What indoor spectator sport could beat out UW men’s hockey and UW men’s basketball on the Madison’s Favorite list? The only one involving badass babes on Rollerblades. And thanks to the upcoming flick from Drew Barrymore, “Whip It,” the derby girls of the Mad Rollin’ Dolls may be seeing even more action this year.
In an exclusive interview with The Badger Herald, Stacie Reece, or Charlie Hustle as she’s known on the track, shares what it takes to become part of the Mad Rollin’ Dolls and how derby can change your life.
Like many of the Mad Rollin’ Dolls, Reece knew nothing about derby before she started. She overheard a doll talking about it and was intrigued. Soon she found herself trying something completely new.
“I met her in April, and it just happened that the tryouts were going to be in June and she said, ‘Come on out, come try it out.’ And I’m like, ‘Well I don’t skate. I don’t know if I can do this.’ She just kept giving me that oomph that I needed to try something crazy like this,” Reece explained.
Each year, women from all over Dane County flaunt their skills on the track in hopes of becoming a doll.
“Tryouts start in the summer and the women that show up to try out go through ‘Baby Dolls,’ which is a kind of boot camp for three months over the summer,” Reece said. “At the end of the camp we have a draft.”
Not everyone who joins the Mad Rollin’ Dolls fits the stereotype of a badass derby star, though.
“One of the coolest parts about derby is it attracts everybody,” Reece said. “We have a wide age range. The youngest is 22 and the oldest I believe is 56. We also have different people as far as background, as well. We have stay-at-home moms, we have people with doctorates, we have all sorts of different people that kind of create this community of derby skaters. I think women from all age ranges look to derby as an outlet to be empowered.”
Many of you might be wondering how exactly roller derby works. The sport consists of five players from each team skating around a flat oval track. Four members of the group create that team’s “pack.” The pack is made up of blockers, similar to a defensive position in other sports. The remaining team member is the “jammer,” or the offensive position.
“The jammer laps the pack, and after their first lap, their second lap becomes their scoring lap. Each opposing blocker that they pass becomes a point. The goal for the blockers is to create holes to let their jammers through and create walls so that the opposing jammer doesn’t score,” Reece explained.
And it’s full contact. “I’ve never been injured, but I have gotten some pretty nice bruises. I think we’re all kind of proud of those war wounds and we like to show them off,” Reece said.
When a player is on the track, she uses an alias. The alias works as an alter ego in some cases and is often some form of a pun or allusion to pop culture.
“It can be something that’s been rolling around in the back of your mind for awhile,” Reece said. “For me, I actually had a veteran skater come up to me one day and tell me that she likes to see that I’m always hustling out on the track. So I wanted to kind of create a name that was kind of based on hustle. And so Charlie Hustle came into place.”
Another unique characteristic of derby is the creative costumes players wear to reflect their team name.
“Each team usually has a theme. Each one is a little different,” Reece said. “I skate for a team called the Reservoir Dolls. It’s a take on the movie ‘Reservoir Dogs.’ So with the whole mafia, gangster feel we have black shirts and white ties. Each skater gets to kind of get creative with uniforms and creates their own flair for it.”
The Mad Rollin’ Dolls consists of four home teams and two travel teams and is entering its sixth season. One of its travel teams, the Dairyland Dolls, recently won second place at the Northwestern Regional competition. Because they placed in the top three, the Dairyland Dolls will go to the national tournament in Philadelphia. It is the first time that Madison will go to national tournament.
Another first for the dolls is a celebration this weekend for the release of “Whip It,” a movie about a misfit teen finding herself through roller derby. The film is the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore (“He’s Just Not That Into You”) and stars Ellen Page (“Smart People”).
The Mad Rollin’ Dolls will be having a movie viewing titled “Night Out with the Dolls” on Friday at Marcus Eastgate at 7 p.m. with an after party at Pooley’s. On Saturday, they will have a second “Night Out with the Dolls” at Sundance Cinema with a Q&A session and an after party at the rooftop bar.
“The ‘Night out with the Dolls’ is a great way to catch a little derby action, but also get connected with the derby girls here in Madison,” Reece said. “We’ll have a season schedule for our upcoming home season. So people can kind of plan ahead. If they participate in the raffle they can possibly win tickets to our season opener.”
So what exactly does “Whip It” mean? “The whip move is where one skater kind of reaches behind and grabs the other skater by the arm and kind of whips her forward and basically transfers all that momentum forward and can really get going speed-wise,” Reece explained.
“I think over all the movie is going to be a great way to show that derby is much more than a sport. … It really covers how derby becomes sort of a lifestyle,” Reece said. “The tag line of the movie is ‘Be your own hero.’ And I think that that qualifies as what derby is for so many of the skaters here in Madison. It kind of becomes sort of their own. … They become their own heroes in their own way,” said Reece.
For more information on the Mad Rollin’ Dolls or the “Night out with the Dolls” please visit madrollindolls.com.