Roller derby provides inclusive space to defy expectations

Jane Scaramuzzi walked up and down the Concord YMCA basketball court. She yelled out “NO PACK!” and her team stopped, turned and rolled back.

Scaramuzzi, called Bee for short, coaches the Granite State Roller Derby Team. Her jersey even reads “Killer Bee-Hind.”

The team spread out and rolled back into formation with each instruction, certain skaters acting as jammers and others practicing blocking during a low-impact session. During these sessions, they talk to each other, learning how to recognize voices and movements and preparing for actual competition.

Bee was never into sports growing up, identifying more as a bookworm. But she had done some figure skating in her youth and eventually rediscovered her love for it as an adult. Then, she picked up power lifting. Soon after, a friend approached her with an enticing proposition.

“Hey, have you heard about this thing that’s basically the perfect combination of those two things? You should try roller derby,” Bee recalled her friend asking back in 2017.

After the first two practices, she was hooked. “It was super fun, and we’re kind of a rag-tag group of 10 misfits in the best way,” she remembered thinking.

What is roller derby, anyway?

First, a little history lesson.

Melody “Spank Alley Sally” Cremone, also referred to as “Spanks” for short, is one of the longest tenured members of the team. A Concord resident, she skated in her youth when there were rinks in Franklin and Laconia, as well as at Funspot in Concord.

While roller skating hit its apex during the mid-20th century, roller derby surged after matches became televised through TNN’s “Roller Jam.”

That’s what got Spanks into the sport.

“Derby is for every body and every background,” she said. “You don’t need to be an athlete to start. You just need curiosity and courage.”

Flat-Track Roller Derby is played on an oval track by two teams of five skaters. Each match, also called a bout, is played in two 30-minute halves. It’s further subdivided into two-minute sessions of continuous play called “jams.”

Think of jams like more structured hockey shifts — each team has up to 15 players on the roster, but only five are out on the floor at once. Team designate the scoring player, a jammer, while the other four are blockers. The jammer earns a point for their team by passing a blocker. Blockers, well, that’s self-explanatory.

The Granite State Rollery Derby team was established in 2010, and Spanks has been a part of it since shortly after. She remembers seeing the Granite State crew skating outside of the Buffalo Wild Wings, on the pavement with a rock pile, just a few short months after the team was first founded.

“That was my first real look at them, and something about that scrappy determination hooked me,” Spanks said.

Since then, she has served in every possible position for the non-profit while also owning her own skate and board shop in Concord from 2011 to 2017.

The organization is completely member-owned, and the non-profit model allows for all the money to go right back into ensuring a fun and cost-effective season of skating every year.

A roller derby bout is a spectacle, with players dressed to the nines in colorful skates, pads, helmets and uniforms, glitter everywhere and makeup that looks like rainbow-colored war paint. They don’t battle as themselves out there.

Every player chooses their own “derby name.” But the names have to be earned on the track, too. In fact, there even used to be an international registry of derby names

These nicknames are like alter-egos and allow the players to embody someone different on the floor. They’re also usually clever puns or references with some sort of personal meaning. Bee’s comes from her passion: beekeeping.

Others on the Granite State Roller Derby team are “Rush-in Roulette,” “WednesDave,” “Ghastly” and “Stone Cold Jane Austen.”

Spanks comes from an old-school term for the penalty box, “Spank Alley,” and Sally came from a sweet suggestion to balance it out.

The names stuck, not just on the track but outside of roller derby, too. Spanks said she hears it more often than her government name.

Granite State Roller Derby

Actual competition can be rough as blockers and jammers fight for space. As that one friend told Bee all those years ago, it’s a combination of skating skills and using force to beat out opponents.

Bee explained that there’s not just one type of good roller derby player. You can be long and fast, or a five-foot powerhouse.

More important than skating abilities or physical attributes is the ability to communicate. During a regular practice session, the team keeps rolling around and talking to each other.

They yell out instructions, tactics and information about the jammer’s movement. The team mostly scrimmages and has moved away from the tournament and touring lifestyle, but they most definitely haven’t stopped playing.

Often, gym-goers will peek in from the weight room over, curiously observing the team from the doorway. It’s unlike most other things you usually see at the YMCA.

Spanks described the sport as rugged and welcoming. Her team has become her second family, and it’s easy to see why.

At the end of each practice session, the team plays a few games to loosen up and finish with more of a team-bonding exercise. One particularly laughter-inducing game was “Hot Dog” — similar to freeze tag but involving skates and lying down next to the fallen skater.

For that period of time on Monday nights, they are in a different world.

Taking up space

The Granite State Roller Derby team is open to people of all genders, but is predominantly composed of women.

For Bee, the sport is therapeutic. Assuming her derby identity is both an escape and a release from the constraints of work, daily life and societal expectations of what a woman should be.

Derby’s physical, forceful nature teaches its players to feel proud of the space they take up.

“Being able to basically declare yourself a space is something that some people just need practice in, and this is a really good way to do it,” Bee explained.

Spanks felt that draw too.

“I love the mix of power and precision. I love that derby asks you to be strong, strategic, adaptable and supportive all at once,” she said.

Coming from an MMA background, Spanks was down for the rough nature of the sport, but it’s not what’s made her stick around. It’ss the community that keeps her coming back.

“It’s doing things that you think you can’t and pushing limits and promoting a safe spot for learning no matter your fitness level or learning style,” Spanks said.

There’s something to the adrenaline-rush bond of roller derby that makes teams grow into good friends. When you’re willing to put your body on the line for someone else, friendship is easy.