Mountain Derby Girls Maiden Voyage - First Bout is February 20th!

Press Release

Mountain Derby Girls
2010 Inaugural Roller Derby Season!

Contact:        Sweet Alyce

                        Mountain Derby Girls

                        (209) 588-8161
                        sweetalyce@gmail.com
                        www.MountainDerbyGirls.org

Mountain Derby Girls ~ High Country Hellcats ~
vs
Central California Roller Derby ~ Atomic Assault ~

Who: Mountain Derby Girls (http://www.mountainderbygirls.org) and Fresno’s Central California Roller Derby (http://www.ccaderby.com) roller derby teams.

What: High Country Mountain Derby Girls presents their FIRST HOME BOUT!

When: Saturday February 20, 2010
             Doors open and music begins at 6:30. Bout starts 8:00

Tri-tip sandwiches, Beer Garden, and Live Music with Sonora’s own Wreckless (http://www.myspace.com/rockwreckless)

Tickets available at High Country Sports Arena, Jamestown Harley-Davidson, Ed's Place, Togos, Sonora Family Bowl and Loggers Bar in Tuolumne City or purchase them online from Brown Paper Tickets @ the Mountain Derby Girls website http://www.mountainderbygirls.org/tickets). Tickets will also available at the door.

            Cost:   Presale Adult tickets $10
                        At the door tickets $12
                        All children's tickets (5-12) $5
                        Kids 4 and under are free!

Limited VIP tickets are available for $20. Contact Bobbie Miller (Stihl Queen) @ (209) 743-6796 for VIP tickets.
All seating, besides VIP seating, is on a first come, first serve basis.

Where: High Country Sports Arena 18960 Waylon Way in Sonora.

Why: To raise funds for High Country Sports Arena and its newest program, Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby.  HCSA is a non-profit organization managed by a volunteer board of directors and run by volunteers in our community, and for the community. Proceeds will go towards buying roller derby league equipment.

Research on a roll

From: www.leedsmet.ac.uk

Monday, January 25, 2010

Dr Samantha Holland

A Leeds Met researcher is investigating the newly-revived alternative sport, women's roller derby, which will be published as a book next year.

Roller derby is an American-invented full-contact sport where two all-female teams attempt to pass each other around a flat track at speeds of up to 30mph wearing skates.
It has a long history, particularly in America, and has recently seen an international revival, with teams being self-organised all over the world, including Leeds, Wakefield and Sheffield. 

Dr Samantha Holland, Research Fellow at Leeds Met, has begun extensive sociological research into the area of gendered sport, violence and injury by studying roller derby practices and bouts (the term used for a public roller derby match), and interviewing players, both here in the UK and further a field in America and Canada.

Dr Holland commented: "There is currently a lack of sociological work about gendered injury in sport and so I want to find out how women rationalise the very real risk of serious injury, as well as examining issues such as sexualised display; physicality and empowerment; friendships and pleasure. Roller derby offers a space for women to find increased confidence through learning skating skills and forging quite intense friendships within their team. Being a derby player requires a certain amount of fearlessness and aggression not usually associated with women. Yet lots of different women play roller derby, of all ages, sizes and professions."

Dr Holland is currently interviewing local players about their experiences. She says: "The women I am speaking to report that joining a roller derby league was one of, if not the most, enjoyable, challenging and exhilarating things they have ever done - despite some of them recovering from a variety of injuries from a dislocated jaw to a broken leg."

EXCLUSIVE: Shauna Cross Talks About Her Whip It Experience

From: www.movieweb.com

January 22nd, 2010

Author Shauna Cross talks about her derby film

Most times, nine times out of 10 I'd say, if a book is optioned by a production company or a studio, a different writer will be brought in to adapt the book into the screenplay. Such wasn't the case with Whip It, which comes out on DVD and Blu-ray on January 26. The film was based off the book Derby Girl by Shauna Cross, who was actually a screenwriter who wrote the book based off her own experiences as a roller derby girl... which she quickly parlayed into a movie deal where she wrote the screenplay. Trust me, that's not something that happens every day, folks. I had the chance to speak with this unique writer about her roller derby days, the film and much more. Here's what she had to say.

Your book Derby Girl is based off your experiences in roller derby. I was curious why you didn't go the non-fiction route with the book instead of doing this fictional novel?

