Roller Derby Returns

The last time that Jeanne Langan laced up her skates, wrote the number 63 on her upper arm and brought out her competitive alter ego, Veruca Slaughter, was Feb. 29, 2020.

Fortunately for Langan, she won’t have to wait for the next leap year to hit the rink.

Langan is a member of the Big Mountain Misfits roller derby team in Kalispell, a sport that has been on a three-year hiatus since the pandemic first took hold in Montana.

“Roller derby is so physical as a full contact sport that you’re often within basically licking distance of someone else’s face,” Langan said. “We had to take that into consideration when we thought about bringing the club back after the pandemic and we ramped up slower than a lot of other organizations or sports.”

Flathead Valley Roller Derby, the organization Langan and the Misfits team skate under, was founded in 2009 and celebrated its 10th season before the COVID cancellation. Now after a hiatus and a return to the rink with more members than ever, the Big Mountain Misfits will play their first bout on Saturday against the Copper City Queens of Butte.

Roller derby is a collision-heavy sporting endeavor played on roller skates on a flat track. The sport evolved from banked-track roller skating marathons with the competitive team aspect created and popularized in the 1930s by Leo Seltzer, a Helena-born businessman and promoter. The sport grew with the spread of television and Seltzer and his son, Jerry, used the new medium to bring a dramatic, often scripted version of roller derby to fans, crafting storylines and building up heroes to root for and villains to boo.

Langan said people who recall watching derby on TV will remember skaters clotheslining each other, using their elbows and throwing punches — and occasionally competitors.That’s different than the structured competition played now. Derby got a revival in the late 90s and early 2000s that began to legitimize the sport, said Langan.

“They crafted a rule set, got away from the televised drama, and made the contest more real,” Langan said. “Our rules now are more stringent and we play on flat ground instead of a banked track, but make no mistake, it’s still full contact — people still go flying.”

Roller derby bouts are played in two 30-minute periods. Each period comprises a series of two-minute jams where each team fields five players — four blockers and a jammer. During a jam, skaters circle the track counterclockwise, while the jammers attempt to break through the pack of blockers and lap the players. Each time a jammer passes an opposing blocker they score a point. And while blocking is a major part of the game, there are strict rules on what body parts can be used or targeted.

Sage Brooks, known as Scheme Weaver, is a jammer for the Misfits who started skating with the team in 2019. She grew up as a “competitive person at heart,” but never felt like she fit into any sports she tried.

“Even now, other sports don’t always feel very welcoming. People are sometimes just intimidating,” Brooks said. “In derby, right out of the gate the community embraced me. They said, ‘it’s okay to fall, it’s okay to mess up, it doesn’t matter your shape, size, sexual preference, skin color, we just want people to come be themselves and have fun.’”

For a sport that can come across as violent and intimidating, Brooks said she’s found derby to be a close-knit, community-minded team on which she’s found some of her closest friends.

When she joined Flathead Valley Roller Derby in 2019, there were around a dozen skaters and the newcomers were “thrown into the mix,” working to hone their skating skills and learn match tactics. Post pandemic, Brooks said the team has grown to roughly 30 skaters, a mixture of veteran skaters and first timers, and players are able to spend more time bringing new skaters up to speed and teaching them skating skills, mental tricks and game strategy.

“A lot of people think we just go into the rink and destroy each other, but there are so many safety measures we take in training to ensure we don’t hurt ourselves, our friends or the opposing team,” Brooks said, adding that players aren’t allowed to skate in competitions until they’re able to hit, and fall, safely. “Derby is also a mind game. You can use your facial expressions and body language to fake out your opponents on what you’re going to do and where you’re going to skate. It’s footwork, it’s speed, it’s balance, it’s control, as much as it’s contact.”

There are still elements of the more exhibition-style roller derby that persist, including players utilizing face paint as well as derby personas. In addition to Veruca Slaughter and Scheme Weaver, the Big Mountain Misfits team includes Hammer, THOT Sauce, Polly Pick Pocket and Pickle Lane, among others.

“Having that name, kind of like an alter ego, helps me get into the derby mindset,” Langan said. “I put it on and know that this is the energy I’m embodying. This is who we are as skaters.”

Langan and Brooks encourage anyone interested in getting involved in roller derby to reach out to the club. Teams have many non-skating positions, giving everyone a chance to take part in the sport, even if they don’t feel comfortable on skates. And to those who have never watched a roller derby bout, Brooks says the best thing to do is come out this weekend and then keep watching more games.

“As a sport, it really doesn’t make sense to someone watching for the first time, but eventually the game makes sense and you can see past the contact,” she said. “We’re all in this sport because we love it and we’ve trained to do it safely. Yes, we’re hitting each other, but we’re doing it with care, love and respect and having fun doing it.”

On April 29, the Big Mountain Misfits will take to the track for their first bout in three years against the Butte Copper City Queens at the Flathead County Fairgrounds Expo Center at 7 p.m.

Learn more about Flathead Valley Roller Derby and check out their upcoming bout schedule at www.fvrollerderby.com.