May Featured Skater: Sin City Rebel

Name: Sin City Rebel

Number: 702

Travel Teams: All Stars & Marble City Mayhem

Home Team: Moonshine Moxies

Years skating: 8

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She’s always a calming presence on the track—unless you’re her opponent, in which case, you’d better watch out for a hard hit outta nowhere! Get to know this seasoned blocker: May’s Featured Skater, Sin City Rebel.

You were nominated by Magically Malicious, who has a few questions for you. First, how excited are you this year as co-captain of the charter, because, in her words, you are rocking it and you are so awesome? (And I agree with her!)

I’m pretty excited. I really like to be involved in trying new things when it comes to the team and all of that kind of stuff, so I’m very excited. I don’t know if I’m rocking it since I’ve only done it for one game, so I don’t know if it’s really rocking it, or I was just kind of like, “I’m here!” But I’m pretty excited for that, especially with as many good people as we have and as many people that have been there a little longer than I have been there—it’s a big honor for me, that my own skaters and friends and people that I spend a lot of time with chose me. It’s great.

And second, how do you stay so calm on the track when it is hectic? Because you are calmness personified somehow for the entire game, no matter what.

I’ve really thought about this for awhile, because I’ve always felt that I am out of control, but I have had a lot of people say when things are getting really tough on the track and everything, you’re always the one that’s like, “It’s alright, let’s get together, calm down, small movements” (is what everybody likes to make fun of me about). But I think on the track because of the fact that, when you are on the track, you are a figure of your team. If you are running at the mouth, or if you’re yelling at referees and stuff like that, it doesn’t just look bad on you, it looks bad on the team. So one thing I do not want to do is make my team look bad for any reason whatsoever. So I stay as calm as I can in the situations on the track. I mean, of course I get a penalty and sometimes I look at the refs and put my hands up like, “Really?” But when I’m not on the track and I’m on the bench though, I do not feel like I’m very calm, because I’ll be the first one to say something about something. It’s nice to know that I do put off that I’m very calm and collected, even though in my brain I’m probably screaming inside, like “Oh my god!” It’s just something I think that I got from playing sports before that, you know, you are a reflection of your team, so if you are doing something that is not a good reflection of your team, then it doesn’t just look bad on you, it looks bad on everybody.

How long do you think it took you to develop that sort of mindset? Was it strictly a derby thing, or did it come from those other sports that you just mentioned?

I didn’t have to do it in my other sports because I had my parents to do it for me! They were the voices, and I was just the player, you know? But as I’ve—even when I was coaching a sport for my daughters, I was (between me and the other coach) I was the calm one. I was like, “Hey, you know, they’re little, we can’t be out here screaming and all of that kind of stuff.” But when it comes to derby, I think once I really got the whole gist of derby—which, I like to tell the new people, it takes years before you get everything, before you understand. And then sometimes even after as many years as I've been playing, I’m like, “Oh, I didn’t know that!” You really never feel like you know everything, but I have found that my team keeps me that way. When you have people on the track like Bush and Lyda, and they’re calm, even in the worst situations on the track, it rubs off on you, and you want to be, you’re like, “Okay, if they’re still calm, then I should still be calm.” So I think that’s where that comes from with this team.

How did you discover roller derby then?

This is a really hard one. So I had a friend up in North Dakota that—she had told us that she was playing roller derby, and she had invited me and my family to come watch her. So I went and watched, and of course I had no idea what was going on, but I thought it was really cool, and I thought all of these girls were really cool out here, and I loved the fact that everybody was different—different sizes and different race, different everything. And at the time, I didn’t really have anything that I was doing. I was telling my sister about roller derby, and we saw a sign for a game, and of course, the town that I was living in was like, five miles wide, so it wasn’t very big. So I said, “We should go watch. I think you would like it too.” She came with me, and at the end of the game, we’re talking and I think I had talked to a couple of skaters, and they were like, “Hey, we’ve got a bootcamp coming up really soon.” And I was like, “What is that, or fresh meat?” They were like, “If you want to join!” And I was like, “Well I don’t know how to play.” And they were like, “Oh no, we teach you everything!” And I was like, “Okay!” I looked at my sister and said, “What do you think? We should do this?” And she said, “Yeah, let’s go to the informational!” Because you go to the informational and you try on gear, you see if you can—if you’re a baby deer or not. So we go and by the end of the information, I am smitten. I am like, I’m doing this. I look at my sister and said, “We’re doing this!” And she was like, “Oh no, I never was going to do this. I just knew that you wouldn’t go unless I came with you.” So that’s how I ended up going to fresh meat because my sister, she literally duped me. I thought this was something me and her were going to do together, and she was like, “Oh no, I’m going to sit up here while you go get your butt creamed, and I’m going to be your biggest fan!” Which, of course, she is my biggest fan. So that’s how it happened.

So how long were you with that team?

I was with the Grand Forx Sugar Beaters. I joined them in 2015 and then in 2018 I stopped playing with them and then I, instead of playing with them, I was actually playing with teams around the area. I would go and foster for them and actually, I consider having three teams up there that I ended up falling in love with (a bunch of other teams, and being part of their team too) so I have tons of jerseys from other seasons and stuff. So got the Grand Forks Sugar Beaters, we’ve got the Kampeska Krushers, which are in Watertown, South Dakota, and then we’ve got A-Town [Roller], which is in Aberdeen, South Dakota. They are all my family. I actually have three derby wives up there, who will forever be my derby wives, and we all are family and all of that. So I played there until 2019 up there, and then I moved here to Tennessee.

