Roller Derby season ends with Caribou bout

Lead jammer Barracuda Barbie (bottom left), of the Aroostook Roller Derby team BiohazARDs, busts through a pack of blockers from Central Maine Derby's Northwood Knockouts, while Flash Drive (pictured on the right) a jam referee for the Northwood Knockouts, points and blows his whistle. (Christopher Bouchard)

CARIBOU, Maine — To the uninitiated, a roller derby match looks like unbridled chaos, with referees extending their arms and blowing whistles while skating around two teams of uniformed players ramming into one another. 

It can also look quite graceful when a skater breaks out of the pack and glides swiftly past teammates and opponents to score points.

The final bout of derby season was held at the Caribou Recreation Center on Sept. 30, with Aroostook Roller Derby’s “BiohazARDs” facing off against and defeating Central Maine Derby’s “Northwood Knockouts” by a score of 225 to 77.

Saturday’s match was not the first time Aroostook and Central Maine’s derby teams faced off. Members of both teams enjoy a friendly rivalry and said past games have always been close.

Unlike many competitive sports, all roller derby players compete under a pseudonym which is often chosen and based on personality.

BiohazARD League President Jessica Baird explained the origin of her player name, “Treble Makeher,” before the last bout.

“I’ve been a musician and singer since the time I could walk,” Baird said, “so treble is spelled like the treble clef instead of trouble. ‘Make her’ is because if I want you to do something while you’re on the track, you’re going to do it whether you want to or not.”

Baird has been with the Aroostook Roller Derby since April of 2014, and said she joined after her husband suggested she try it out.

“At first, I had no skating background whatsoever,” Baird said, “so I was basically a baby giraffe with wheels underneath me.”

New members of Aroostook Roller Derby are required to take a number of tests to assess their skating skills and abilities before being allowed to compete in bouts.  Baird said she was able to “pass everything in five months with no background in skating,” adding that newcomers with skating experience often pass the tests much sooner.

League coaches administer the tests, which are sanctioned by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. Teams consist of up to 14 female players, however men can support those teams by refereeing and officiating.

Jay Olson, a referee with the Aroostook team, said that while the Sept. 30 bout will be the last for this season, the organization is accepting and trying out new players this October for the next season that will kick off late next winter or early spring.

“The newbie class is open all month,” Olson said. “Just go to the Aroostook Roller Derby page on Facebook and tell them you want to join.”

Olson said the Aroostook organization only tells players and others interested in joining when and where practices will be held so that crowds of strangers don’t show up.

“We want people to join, but they need to talk to us first so we know who they are,” he said.

While women primarily play during games, Olson says that men can coach, referee, or act as a non-skating official, adding that “sometimes they might let a man play, pending approval from the other team, but it’s mostly women.”

The BiohazARDs are The County’s only team, however Olson said that there are two teams in Bangor, and even more in southern Maine.

“We’ve played against Rockport and some other great teams,” he said. “Plus, we play across the border in Fredericton and Moncton, [New Brunswick], and Prince Edward Island. We’re willing to play anyone.

“We love the sport and love the derby family,” he said, adding that everyone generally enjoys the competition and members of both teams will often go out to eat afterward and “enjoy talking about the game and making new friends.”

Olson said the previous match against central Maine’s “Northwood Knockouts,” held in Bangor earlier this year, was close, with Aroostook winning by only three points.

“It’s back and forth,” Olson said. “They’ve beaten us before too. We look forward to going to battle with them.”

Northwoods Knockout Referee Aaron Ballman, also known as Flash Drive, has been with Central Maine Derby for five years. Ballman said his nickname was partly inspired by his job as a programmer, and partly by his spouse.

“My wife actually picked that name for me,” Ballman said. “She also skates for Central Maine Derby, and picked it because the previous head ref was called “Turbo Diesel,” and she thought “turbo” and “flash” sounded good together, plus I work with technology so I kind of got saddled with that name, and it’s stuck for five years.”

While most join roller derby after watching a game or being encouraged by a friend, Flash Drive ended up joining while going to cut wood with a friend in the Bangor area.

