Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 0 48 The jammer, who wears a helmet cover emblazoned with stars, earns points by passing as many members of the opposing team as possible within jam sessions. The team with the highest point tally at the end of the game wins. While at first the average onlooker might find it all rather confusing, roller derby's charm only gets stronger the more familiar you are with the ingredients of the contest. "Roller derby requires more of an investment than other sports do," says Kelsey Clark, aka Mauled Whiskey, of the Gallatin Roller Derby. "Most people know the rules to baseball, football, and basketball, by cultural osmosis. It might take awhile to get used to the game, the penalties, the scoring, the plays, the strategies that teams are using." Montana is currently home to seven roller derby teams practicing such speed and strategy: Copper City Queens (Butte); Electric City Roller Grrrlz (Great Falls); Flathead Valley Roller Derby (Kalispell); Gallatin Roller Derby (Bozeman); Hellgate Roller Derby (Missoula); Hel'z Belles Roller Derby (Helena); and Magic City Rollers (Billings). All Montana roller derby teams abide by the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) rules. Their schedules vary from team to team and are generally dependent upon venue availability and personnel calendars. Montana roller derby teams aren't in a league of their own, per se, but rather are free to earn rankings while compet- ing against other squads regionally or even nationally. For example, Flathead Valley Roller Derby travels extensively in the Pacific North- west and enjoys the summers off from competition, while the Electric City Roller Grrrlz plays the lion's share of its schedule summer through fall, closer to home. MISCONCEPTIONS OF ROLLER DERBY One of the fastest growing sports overseas, especially across Asia, roller derby dates back to the 1930s. Back then, players would com- pete in marathon skating sessions, circling a track until they could no longer keep stride. Chicago-based promoter Leo Seltzer, who, as it turned out, was born in Helena in 1903 to Romanian immigrants, U NLIKE THE GIANT ENTITIES THAT DOMINATE THE MAINSTREAM SPORTING LANDSCAPE, THE GAME OF FLAT TRACK ROLLER DERBY IS AN ENIGMATIC NICHE. Played on a flat, oval track, with two thirty-minute periods whittled down into two-minute-maximum units of play called jams, each team puts forward five skaters at full strength. Four of these skaters are known as blockers (the blockers con- join in sync and form something called a pack), and the other teammate is called a jammer. MODERN ROLLER DERBY by BRIAN D'AMBROSIO

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