When you were on each of those three different teams, did you find that you inhabited a similar role, as far as what position on the track, or how you interact with the other teammates, or was there a different vibe for each team?

Well the two teams in South Dakota, they played exactly like each other. They were all family too because the teams were very close, and we would, if Kampeska was coming to play us and they didn’t have enough people, you knew that A-Town was going to be there with them. So the derby community up there is very small because the towns are so small. I just remember the first time I played against Watertown. There was a girl on the team, her name is Juanna B. Out, is her derby name. And I remember, it was in my first year playing and I remember watching her, and I was like, “I want to be her, that’s who I want to be. I want to hit like her, I wanna have the confidence that she has, and all of that.” And me fostering for those teams, I got the skills that I have from watching them play, and them teaching me. I’d be like, “How did you do that?” And they’d be like, “Oh, it’s easy! Just do this, this, and this.” And it was like, “Well it sounds easy, you make it look easy, but I don’t think I’m able to do that!”

So I just tried to—I was a sponge, and I tried to sponge off of all of them, and learn from them, which eventually I did become the captain of the Forx Sugar Beaters, and I was part of their training. In my last year there I did training and captain. I’ve been treasurer on the team too, so I’ve been in some roles before, but there was a lot of stuff that happened in the last year that I was there that just kind of made me want to, “Okay, maybe I’m just going to be a foster for people for awhile, and step back from those roles.”

What would you do if the teams played each other? Would you just pick a team?

So it was one of those things where it was like, who asked first? So if A-Town and Watertown were playing against each other, of course the Sugar Beaters were one of the closest teams to them, so if they were playing against each other, it was who was gonna ask you first, and that’s who you would go for, you know? You would have to, because, “I’m sorry, they asked me first!” So that was always a hard decision. I’ve played more games against my derby wives than I’ve ever played with my derby wives.

When you’re out on the track, how would you describe your derby playing style?

I feel like I’m very aggressive, and my aggressiveness tends to send me to the penalty box a lot. We all know, we’ve all seen it. I feel like I have very good track awareness, so because of my track awareness—and I can only, I can say that Bush has better track awareness than me, but I feel like me and Bush are bookends: you know, I’m lane 1, she’s lane 4; I’m lane 4, she’s lane 1. I feel like my track awareness ends up getting me those bigger hits that you see. I have been kicked out of the game for hitting someone too hard (which there’s no such thing in roller derby, unless it’s malicious—it wasn’t, it wasn’t malicious) but I have been told that, you know, that was a little too hard.

But I just, I get into that mindset of it’s just like playing softball. You don’t want that ball to get past you, so you do anything you can possibly do. You don’t want that jammer past you, so you do what you have to do to make sure, and if there are times where I’ll hit a jammer, and I know I’ve hit them so hard, that even I go, “Oh God, did I do that? I’m so sorry!” But in the end, it’s about, you know, roller derby is aggressive. Roller derby is a contact sport, and the girl that got me kicked out of that game, I told her, this is a contact sport. You would do it to me if you had the chance to do it to me. 

I do love—more than anything—hitting a jammer and the whole crowd going, “Ooooh!” That pumps me up so good because I may not be the fastest, I obviously cannot jam, we’ve all seen it, so when I can do that and give my team a time to either get back together, regroup, refocus, then I feel like I’ve accomplished something.

So kind of with that, with people who might be intimidated by, you know, how aggressive we can be out there, what advice would you give for people who want to play roller derby?

Don’t ever think that you’re too old, you’re too big, you’re too skinny, you’re too small, you’re too anything. I had the pleasure of playing with a woman who was 75 years old. She was, at the time, the oldest active skater in the US, and she was badass. So I always say, when people say, “Well, I don’t know how to skate!” We teach you. You know, everything can be taught. Everybody is taught how to do this. I did not walk into roller derby and be the skater I am today. Obviously it takes years to get some of the skills or you know you have those epiphanies like, “Man, it’s taken me five years to learn that!” Don’t ever think that anything about yourself could prevent you from playing roller derby, because I have played with small people, I have played with big people, I have played with older people, I have played with people that are freshly out of high school, eighteen-year-olds. I have played with a dynamic—I have played with men, there’s no reason why you cannot try roller derby. There’s physically—everybody can do it.

Amen! So how did you decide on your skater name and number?

Oh, it was the biggest ordeal of my life! This was harder than naming my four children. I had never had to name myself. So backstory: originally I grew up in Las Vegas. I moved there as a teen and Las Vegas is home, so I threw around all these Las Vegas themed names. There were so many of them. I put on Facebook, “Hey I joined roller derby and I made the team, and I need suggestions, and I want it to be something that is hometown related, or something that has my name in it” (because my name is kind of a unique name). So I put it out, and I’m gonna tell you right now that, there at one point, there were 82 different roller derby names that people had given me! My brother, my oldest brother, Bryan, had given me so many derby names that I couldn’t even pick the best one out of it.