“I was new in the area,” Ballman said. “I ran into a friend at a coffee shop and we talked about going to cut wood. He said to send his wife an email, so I did, but she thought I was volunteering at roller derby and wrote back with their practice schedule.”

Since he was new in the area, he decided to give it a shot, and eventually brought his wife onto the team.

Since joining, Flash Drive has traveled as far north as Moncton, New Brunswick, and as far south as Connecticut. As an officiator, Ballman said roller derby is an intricate sport, and “great for anyone who enjoys complex systems.”

“There are two teams of skaters out there, four skaters on each team are blockers, and their job is to try and stop the jammer, who can score points,” Flash Drive explained. “Each team has one jammer, and she has a star on her helmet. The jammer has to get through the pack of blockers and, once she’s through, she can score points on any opponent she passes as she goes through again.”

Flash Drive added that these are the absolute basics of the game, and that jammers need to stay in bounds and can’t do anything illegal while passing players from other teams.

Northwoods Knockout skater Joanna Toothaker, also known as Spartana-117, became involved in the sport while stationed in Okinawa, Japan.

“There wasn’t much to do on that tiny island,” Toothaker said. “A league started up and, ten minutes into being there, I thought, ‘I have to do this, it looks like so much fun.’”

Spartana-117 eventually joined Okinawa’s Devil Dog Derby Dames and stayed on the team for about a year.

Once her husband retired from the military and moved back to Maine, Toothaker found Central Maine Derby and has been a member for about two years.

The name Spartana-117 comes from the Microsoft Xbox game “Halo,” in which the main character’s call sign is “Spartan-117.”

“I combined Spartan-117 with Joanna to come up with Spartana-117,” Toothaker said.

Toothaker said there are not any major differences between roller derby in America and Japan.

“It’s the same structure,” Toothaker said. “The only difference is that the people I played with in Okinawa were all military or in military families. Other than that, everything is exactly the same.”

Toothaker’s teammate Erica Davis, AKA Sweet Peacock, is a founding member of “Northwood Knockouts” and looks forward to the Caribou bouts.

“I’ve come up to The County to play against their team four or five times,” Davis said. “It’s one of my favorite games of the season; my whole family comes with me and we usually get potatoes, pick apples, and go camping.”

Davis said the name “Sweet Peacock” comes from Sesame Street.

“I was a huge Sesame Street fan when I started roller derby, and my daughter was really small at the time, so my original name was “Big Peacock,” after Big Bird, when I started,” Davis said. “It changed over time because it seemed egotistical and didn’t match me as well, so I was dubbed “Sweet Peacock” and it stuck.”

The Sept. 30th game was intense, with members of the crowd cheering on the home team.

“The ladies get pumped when they are in their home town playing for their fans,” Olson said. “It’s great when the crowd gets into the game.”

For those on the fence about joining or attending a practice session, Davis said roller derby is worth trying.

“It’s so inspiring,” Davis said. “If you love it, you will quit all of your other hobbies to do it. There are so many things to do [in roller derby] and it’s such a great community. It’s worth it just to make new friends.”

Baird, Ballman, and Toothaker (or Treble Makeher, Flash Drive, and Spartana-117) also believe anyone considering the sport owes it to herself to attend a practice and see what it’s all about.

“It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do, and it’s the best thing you’ll ever do,” said Treble Makeher. “It’s fun. It has camaraderie, and there’s always something different. It’s basically the best of all the sports you love, packed into one.”

“It’s really a fun sport, both from the skating side and the officiating side,” said Flash Drive. “When you go and ask skaters how many have ever been on a team sport before, in Central Derby, probably about half have never played a sport before. It builds confidence, athletic ability, and has plenty of health benefits, plus it’s a really fun sport.”

“Just show up and try it out,” said Spartana-117. “Lots of leagues have loaner gear, so you don’t have to make an initial investment. It is absolutely the most exhilarating thing I have done. It’s a time where you’re concentrating on so much of what you’re doing on the track that you forget about what’s going on; it’s a really good place to de-stress.”