They hide in plain sight while they practice. Inside an unused warehouse in East Columbus they skate around and around, two times a week, 365 days a year. They call it “The Bat Cave” to keep its location secret from the public. This is a pictorial of the Mississippi Brawl Stars, the roller derby team of Columbus.
The sport of roller derby has a long history, and officially began sometime in the mid-1930s. The growing popularity of roller skating in American culture led to speed races, which led to the idea of making it a contact sport. Starting in the 2000s it was revitalized as an all-women, organized amateur sport and given new life to become a unique culture within itself. Teams adopt creative names for their groups, and create characters or personas to act out while they skate.
The Mississippi Brawl Stars started around 2010, and the current team’s president, Shannon Voges-Haupt, is one of the longest-tenured remaining in the group.
The rules of the game are simple: A group of skaters called a pack skate around a rink. Two players called “jammers” then skate up behind the pack and try to make their way through and lap the pack. Each member of the opposing team they pass gives them a point. The jammers try to get as many points as they can in a two-minute session. These matches held at skating rinks across the nation are called “bouts.”
For the past month the Mississippi Brawl Stars have been intensely preparing specifically for their upcoming bout in Pensacola, Florida, on Saturday.
I spent time with them at their secret practices to see what it’s really like to be a derby girl. You have to have an attitude tougher than nails and a tailbone made of steel.
But most importantly, a derby girl must have an enormous capacity for friendship and teamwork.
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