So when it came down to it, being from Las Vegas, Sin City, of course, I wanted to rep being from Las Vegas. So that’s where the “Sin City” came from. The “Rebel” part is a two part: the UNLV Rebels, that’s the college team, you know cause at the time that’s all Las Vegas had was a college team (there was no football or hockey or anything like that back then). So I ended up going with “Rebel,” but also because me myself, I’m a little bit of a rebel. I always have been in my life. My family says I just wing everything, so that’s why I was like, Rebel was definitely what I was going for. So Sin City Rebel it became, with the thought in my head that everybody was going to call me Rebel.

Because I was going to ask about that, how you feel about us calling you Sin!

First day it literally was—one of the girls came up to me, one of the girls that had been a vet on the team. She came up to me and said, “What’s your roller derby name?” And I said, “Sin City Rebel.” And she goes, “Alright, Sin! That’s what you are!” And I was like, “I—but I—I kind of wanted to be called Rebel?” But as I’ve gotten into playing roller derby more, there are a lot of Rebels out there, so maybe Sin is okay. And my number is the area code of Las Vegas, number 702.

But I also have another roller derby name that I recently got when I joined Mayhem. I went back to that post that my brother, and my name being Rhiannon, he had said that my roller derby name should have been Rhiactor. That’s the best one he thought he had come up with. So when I joined Mayhem, I had seen a couple of other girls that had joined Mayhem had different derby names on Mayhem. So I was like, for my brother, I decided to take Rhiactor, so that is my derby name. At the beginning, my number was 82, which was the year I was born, but I messed up when I made my jersey last year and ended up with 702 again, because I didn’t think about it when I was putting all the information in, and just was like, “Number? Yeah, 702!” So I’ve got the two derby names, and I feel like, when I’m on Mayhem, I feel a little bit of a different skater because of the guys playing against the guys and stuff like that, so I feel like the name kind of fits me in the co-ed situation.

You mentioned that it was easier to name your kids than to name yourself—what do your kids think of you as a derby player?

My kids think I’m pretty badass! They have always been my biggest fans (next to my little sister, of course, my sister Shelby is #1 fan) but they have always been there, they travel with me when I go to travel games. My son still lives up in North Dakota, so I send him pictures or show him anything that I can of, “Hey, we played this game today,” and give him updates and stuff, and you know, so they think I'm a pretty badass mom. They tell everybody that I play roller derby, and so it’s very, it makes me feel really good that I can share that with them, and that they don’t think it’s lame, and that they think that it’s cool. I’m pretty sure that I will have—my girls will probably play roller derby one day.

Who would you like to nominate for next month, and what do you want to ask?

Let’s pick Madam Bomb. How does she get ready for a bout, and how does she always keep her hair looking so magnificent all of the time?

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Thanks for a great conversation Sin! We’re so lucky to have you as a part of Hard Knox! Readers, you will be able to see her and the rest of the league in action for our first home bout on May 20. Until next time, be like Sin and stay calm even when everything around you is pure chaos.

- smalls-

March Featured Skater: Slamwise Gamgee

Name: Slamwise Gamgee

Number: 406

Travel Team: Brawlers 

Home Team: Lolitas

Years skating: 2

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She may be sweet in real life, but she’s always looking to give a big hit out there on the track. Hard Knox wouldn’t have got far without Slam! Get to know March’s skater of the month: Slamwise Gamgee!

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You were nominated by Sinister Siren, who has a two-part question for you: other than your ankle kind of giving you trouble throughout your first year, what was the biggest hurdle that you got over? 

Myself, my mind. I’m really big into thinking that I can’t do things, so when I started doing things, it was a hurdle to A: stop thinking I can’t do it, and then B: having imposter syndrome when I did start to do all of the things.

And also what was your biggest wow moment from your first year?

I mean, I guess same thing. I started doing things correctly, and then I was like, noticed for doing them correctly, and I’m very big on always—I talk myself up a lot, and it’s mostly because I don’t really believe it, so maybe if I talk it, I’m going to manifest it. Sometimes it can kind of seem like I’m coming off cocky or whatever, or like I’m just talking about myself a lot, but really it’s just because I don’t really believe it. So then when I started getting MVP every game, I was like, “What is happening?”

I am definitely a big believer in “Fake It Til You Make It.”

I mean, 100% of that was my whole rookie year, so I guess it works!

Speaking of your MVP Blockers, you did get a lot of those awards last year. Do any of them stick out in your mind as a favorite?

The first one is always going to be my favorite because it was so—”what is happening, I cannot believe that someone actually believed in me enough”. People have different opinions about them, but I’m like, wow, I made such a presence, People remembered me. And I just remember looking over to my husband and I was like “What is happening?” Because they said 406 and okay, great!

So what brought you to roller derby in the first place?

So my husband and his twin sister and his little sister are huge presences in the rugby community in Knoxville, and everybody was always like, “Why don’t you play rugby?” And I’m like, ew, no contact sports, I’m a band geek, no thank you.

And then my rugby wife/best friend, Autumn, bought a pair of roller skates and we were just gonna skate around at the tennis court while our husbands were practicing, and I absolutely refused to stand up on skates. And then once I did stand up, I was like, you know, I’m gonna go for this roller derby thing. And then literally the next day after I decided to stand up on skates, I saw it was the meet and greet. So I was like, “Okay, eff it, let’s do it.”