Shauna Cross: Probably because my own, complete, documentary experiences would be a little more boring. I always think its fun to be able to shade and tweak things to your point of view. There's also a great documentary about the revival of the sport, and I wanted more of just one girl's personal story versus a whole documentary that had already been done.

I read that you were basically shopping both the book and the movie around at the same time. How did that whole process work?

Shauna Cross: Yeah. I kind of accidentally went backwards. I started as a screenwriter, writing things here and there in Austin but nothing had been made yet. I just started this as a lark to write a book, just because I kind of had to get it off my chest. I wasn't sure it was going to be a movie or whatever so I just wrote the book for fun. The book sold pretty quickly and the movie sold immediately following that. The pitch sold so I ended up writing the book and the movie sort of simultaneously. It was quite an adventure. It was all derby, all the time.

It's interesting because you hear about people like John Irving with The Cider House Rules, it took him like 13 years to write the screenplay. I was curious of how the process of doing both the book and the movie went for you?

Shauna Cross: My whole thing is I became an accidental novelist. I was more of a frustrated screenwriter who went ass-backwards, basically. I fell off screenwriting and accidentally wrote a novel and the novel really pushed the screenwriting through. I think my secret was just to be a total jack-ass about it (Laughs). It was more like falling upwards. I highly recommend it.

Maybe I'll just start doing that then.

Shauna Cross: Unlike John Irving, I did not have a high-fallootin novelist pedigree career to protect. I was just shooting from the hip.

Did you find with the movie version that you were able to expand the world a lot more?

Shauna Cross: Yeah. I came from movies, and I always knew the cinematic three-act structure. That's always my taste, stories that move fast. The book is definitely more internal and her point of view and her voice. Once I started really working on the movie, it's really about building those characters around her, her teammates. You're writing parts that well-known actors are going to play, so you want to give them a lot to do. That was a new element of it that was really fun and really inspiring.

It must have been just a dream come true to see this cast assemble. You have so many amazing actors that came on board for this. What was it like when this cast started to come together and it started to become a movie?

Shauna Cross: It was surreal and it continues to be surreal. It's an amazing little family. I had always written the movie for Ellen (Page) because I had just seen Hard Candy and then in the meantime Juno happened so it was a weird, lucky thing. Even on top of that, once Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig and Drew decided to play a part, it was pretty special. Then there's Daniel Stern, Marcia Gay Harden, Andrew Wilson, the whole oddball, motley crew family that Drew put together, just got more exciting with every step. I think that's actually the hallmark of the film, the cast, because it's just a really great group. Sometimes you hear things about big casts, about how it worked on screen but a person might have been a jerk off screen, everyone was amazing. It was a good little family and it was the real deal.

I was actually at the event at the Doll Factory before the film came out.

Shauna Cross: Oh, cool.

They were talking about all the training that they had to go through for that. Were you hands-on with that, in the training?

Shauna Cross: Honestly, at that point, I kind of handed it off to some other girls in our league. I mean, really, I kind of had all the glory as the writer and I really pushed to get other girls in our league involved as much as possible. And honestly, I didn't want to be responsible for training everyone (Laughs). No, but we got Alex Cohen and Jennifer Barbee, who are L.A. Derby Dolls, they did most of the training and stunts and they were pretty great. Those girls definitely worked hard. Juliette was really funny because she totally lied when they were offering the part. She had no idea how to skate at all, so it was pretty funny.

I actually have some friends back home in Minnesota who are derby girls in a flat-track league and some of them came out here and played in a banked-track tournament and they said it was quite a different experience than the flat track.

Shauna Cross: Did they like it or were they overwhelmed?

I think it was a little bit of both, actually.

Shauna Cross: OK, cool! I love both banked and flat track. We did flat track before we built our track. We had a couple of opportunities to steal some time and skate on an old-school track. I thought I was going to die at first. I love both, but I love that banked track. You can go so fast and it hurts less to fall on that track, it's actually a softer fall. I know it makes a lot of noise, but it's softer than concrete. Concrete hurts. The track sort of bounces a little bit.

OK. Back home it's just concrete with painted lines, but the cool thing you have people just sitting right up against the lines.

Shauna Cross: Yeah, so when you fall you go flying into the audience. That part is great. I will say that I think that flat-track girls are a little bit tougher because falling on concrete hurts a lot more than falling on our track.

Since the movie came out, have you seen the film impact the L.A. derby crowds at all? Is there an increase since the film?

