Garnett Grit Betties bring the pain, fun

By about three-quarters of the way through Saturday night's roller derby bout, the Wrangell team had too many points.

The Garnett Grit Betties hosted their first-ever home bout, known as the The Rumble on The Rock, against a group of visiting skaters from Southeast towns. After some initial uncertainty, more spectators had started to get into it. Louder and louder cheers broke out whenever a jammer – easily distinguishable by the star on the side of their helmet – broke through the pack to score for the home team.

Then, in the second half, the Betties hit the maximum on the scoreboard – 199 points – and kept going. It might be characterized as a good problem. The home team eventually won 235-134.

Modern derby is a hybrid between out-and-out racing and hockey, a full-contact sport more carefully regulated than televised matches of the 1960s and 70s, which were similar in style and tone to professional wrestling matches. Each half is broken up into two-minute jams, where the jammer tries to skate past opposing team

members, who do their best to block the jammer from lapping the five members of their team and scoring five points. Contemporary derby places a greater emphasis on endurance than contact. Protective equipment and fouls are strictly enforced – though Saturday's bout resulted in at least one sprained ankle and some blood on the track. Even so, this isn't your mom's – or, more

likely, dad's – roller derby.

While derby is a sport, some things seen Saturday night are unique to derby. At one point, the crowd delivered an ovation for the referees. They, like the skaters, sport colorful noms de guerre and intensely personalized uniforms. Off the track, many of the Betties are active participants in community events like the Chamber of Commerce Dinner held in mid-March and the Health Fair held earlier that day.

The Rumble on The Rock bout went from tenuous to standing-room-only in five weeks, said head coach Shawna "Baby Cakes" Buness. At least 200 people participated as spectators, in addition to the skaters, referees, and non-skating officials who kept score. This turnout made the Wrangell event a big success in a town perhaps unaccustomed to the enthusiastically rowdy pageantry of derby night,

organizers said.

"Awesome!" she said, when asked how the bout had gone.

Plans had been circulating for the bout since October 2012. The team had received a final approval for the venue only five weeks before, and had

advertised intensively, Buness said.

"We were just waiting for permission to use the gym," she said.

This year's home debut for the Betties comes on the heels of a meet in Petersburg that drew skaters from many Southeast communities, and had a similar structure. Southeast teams also plan to form a similar consortium to compete in the state tournament later in the year, Buness said.

The visitors in this case also brought a personal edge to the match up. Two sisters – Laura "She Ricochets" Johnson of Wrangell and Lisa "Little Lisa Larsony" Nielson of Petersburg – skated on opposing teams, and in the second half briefly skated directly opposite each other as opposing jammers.

"That wasn't planned at all," Johnson said. "We just kind of got out there and looked at each other and said 'Let's do this!'"

"It's something we wanted to do since we began roller derby," Johnson added.

Unlike a lot of other legendary competitive pairings, this one began with an injury. Johnson suffered an arm injury when her derby career was just minutes old. Johnson called Nielson and told her about it.

"She (Nielson) was like 'That's like really too bad, that's such a bummer – hey wait! I wanna play roller derby!" Johnson said. "So within an hour, Petersburg had a roller derby team started up."

The Petersburg team has since grown.

The two sisters have shared activities since middle school.

"I had so much fun," Nielson said. "I made her cheerlead when we were in high school and junior high and she hated me for it, and this thing she made me do and I love her for it!"

Petersburg sent eight skaters to the bout, and derby enthusiasts from all over Southeast and parts beyond (at least one skater was from Wasilla) scrambled to get the meet together. When a full bout wasn't guaranteed, Nielson volunteered to skate for Wrangell.

"In the beginning, I was like 'I'll come skate for Wrangell,'" she said. "We were actually happier that we got to skate against each other."

Skaters favored the diversity of opponents, Johnson said.

"We were thrilled that we didn't have just one specific team to skate against," she said. "That's what made this thing fabulous."

Nielson agreed.

"It was pretty cool that we didn't just have Petersburg versus Wrangell," she said.

The Betties practice on Wednesday and Sunday nights in the community gym, Buness said. Prospective Betties of all skating abilities are welcome, she added.