So then did that lead into Goose Poop Island?

Yeah, exactly. It was literally two days after I stood up on skates, I saw the meet and greet at Goose Poop Island was just the following Sunday. Then that’s when I showed up and met Randy and everything just kind of—I’m the kind of person to where if I see something or I’m like in a situation, I just know it’s mine or it’s for me (I say it’s a Pisces thing). My husband hates it because he knows once I got that feeling, it’s done for- it’s what’s happening. It happened with him, it happened with our dog, it happened with our house, and it happened with roller derby. I just knew it was my thing.

How did you select your skater name and number?

My skater name is the real hero of The Lord of the Rings, Samwise Gamgee. I want to portray him at all costs. I want to be the unsaid hero and the supporter of his friends, and the one who will do it no matter what. If anybody knows me, you know I love The Lord of the Rings. Everybody who knows anything about me knows I love The Lord of the Rings.

And then 406 is actually Samwise’s birthday. I may change it coming up when I have to get a new jersey. I may change it to 3, for different reasons. One being it was his mailbox number, the other being it’s my husband’s rugby number sometimes. So maybe? But either way, it’s because of him.

It’s going to be Samwise-related, no matter what.

Exactly, no matter what.

Well, speaking of Lord of the Rings, you recently added to your tattoos and it was Lord of the Rings related. Care to share the story behind that one, or any other tattoo?

Well, I only have four at the moment—no, I only have three at the moment, I’m getting my fourth one in two weeks. My Lord of the Rings tattoo (my first Lord of the Rings tattoo, because I will be getting my left side of my body Lord of the Rings themed) is Narsil, which is the sword that Aragorn will use to take over Gondor basically.

And I don’t know, I just—A: it’s a cool looking tattoo, honestly, and B: I mean, the cheesy symbolism that you think of is something that broken can be fixed again, and used to take over the world. So just cheesy symbolism for me.

Continuing with cheesy symbolism, what’s something that you've gained from your roller derby experience that you maybe didn’t expect?

Honestly, confidence in my ability to do things that I never thought I could (if you know me you know skating does not go with Stormy at all). Also I’m not the smallest person, so confidence also that not being small is still useful. Also, I have gotten lots of muscles, not only from roller derby but because I’ve been working out more to get better at roller derby,. Being strong and bigger isn’t always necessarily the wrong thing, and I think roller derby has given me that confidence.

The thing that also surprised me is the friendships I have gotten through roller derby. I have always considered myself a closed-knit kind of person—I have really only had one best friend for over 18 years, and another in the past 4—but the people I have met on this team are the most sincere, genuine people who are a huge reason I believe in my myself on the track (which will make my husband so mad, because he always believed in me and hates when I finally believe it because someone else said it). If you were to ever tell me I would have a derby wife (maybe some mistresses as well), and a BFF who is the female version of the love of my life and that I am getting a matching tattoo with in 2 weeks, I would never have believed it.

Yeah, it’s really cool that there’s really no best size or type for a roller derby player. Like there are advantages and disadvantages to all of them.

Right. Everyone is gonna have some type of hating their body, but in roller derby they say, “Hey, literally whatever your body type, you have a place here, and there’s a purpose for what you have.”

Absolutely! How would you describe your derby playing style?

Aggressive, which is very surprising to me. My husband would say that I am a sweet person. That’s also very weird— I’m very girly. His nickname for me sometimes is Princess, and that’s because I kind of am. Then once I’m on the track, I’m like, “I’m gonna hit you…hard.” Literally, my goal for every game is to make the crowd go, “Oooh,” at least two or three times. I don’t want to hurt or injure anyone, but I do want you to get out of my and my jammer’s way.

Is that at all comparable to your husband when he’s playing rugby?

Oh my gosh, yes. Everybody knows that watching him. That is why that’s my goal, because I love it when he hits the other team. They always try to go for him, because they know he’s gonna hit like that, and I love it when I hear the crowd go “Oooh,” and I’m like, “Yeah, he’s mine, thank you.”

What is a song that always gets you out on the dance floor?

No—I do not dance. If I were to move my shoulders, it’s probably gonna be some type of Broadway or Disney, but I don’t dance.

What about karaoke?

Again, Disney or Broadway musicals. I actually can sing. but I do not like to sing in front of people. My husband hates it— “That’s actually something you can do, like why don’t you show it off?” But yeah, Disney music or Broadway musicals, or any soundtrack like Pokemon or whatever.

Do you have any goals for this season?

I wanna get rostered for at least one actual game. I’m going tomorrow to an All-Star scrimmage, but it’s kind of a mixed scrimmage, so I want to get rostered for at least one actual All-Star game. I know I’m a Brawler in my soul, but that’s one of my goals. Also, you know, MVP’s always a goal, just for my own mentality, not for anything else.

Do you have any other favorite achievements on the track?