Shauna Cross: Well, L.A. is such a unique city because the community really supports the derby here, the flat-track league and our banked-track league. It always sells out but it's funny because our crowd has gotten a little more Hollywood hipsters, agent-types, so it's funny to see them in the mix at those things. I kind of feel like derby is cool enough without the movie. I think it's great that other people have discovered it or seen it, when they see the movie, they know what they're talking about. It's good for people to actually see it and the sport is so interesting that it's not fake, it's completely real and its set in this world of modern, aggressive girls with this complete camaraderie which is special for people to see.

Is there anything that you can say about If I Stay? I believe that is going into production soon.

Shauna Cross: Yeah. Dakota Fanning is attached and it's sometime this spring or summer. It's a really incredible story - how do I say it - it's an incredible girl's story that has a really intense, dramatic ending. I actually got to adapt someone else's book, this woman Gail Foreman, who wrote a really amazing story and that was a really fun adventure because I buddied up with her right away. It was interesting to adapt someone else's work, having done my own. I felt very empathetic and very protective about her work and I think having done my own, made me a better partner with her. It's been pretty good and hopefully we'll be shooting this year.

Well, I guess that's my time. Thanks so much for your time, Shauna.

Shauna Cross: OK. Thank you.

You can watch the fictional adventures of Ellen Page's Bliss Cavendar, based off the real adventures of Shauna Cross in Whip It when it hits the shelves on DVD and Blu-ray on January 26.

Wasatch Roller Derby will be playing their first charity game for the Utah Parent Center

From: www.wasatchrollerderby.com/

Date:	Saturday, February 6, 2010
Time:	7:00pm - 8:00pm
Location:	Salt Palace Convention Center
Street:	100 South West Temple
City/Town:	Salt Lake City, UT

Wasatch Roller Derby is proud to present their opening bout for the 2010 season. Roller Derby action will once again be in full swing February 6th at 7pm at the Salt Palace (90 South West Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101). Wasatch Roller Derby will be playing their first charity game for the Utah Parent Center (www.utahparentcenter.org). The half time show will feature Rotten Musicians and the after party will be held at the W Lounge (358 Southwest Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101) The 2010 season has started for Wasatch Roller Derby!!!

All tickets are general admission: $10 in advance, $12 at the door, children 5 and under are free. Tickets are available at Hoppers (890 Fort Union Boulevard
Midvale, UT 84047), www.wasatchrollerderby.com or at the door the night of the event.

Roller Derby, and the World’s Largest Breast Exam!

From: www.bilgemunky.com

The Chesapeake Roller Derby is no mere pirate-themed roller derby team – nay lads, it’s a whole flogging pirate-themed LEAGUE! So if you’ve ever wanted to see guy and girl pirates get all garbed up, strap wheels to their feet, and then clobber each other, now’s your chance! Of course, I don’t actually know if that’s what roller derbiers do, but I’ve always assumed so based on movie previews.

Their first event is January 23rd, which will also include an effort to get into the Guiness Book of World Records for “the largest simultaneous self breast exam.” I’m unclear whether that means the largest number of simultaneously examined breasts, or the simultaneous Frpmof the world’s largest breast, but in either case it sounds like a party.

www.chesapeakerollerderby.com

Gloria Nord, roller skating star of the 1940s, '50s, dies at 87

By ELAINE WOO - Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES --

Gloria Nord, a theatrical skating sensation of the 1940s and '50s who captivated audiences with her balletic agility on roller skates and later on ice, died Dec. 30 in Mission Viejo, Calif. She was 87.

Nord had been in declining health in recent months from a series of ailments, said her nephew Jerry Nordskog.

Called the Sonja Henie of roller skating, Nord first came to prominence in the early 1940s as the star of a roller revue called "Skating Vanities." She toured the country with the show's 100-skater troupe, jumping, waltzing, fox-trotting and tangoing across the stage
with wheels on her feet.

Her prowess earned her a roller-skating number in the 1944 Betty Grable movie "Pin Up Girl," which made the petite, curvaceous Nord a real pin-up popular with American GIs in World War II.

In the 1950s, Nord hung up her wheels to perform in ice-skating productions at London's Wembley Arena. She quickly became a favorite of English audiences and in 1953 gave a command performance before Queen Elizabeth II.

