Monday) names already in use. This is yet another way the sport encourages individuality, attracting like-minded women who perhaps thought they were “different” from others but are actually unique, awesome and scattered about in greater numbers than they first believed.
“I have to admit that these are the only female friends I have,” said xSASSerbate, the league treasurer who hopes to exacerbate (to make more violent) the action on the track this Fall.
In true grassroots fashion, the members of a roller derby league extend their internal fondness for one another out into the community, forming a symbiotic mutualism with local artists, musicians and businesspeople. Not only will the FMDG grow their league through cross promotion and sponsorships from local businesses, but also, as a non-profit, they will be donating both time and money to a variety of Fargo-Moorhead charities.
“You know the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’?” Barbital asked. “Well, it takes a city to raise a league.”
5/6/09 Fargo Forum FMDG is featured on the front page of the sports section.
Sock and style: Fargo-Moorhead group hopes to supply area with female roller derby team
Another contact sport could be firing up in the Fargo-Moorhead area. But this time, it’s for ladies only.
By: Kerry Collins, INFORUM
Members of the Fargo-Moorhead Derby Girls are trying to set up a league in the metro area. Clockwise from top left are skaters Nicole Guidry, Athena Funk, Lisa Largent Anderson, Kim Zitnick, Robin Adams-Hays and Savannah Marthaler. David Samson / The Forum
Another contact sport could be firing up in the Fargo-Moorhead area. But this time, it’s for ladies only.
Roller Derby has been creeping back onto the national scene over the past few years, and a group of women want to bring it to the Fargo-Moorhead area.
A recruitment party for the Fargo-Moorhead Derby Girls is set for 3-6 p.m. May 16 at the Aquarium.
“There are so many organized sports around here for men, but there’s nothing for women other than something like golf or tennis,” said Nicole Guidry, treasurer of the FMDG. “Roller Derby has a little bit of a shock factor.”
For the past couple years, a handful of local women have been trying to get a league going in the area, but the movement couldn’t get any traction.
Enter Athena Funk, a Grand Forks, N.D., native who moved to Fargo with experience playing Roller Derby in Minneapolis and Las Vegas.
“I moved back here and thought I would see what I could do to continue skating,” said Funk, who is the president of the FMDG. “I’m just trying to help them do what they need to do to organize it and run it successfully.”
After clearing some of the hurdles on paper – like getting the league set up as a not-for-profit organization – the FMDG is ready to get some more skaters.
“We were all so new at it that we didn’t know where to go with it to really get it started,” said Robyn Dial, vice president of FMDG. “Athena had the experience and really got it going.
“We don’t want to be just a fly-by-night group.”
Roller Derby is not the hard-core, little-or-no-rules spectacle it was in the 1970s. The sport is now played on a flat track, and bouts don’t have scripted outcomes.
The contact is still there, but there are also major and minor penalties for infractions like fighting or tripping another player.
“It’s evolved even over the last nine years,” Funk said. “It is physical, and because it is a contact sport, tempers can flair up.”
The rules are simple, but scoring points is not an easy venture.
Each team has five players on the track – a jammer, three blockers and a pivot.
The jammer is the only player that can score points, and does so by passing players from the other team.
The blockers try to prevent the opposing jammer from passing, and the pivot directs the blockers.
Women have to be at least 21 years old to play. People interested in joining don’t have to be well-versed in all of the rules, and don’t have to be expert skaters.
At the recruitment party, the FMDG will be ready to sign up anyone that’s interested from skaters to referees to coaches to volunteers.
“I’ve never hidden the fact that I think derby is a lifestyle. Like anything else, you have to want to do it,” Guidry said. “There’s practice and bouts and fundraisers. Like anything, some of that stuff takes time.
“You don’t have to have experience. We can teach you to skate, and if you want to volunteer and help out with other stuff, that’s great, too.”
The FMDG will try to set up a viable league for a year, and then they can become part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).
From there, the group can send a traveling team out to national competitions.
Funk said each local league usually comprises four 20-person teams. The top 20 players from those four teams are used to make up a traveling team for national and regional competition.
“For women that want to compete, it’s a fun opportunity,” Funk said. “And it’s fun to go out and skate. We’re just trying to get the word out.”
Check out these upcoming events:
10/21/09-WDAY 970AM-9:35am-Listen to FM Derby Girls Lisa Anderson, Major D. Fect, Athena Barbital, Maulflower, and Sarah Griffin talk about roller derby, their upcoming bout and life as a derby girl on the Christopher Gabriel Program.
The FMDG Media Archive
8/15/90 FMDG scrimmage with Sioux Falls Roller Dollz and Winnipeg Roller Derby League featured on Valley News Live
8/7/09 FMDG radio interview with the Mojo Disco Show
7/15/09 FMDG featured on Fox News
6/21/09 FMDG interviewed during the FM Pride Parade by Fox News
5/15/09 FMDG Recruiting Party chosen for "Best Of" Fargo in the High Plains Reader
5/14/09 FMDG interview with Bob Harris on KFGO 790AM
5/13/09 FMDG on The Morning Show with Scotch Tank and Ginger on Rock102 101.9fm KRWK
5/9/09 FMDG interview on The Metal Show KNDS 96.3FM
5/7/09 High Plains Reader-FM Derby Girls Unlaced
5/6/09 Fargo Forum-Sock and Style-story run in the Fargo Forum, Grand Forks Herald, and the Bismarck Tribune
4/26/09 Fargo Forum - FMDG Recruiting Party