I mean, it’s kind of crazy to me when I’m actually a team player. When I get with my favorite walls— like Mental, Bear or Ruby (my blocking partner) whenever we actually stop a jammer and it’s halfway through the two minutes and we’re still two feet away from the jam line, that’s a favorite, and we’ve done it multiple times. Sometimes we’ve even taken the jammer back past the jam line, and they never even got the initial pass. That’s always my favorite achievement, when we utilize our teamwork like that.

Also being slightly comfortable on my toe stops. Because if anybody who remembers me at Goose Poop Island and before even, like my friend Autumn—I tried to run on my toe stops once and she says it was the most traumatic thing she’s ever seen in her life when I fell. So now I’m slightly comfortable on toe stops, so that’s also one of my major achievements in my head.

How do you find a balance between roller derby and real life?

I don’t think I have yet! Derby has consumed my heart and soul. Luckily my job is amazing and it’s just a 9 to 5. I do what is needed, and I put my whole effort into that, and then I can clock out and go focus on the next things. So I try to make it to where Sundays and Wednesdays are 100% derby. If I have a game on Saturday, I’m going to, especially this year, try not to do anything on Sundays—devote it to my family, my husband. Then Mondays and Fridays, me and Ray try to go to the gym together, and then Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’ll try to go work out at Hero Athletics with Shamir (I say “try” because sometimes it doesn’t work out) while he is at rugby. It’s a lot. It’s hard to have every single day devoted, but sometimes in order to live a balanced life, you have to do it like that. And then there’s no plan, it kind of falls apart, but that’s the goal.

What advice would you give people who want to play roller derby?

Just do it, honestly. Channeling my inner Shia LaBeouf here, but literally just do it. If you’re thinking about it and saying “I don’t know, it’s not for me,” just try because you could be like me where you have a princess mentality and think that all you’ll ever be is a band geek, and then put on skates and then start doing crazy things!

Who do you want to nominate for next month, and what do you want to ask them?

Magically Malicious. How is it different being on the team now, post-COVID, as it was pre-COVID? What are some pros and cons?

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Thanks for such a fun conversation, Slam! You can catch HKRD at the Mardi Growl parade this Saturday, March 4, in Old City and downtown Knoxville! Until then, be like Slam and fake it til you make it because the “making it” will happen sooner than you think :)

-smalls-

February Featured Skater: Sinister Siren

Name: Sinister Siren

Number: 11

Travel Team: All Stars

Home Team: Moonshine Moxies

Years skating: 6

She makes quite a splash on the track, both from her fabulous makeup and her bold offensive moves. Get to know February’s Skater of the Month—Sinister Siren!

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You were nominated by Shine-Her, who knows you’ve had an interesting career with COVID kind of smack in the middle of her derby experience, so she wants to know how you feel like derby is now that you’ve transitioned into more of a vet role.

Well, first of all, I want to thank Shine for nominating me—she’s my little sister and I’m so proud of her! Literally, I feel like she’s leaps above where I was when I was at the level that she’s playing, so she’s incredible, and I’m really proud of Shine.

But back to the question: honestly, I think it’s been a bit of a whirlwind, but I think you can probably relate because I feel like we were kind of thrown into a vet role. Like in a normal sport, you kind of grow slowly over time and become a vet, but after COVID and us losing so much of our team, I feel like those “vets” really were just the skaters who kept skating from the “original” team (or from the “old” team I should say.) So it’s been difficult. I love teaching and helping, so I’ve loved being in a role where I feel confident to help the newer skaters, but when it comes to performing at an A team level with the other A team skaters, I think it’s been challenging. I took an 18-month hiatus for COVID like everybody else, and I didn’t really skate at all during that time, so when we came back in I just kind of wanted to get back under my feet. But then we were thrown into a vet role, and also teaching and helping. Then starting with bouts, like our first bout was that Mayhem bout against males and I hadn’t bouted in two years! It wasn’t intimidating being a vet so abruptly, but I am grateful that I was able to help the newer skaters because I love the fresh league that we gained last year, and it’s been great to be able to help them.

So you and I did start at the same time! How would you describe your experience of that first year?

Honestly, I think half of it I blacked out and I don’t really remember! I had never roller skated before that first day of fresh meat, and I was like a baby deer out there. Meanwhile, the old Hard Knox team was a lot of A players, and they’re jumping over cones, doing these intense things—like the turn-around toe stops seemed so far away from where I was—and I didn’t know if I was going to survive just that one night. But overall, the experience was great. I mean obviously, I’m still here, and I loved it. It was very overwhelming and intimidating, but our circle of fresh meat was really great, and I made some lifelong friends from that core circle. Although you’re the only one that’s skating with me, so thank goodness we stuck around!

So then if you had never done skating before, what drew you to roller derby?

I played sports my whole life. I did soccer for like four years, basketball, I swam all through college on the club team and my high school team, and so I’ve just always been competitive. But later when I was in my early twenties, I missed sports so I did some jiu-jitsu and krav maga, and I realized how much I loved the contact part of sports. I missed having a team and being competitive and there was only this—like I was never gonna compete in wrestling, that’s not me—but I do love being physical and feeling strong, and I also love a good challenge, and I love learning new things. So I actually just saw someone driving around Knoxville (this was probably six or eight years ago) with chalk paint on their car saying, “Hard Knox is recruiting” or something. I just then Googled “Hard Knox” and I got in touch with Katie Queen, who was the head of marketing, and the rest is history!

