MARCH 11, 2010 ISSUE
Introducing the Appalachian Rollergirls
ASU Sophomore Starts Local Roller Derby Team
The Appalachian Rollergirls, an 18-and-up roller derby team based in Boone, started practicing on March 4. Interested women are encouraged to attend practices, which take place every Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at Skate World. Photo submitted“It just kind of emerged,” said Jordyn Coats, an ASU sophomore, about creating a roller derby team. “One day [the idea] just popped into my head.”
Coats had been researching the sport of roller derby, and after watching the Rogue Rollergirls compete, she decided she would try to join the team, which is based in her hometown of Fayetteville, in the summer.
“I got tired of waiting, [and] started my own team,” Coats explained.
The Appalachian Rollergirls’ first official practice for all interested women ages 18 and older took place on March 4, and 38 women attended, she said.
“All it took was a Facebook page,” she said, noting that she and five other women showed up at the first organizational meeting.
“It’s going to be at least six months before we’re ready to compete,” Coats said. “It’s one of those sports [in which] nobody has experience, really, [and] the whole team has to be on the same level to compete.”
For now, practice will be held once a week, every Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at Skate World, located at 6880 Highway 421 in Vilas, she said.
The cost to skate is $8 per person, which includes a roller skate rental, or $6 per person if she brings her own roller skates.
Practices are “free skates,” allowing individuals to reaccustom themselves to roller-skating because some teammembers have not skated in 20 years, Coats said.
Once everyone is comfortable on skates, the team will begin its roller derby-training program, a 20-day program adopted from Asheville’s Blue Ridge Rollergirls, she said.
Roller derby is one of the roughest women’s sports in existence, Coats said, adding that there are few rules.
The Little City Rollergirls of Johnson City, Tenn., is “like a sister team, helping us out,” Coats said.
Once more of a staged show than a sport, in 2001, “people in Texas reorganized [and] completely redid the sport, where it’s an actual sport—not staged, not a show,” Coats said.
“It’s slowly catching on,” she said. “It’s actually the fastest-growing sport at the moment.
“There’s quite a few teams in North Carolina,” she continued. “Most teams have 14 to 20 women.”
In a roller derby bout, five members of each team play at a time—four blockers and one jammer, Coats explained.
The jammer, whose helmet has a star on it, tries to skate through the “pack”—everyone on the other team—and then scores one point for each opponent passed in the two-minute window after the initial pass through the pack, she said.
The blockers try to protect their jammer, who is the only one who can score points, while simultaneously trying to knock down the opponent’s jammer.
Five or more referees are on the rink during each bout, and a bout typically lasts for two hours, Coats said.
“It’s going to be fun to watch once we get going,” she said, adding that roller derby is a great spectator sport.
Anyone interested in becoming a member of Appalachian Rollergirls, or in offering their services as a referee, coach or manager is encouraged to attend practice on Thursdays, she said.
For more information, click to the Appalachian Rollergirls’ Facebook page or email coatswj@appstate.edu.
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