"She had such charisma on stage. You just knew you were in the presence of a star each time she came out," said former Holiday on Ice dancer Roy Blakey, who knew Nord and saw her perform many times. "All of her moves were based on dance. She had beautiful arm movements and high extensions ... when she would do the spiral, skating on one leg with the other in the air. She did beautiful split jumps. Everything was very graceful and elegant."

The youngest of five children, Nord was born Aug. 2, 1922, in Santa Monica and grew up there and in Hollywood. Her father, Andrae B. Nordskog, was a pioneer of the music recording business who brought some of the first concerts to the Hollywood Bowl.

Nord studied ballet as a child but enjoyed skating as a hobby. When she was in her early teens, her brother, Bob, made her a pair of roller skates, which she tried out at Sid Grauman's Hollywood Rollerbowl. Grauman cast her in an intermission show, and soon she was performing in exhibitions around the country sponsored by the magazine Skating Review.

According to Blakey, who runs a skating archive in Minneapolis, boxing promoter Harold Steinman caught one of Nord's performances in Chicago in 1938 and, inspired by three-time Olympic champion Henie's skating films and lavish touring ice shows, came up with the idea for a roller-skating extravaganza.

The result was "Skating Vanities," which opened in 1942 with Nord as the star. It played at major venues across the country, from New York's Madison Square Garden to Los Angeles' Pan Pacific Auditorium, and eventually in Europe.

Nord talked Steinman into dropping the show's original name, "Roller Follies," because she thought it misled the public into thinking they were paying to see a roller derby, the contact sport featuring roughhousing skaters jamming around a track. "The derby is terrible," she told the Saturday Evening Post in 1988.

The popularity of roller derby may have helped nudge Nord into ice skating in the early 1950s, when British sports promoter Sir Arthur Elvin made her an ice show star at his Wembley Arena. She performed regularly in England until 1958, followed by a short period in Australia, where she skated in "Ecstasy on Ice" and "Robinson Crusoe on Ice." She gave her last performances in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, Blakey said.

Her daring leaps and splits took a toll, as did her occasional falls, "particularly when they tossed me from one boy skater to another and the guy missed the catch," she told The Orange County Register in 1993. "I had a marvelous life, but I could hardly walk after skating a show." She retired to Orange County, Calif., and eventually had both hips replaced.

Twice married and divorced, Nord had no children. She is survived by two nieces, Carla Wales and Dorice Mabus, and two nephews, Jerry Nordskog and Brian Whiteside.

Photo: Gloria Nord (Left) and Sheila Hamilton playing Cinderella and Prince Charming on the ice at Empire Pool Wembley. Dec 1956. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Fort Wayne Derby Girls adopt family for holiday season

FORT WAYNE—The charity-driven Fort Wayne Derby Girls have adopted a family this holiday season. In keeping with its philanthropic nature, the roller derby league has been collecting toys, clothing, boots and gift cards for the Hershman family of Columbia City. Two representatives from the league, Tonya Hamman and Jodie Chambers, delivered more than 40 gifts, including a washing machine, to the family on Dec. 23, just in time for the holiday.

When presented with the offer to be adopted by the league, Jeni Hershman said, “We are so grateful that you want to help our family. A few years back, we were able to do the same thing for a family, but to be on the other side is very humbling and hard to accept.”

Dave and Jeni Hershman have been married for 10 years and they have five kids: Alyssa, 15; Brandon, nine; Jayden, eight; Caleb, four; and Colton, deceased. Earlier this year Jeni was admitted to Parkview Hospital due to complications with her pregnancy. After a long hospital stay, she began battling an infection and doctors informed the family that there was nothing they could do to save the baby. The week of Thanksgiving, Jeni gave birth to Colton, who lived for only three hours. During Jeni’s hospital stay, Dave took time off of work to care for the kids, which has put a financial strain on the family.

Hamman, who headed up the effort to collect items for the family, said “Working as a team, on and off the track, we can make a real difference in our community.”

Fort Wayne is at the pinnacle of Indiana’s roller derby resurgence. Since October 2005, the Fort Wayne Derby Girls, a non-profit, volunteer-run organization, has raised $41,000 for local women’s and children’s charities. Now in its fifth season and second at the Coliseum, the league continues to support local charities.

For more information, contact Amber Recker, Public Relations Committee, Fort Wayne Derby Girls, at amber.recker@gmail.com or (260) 312-7343. www.fwderbygirls.com.