Your name, Sinister Siren, really becomes an entire persona on the track. How did you develop that?

I would say that was probably the most natural part of playing roller derby for me. I am a mermaid, I love to swim, I’ve always loved the water, and I wanted to be Siren. My dad actually helped me come up with “Sinister” because I wanted it to be something fun to go with “Siren,” and I like the two S’s. I thought about being a scary mermaid with more black, like a traditional siren is honestly pretty scary, but I’m very colorful and I love Halloween and costumes. So I just knew that first time we bouted—and it actually wasn’t even a bout bout, it was our home team scrimmage, back in 2018—I just wanted to do fun colored scales on my face, and since then, I’ve never done an official scrimmage or a bout without the getup. I feel like it’s almost like my alter ego, and I don’t think I could bout without having scales on. Even when we have away games, I’ve done scales six hours earlier and then sat in a two-hour car ride with the scales, then bouted wherever we are. I just don't feel like I’m Siren if I don’t have the whole costume.

How much overlap would you say there is between Siren and Ellery?

I feel like there is a good amount of overlap. Obviously I am like a mermaid, but I feel like I’m more of a happy, sweet mermaid, and obviously sirens are not sweet. In derby, I’m very competitive. In life, I feel much more like an empath, and I’m much more patient, but when I’m playing a competitive sport, I’m there to win and I’m there to do my best and encourage my team. I want to win, I’m competitive. So I feel like that would be the difference between Siren and Ellery. Like in real life, winning is relative, but when I’m playing a sport, I want to perform, I want my whole team to perform and be confident and work well together, and I want to win.

How did you decide on your number?

Eleven has been my lucky number forever. It was always my number in soccer and basketball. My birthday is 11, but then it’s 29 and 92, and it all adds up to 11. I graduated in 2011. Eleven is just all around my life. I see it on the clock, it’s one of those weird things that’s just always around, so it’s just by far my favorite number.

How would you describe your derby playing style?

I would say, I mean, competitive. I do think I’m pretty level-headed. Even if I’m frustrated or flustered, I don’t feel like I let that get to me because I have an athletic background. I always know that the end goal is to compete and hopefully win, so even if we’re down in points, I don't feel like I get discouraged or let that get to me. Or if there’s an opponent we’re playing that’s not exactly friendly, I don’t let that get in my head and take it personally. I just try to keep a level head. I also think I communicate well with my teammates. So I think those would be two style categories I would kind of fall under.

What’s your favorite position to play?

So definitely a blocker. Jamming is going to be the death of me one day. My goal last season was to become a confident pivot, but then I had so many injuries that I had to kind of not make that my focus. But I do want to be a confident pivot so I can relieve the star jammers. I don’t really ever have a goal of being a star jammer. I love blocking. I also really love offense. That’s probably become one of my favorite things, especially last year, kind of getting back into it, and I say that you (Smalls) could say the same thing. It’s just so rewarding to do an offensive move and then help your jammer succeed. I think that’s probably my favorite part, but just blocking in general is my favorite.

I feel like you’re reading my mind because I was just wondering if you had any favorite achievements on the track! Does anything else stick out at you?

I think my favorite moments are really just playing bouts. I love practice and I love the team bonding and being a part of this community, but I love the sport because I love to be competitive and I like to do all my makeup and really get into the spirit of things. It would be hard to pick a favorite moment. I won a handful of blocker MVPs, and that’s always a nice moment. You feel like you did something right, and at the beginning you don’t have that thought very often because there’s so much chaos. You don’t know what’s going on, and then you get a reward at the end or the trophy! Those are some sweet moments, but I still think just in general, just competing in a bout is always my favorite moment. I just love the sport and I love playing the game.

Do you have any derby heroes that you look up to?

Yes—honestly, Bush is the first one that comes to mind. She’s such an amazing blocker. There are all these incredible jammers and they always get so much attention, like all the famous ones, but I can’t say that I really follow a lot of derby outside of Knoxville and the teams we play, so my heroes would all be from the team. Of course, Unsweet T would be a hero of mine, because she’s an amazing jammer, but she’s also such an amazing blocker. She’s more petite, but spreads out like a daddy long leg and just covers so much of the track- one-on-one against T is impossible. So I remember first starting off, Bush and T were both heroes of mine, and still are, for sure.

How do you find a balance between roller derby and real life?

To me, it’s just a non-negotiable six hours a week that I have to dedicate to myself. It’s almost like self-care for me. It’s obviously a workout, but it’s also therapeutic to go and have that contact sport, and also be with friends you genuinely love and care about. So, of course life is crazy and sometimes it comes time to practice and I realize I have ten things to do, and should I really go to practice? Even on those days, I know I’m gonna be happier after practice if I go, and so to me, it’s just, again, like a non-negotiable. It’s just a part of the week, and especially when it’s active season, there’s just not really another option. I just have to be there, not only for myself but also for my team, especially when it gets to be bouting time because I feel like I’m a letdown to the team if I’m not there. So you just have to find that balance if you care enough to win the game, and so competitively, I just make it a priority.

What is something that roller derby has taught you about yourself?

