If you ask any of the Assassination City Roller Derby teammates what got them into the sport, you’re likely to hear one of two answers: Whip It or through a friend who got into it from watching Whip It.
Roller derby has been around in some form or fashion for nearly a century, and the sport has been through many iterations before becoming what it is today. Racing across the country. Showmanship with full blows. An International Roller Derby League was created and then ceased to exist before the ‘80s.
But in 2001, a group of Texan women brought the sport back into the public eye with narrowly defined rules and a clear feminist voice. Then, in 2009, Drew Barrymore brought together a star-studded cast to tell the story of an up-and-coming derby girl (played by Elliot, then Ellen, Page) in a small town outside of Austin, bringing the sport to televisions all over the world, televisions that brought many of Plano’s very own Assassination City Roller Derby teammates together.
Assassination City is one of 441 leagues across six continents in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), one of two major roller derby associations. (The other is USA Roller Sports, or USARS, which is recognized by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee as the National Governing Body for competitive roller sports in the U.S.)
The league started in 2005, formerly based in Dallas, giving it the Assassination City name. It moved to Thunderbird Roller Rink in 2015 as a skater-owned and operated LLC, with each participating skater owning a part of the company itself.
There’s five teams based in the semicentury-old Plano staple: one travel team that competes against teams from all over the state, Conspiracy, and four home teams that compete primarily against each other: the Bombshell Brigade, the Lone Star Assassins, The Deadly Kennedys and ¡Viva La Revolución!
The game is simple. “Like rugby on wheels,” Lone Star Assassins captain Rory Killmore says. There are two teams of five skaters on a flat, oval track. There are two 30-minute periods broken up into units called Jams, which last up to two minutes with a 30-second break in between.
Four blockers and one jammer take to the rink. The jammer wears a helmet with a star on it so she’s easy to spot. The jammer is important here – she’s the only one that can score points. Jammers from both teams start out behind both teams’ packs of blockers, and they score points for every opposing blocker they pass each lap.
Of female-dominated sports, roller derby is widely considered the only full-contact game in the lineup. However, that does not mean that there’s no rules to protect them. Skaters are not allowed to use their heads, elbows, forearms, hands, knees, lower legs or feet to make contact with opponents. If you want to take someone down, you’re going to have to throw your body into it.
“It’s a really, really good personal challenge, because you can choose to compete with your teammates or other teams, but in the end you’re competing with yourself to see if you could do better,” UKillLele, co-captain of Lone Star Assassins, says.
Buzz Killer – Conspiracy co-captain
What got you into the sport?
I got into roller derby like a lot of people did – I saw Whip It. At that time I was in college, and I didn’t know that there was anybody nearby. My husband and I moved up here and he had a co-worker who had done it back in the day and we realized that [the league] was less than 15 minutes from my house, so I was like, “Well I gotta try it.” Seven years later, I’m still here.
What would you say to someone who is looking to get into roller derby?
You’ve got to give it a chance. Everybody who plays it falls in love with it immediately. After one practice I was hooked, and that’s the story for most people here. It’s a great community of people. All my best friends now are derby people, and a big part of that is we just spend a lot of time together, because it’s a great community of people who are supportive of your goals and this league is a really safe space to be. We have a lot of people who feel like they can’t always be themselves outside of these doors, but here they can be. So it’s a great way to get in shape and meet people while doing something good for your body.
Kitty Catatonic – Conspiracy
What got you into the sport?
I started 10 years ago, and my daughter was in gymnastics. There was a mom at the same gym who played with Assassination and put fliers down on a desk. It was two or three months before I could make it [to come see Assassination.] But once I sat down and was watching for five minutes, I was 100% in. I literally signed up the next month.
What would you say to someone who is looking to get into roller derby?
This is a very empowering space for women. Growing up, there were no real contact sports for women. It lets you use your body in the same way that boys are taught to use their bodies from the time they’re born, where girls were sort of taught to sit down and be pretty and have tea parties and play with dolls. And we don’t all want to play with dolls. Some of us want to get out there and use our bodies and our minds. It’s very much a mental game as well.
Like Jimmy Fallon (Whip It’s “Hot Tub” Johnny Rocket) said, “These girls are lean, mean skating machines.”
The league hosts Welcome Wagons — meetings for prospective members — on the first Sunday and Wednesday of each month. Those that want to join a team are prepared to play through the league’s Fresh Meat program, which teaches the game, skating and other skills and conditioning necessary to play for the home teams. All games are held at Thunderbird Roller Rink in Central Plano.