I would say it’s taught me more patience, especially with adults. I love children and I feel like I’m a super patient person when it comes to children, but sometimes being patient with adults can be a little more difficult. With this group, there’s so many different personalities and so many different ages and so many different parts of the country that we’re from, that I do feel like it helped me be more patient and just kind of roll with the punches of things. So many personalities can sometimes not mesh and get heated, but I always just try to take a deep breath and kind of observe before I react, so I think the social aspect has been good for me.

What is a hobby that you would like to get into?

I feel like I already have so many active hobbies that I love, there’s not really any new ones I’m actively trying to gain. I do want to travel more, so I really wanna go to every national park. That’s probably my biggest goal on my United States bucket list for travel. I’ve been to probably thirty states in the country. In my family, we didn’t camp and do stuff like that, so national parks were never a part of our destination. I don’t know if that’s exactly a hobby, but kind of like traveling and hiking. So that would probably be a goal of mine that I want to do.

Other than that, I would say art—I’ve always been artistic and I love trying new mediums, so if I were to try a new hobby, I would say it would be a new form of art that I haven’t kind of played with yet. I would love to do ceramics or woodworking. I love working with my hands, and so I think that would be fun.

What is a piece of advice that someone gave you that has stuck with you?

Oh Smalls, I don’t even know! Let me think—I don’t know if I really have a specific piece of advice. I mean, it’s so basic, but my aunt always used to remind me—again, the super basic one of—treat others like you want to be treated. I use that every day I would say. We never know what other people are going through, so I really always try to value other people’s perspectives and all the unknown things that they could be dealing with, and just try to be patient and give them empathy and love and kindness. So I think just as cliché as it is, just treating others how you want to be treated can go a long way.

If you wanted to give someone advice who maybe was thinking about playing roller derby, what would you say?

Honestly, if I can do it, you can do it. That’s probably what I would say because, again, I had never done it, I didn’t even know how to skate in a simple circle. I’ve had some friends be hesitant, that are thinking about it, and that is what I tell them. Even my derby wife has told people, “If Ellery can do it, you can do it!” So I think that would be my first piece of advice, but also just come try because you’re not gonna know unless you show up and give it a try. I think the fresh meat bootcamp is a great way to give it a try. It’s super affordable and it gives you a little hint into the whole world of derby, but you have guidance and everyone’s really patient, and then you can decide after that point if it is for you, or if it’s not, that’s okay too. I feel like you don’t know if you don’t try, so just come on!

Who would you like to nominate for next month, and what do you want to ask?

Slamwise Gamgee. Other than her ankle kind of giving her trouble throughout her first year, what was her biggest hurdle that she got over? And also what was her biggest wow moment?

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Thank you for a great conversation Siren! It won’t be very long until you can see her out on the track—our 2023 season schedule is out, so make sure you carve out space in your calendar! Until next time, be like Siren and carve out some time in your week just for you and your self-care.

-smalls-

January Featured Skater: Shine-Her

Name: Shine-Her

Number: 937

Travel Team: All Stars

Home Team: Moonshine Moxies

Years skating: 1

She moved from rookie to All Star in just a few months, and there’s no stopping her in her second year with HKRD! Get to know this month’s featured skater: Shine-Her!

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You were nominated by Gnarly Davidslam, who wants to know how joining derby has changed your life.

Yes, I mean derby has super changed my life! I’ve been playing for just over a year now, which feels like a small amount of time, but in practice, felt very, very long. I feel like I have a whole new family, which Kilty tells us that when we first start, but you don’t really believe it until you’re a year in and you’re like, “Oh wait, these are my people now!” I think it’s definitely helped me find my spot here in Knoxville too because I had moved to Knoxville really shortly before I joined derby, so it definitely helped me find my footing here, and just find friends, and confidence, and a little bit of humility because how many other sports are you able to fall on your face a thousand times and have people cheer for you because you fell down nicely? So yeah, I think it’s a bunch of little things that create one big happy derby feeling.

What brought you to Knoxville?

So I actually moved here for my boyfriend. He was in grad school at the time at UT, so we made the jump over from Asheville. We’ve been here for about a year and a half now.

How does Knoxville compare to Asheville?

Very different! We’re definitely finding our better spots in Knoxville now, but it was a little bit of a hard transition coming from a super small, artsy, little community, stuck in the mountains, to a little bit more suburban living. But we’re liking it, we’re finding our spots, we like our apartment. It’s a good spot now.

Had you played sports as a kid?

Absolutely! I played a lot of team sports growing up, from soccer and softball in the summers to basketball. My biggest sport was volleyball. I played varsity all throughout high school. So lots of team sports.

What volleyball position did you play?

I was an outside hitter.

I keep the books for the middle school volleyball, so (I never played it) but it’s a lot of fun to watch.

It is! When I was in middle school, I started as a middle hitter, but then I stopped growing and everyone else kept growing, so I became an outside hitter.

I mean, you’re not short, by any means!

I am not! But for a volleyball player, I’m short!

Is there anything from volleyball that you can feel translates to derby?

I mean, definitely the teamwork, because in volleyball and in derby there’s a lot of team last-ditch efforts. There’s a lot of Hail Mary plays that are made in volleyball: you have to dive, hope you catch the ball. In derby, you have to run and chase the jammer, and hope you get her, and you hope your team goes with you. So it’s a lot of that, and a lot of trust goes with that. A lot of teamwork in general.

So then how did you discover derby?

Derby’s always been one of those things that was in the back of my mind. Like everybody else, I watched Whip It in high school and said, “Oh, that’s the coolest thing ever!” Not really thinking about it until I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, after I graduated college, and they had a team and I was kind of always thinking, “Oh, maybe one day I can join, maybe one day, that would be so fun, I think I’d be good at that.” But I was working every weekend, so I knew it probably wasn’t the best time to do that. When we moved to Knoxville, I just happened to see on Facebook that oh, there is in fact a derby team, and oh, by the way, we’re doing open call/come-and-meet-us events. My boyfriend was like, “You have to go—you have to go!” Because I had mentioned it so many times. So that’s kind of the long story of, it’s been a slow burn that I finally just bit the bullet and did it.

You usually play as a blocker. What do you enjoy about blocking?

I like being a blocker a lot. I like feeling strong. I feel like a blocker is a great position: when a jammer hits you and you don’t move, you feel so powerful, so I love that. And I like the team effort too, where it’s, you know, three or four on one. You’re really working with your other players to stop someone as a common goal, which is, I think, always fun too, because then when you do something well, everyone’s excited with you. Plus it’s just fun knocking people over!

What have been some of your favorite derby moments?

My first one was probably just the very, very first bout of the year when we were in Columbia [South Carolina]. I had only been playing for a few months, and I was about to have my first bout, and it was the most terrifying experience, but I got to do it with a couple other people who were also completely brand new, and all of us together just kind of looking at us together like, “We’re officially derby players—this is it, we did it, we’re officially derby players!” That was the highlight.

And then another one was my first Brawlers bout. I got MVP Blocker, so that just felt really really good, that all my hard work was starting to pay off. Those are probably my two best.

How did you decide on your skater name and number?

So mine was pretty easy, I don’t have a very fun story. It’s my last name, basically, just spelled a little differently. Spelled correctly, some might say. I knew I wanted to play something with the name Shine, I didn’t really know what, so I turned to my team and was like, “Hey, what would be fun?” And they said, “Ooh, Shinner’s kind of cool, and we could make it Shine-Her because it’s derby and that’s what we do.” So it kind of just became Shine-Her! And my number, 937, is my area code from where I grew up in Dayton, Ohio.

Do you have any goals for this upcoming 2023 season?

Yeah, so I want to become a better pivot. I think that’s something that I definitely have in my wheelhouse that I want to get better at. I think that’d be great, especially as a brace, I feel like I’m usually in the position to be a pivot, so I want to get better at that, which basically just comes down to getting a little bit better at jamming, which is so hard, but I know I can do it.

What is your biggest struggle that you’d like to overcome with jamming this season?

I mean, endurance is always hard. That’s why it’s nice being a pivot, because you don’t have to endure quite as long most of the time, but I think my biggest struggle is the agility that comes with quick, super quick movements. I’m definitely, when I do jam and when I block, I’m definitely a heavy-footed, ‘push push push’ type skater. Sometimes [it] works perfectly when you’re trying to jam, other times it is a complete failure, and I haven’t fully figured out how to get the agility to be able to scoot around people.

What is something that most people wouldn’t guess about you?

I can always go back to my favorite fun fact (which I actually put on the Facebook page this year for derby) was that I was a dancer all through my childhood. I was a dancer and I actually originally went to school for theater, which is nowhere near where I ended up! I feel like that’s one of my super fun facts, that I originally thought I was going to be an actress.

So what do you do now? What is your job?

Now I am a live event producer. So I travel all over the country and put on beer festivals, and music festivals, and food festivals, and wine festivals, and all of these different kinds of one or two day festivals. Lots of travel, but it’s a lot of fun.

What’s been a favorite festival that you’ve gotten to put on or help with?

Ooh…I love doing wine festivals. I got to do one of those last May, which was really fun. That was actually my first festival back at this company after COVID, so it was both a trial by fire, had to kind of throw myself back in it, but it was really enjoyable to be able to pick all of the different wines we got to drink, and all that fun stuff.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I love hiking, that’s one of my favorite things. Love to explore the mountains. I have two cats I like to spend lots of time with. My boyfriend and I are big binge watching people, so we always have some sort of show on in the background, love doing that. I also love to read.

What advice do you have for people who want to play roller derby?

To just give it a shot! I feel like that’s been the hardest thing, is just going for it. And I think that’s more than just starting it, it’s every single practice, there’s definitely a time in my head where I have to tell myself: just try, just do it, you never know, it might look impossible when somebody who’s been playing for ten years does something, but I’m never going to know until I try it. So just getting out I think is the best advice you can give anybody.

Who do you want to nominate for next month, and what question do you want to ask?

I would like to nominate my big derby sis, Sinister Siren. I know she’s had an interesting career with COVID kind of smack in the middle of her derby experience, so I kind of want to know what derby’s like now that she’s transitioned into more of a vet role.

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Thank you for a great conversation, Shine-Her! We are so glad that life brought you to Knoxville and that you have become a part of the Hard Knox Roller Derby family! Until next time readers, be like Shine-Her and just give some challenge in your life a shot—no matter how tough it is, you are tougher!