There was a broken wrist, suffered at practice the day after Christmas 2013. Oh, and Tristan Colvard once tore her medial collateral ligament. She’s also had her jaw knocked out of place and cracked open the bridge of her nose — both in the same tournament weekend.
“I get done with a game and I look like I let somebody beat me with a stick,” Colvard said before practice July 25. “Some of (the players) don’t bruise much, but I bruise a lot.”
The game is roller derby and Colvard, known on the track as No. 17 The Spread Eagle, pays money to get beat up like this. And she loves it.
Colvard and her Springfield Roller Derby teammates wrap up this season’s home schedule Saturday, July 29, with a doubleheader at Jordan Valley Ice Park. The doors open at 3:30 p.m. and the first whistle is at 4:30 as the SRD All-Stars take on the Capital City Crushers — from Topeka, Kansas — and the SRD Battle Brigade faces the Rolla Rockets.
Springfield Roller Derby selects a community partner for each home bout. Saturday’s partner is Adult Tendercare Center.
“We donate a certain amount for each bout to our select community partner,” Schwader said. “They’ll also blow the whistle. It’s just a way for us to give back to the community.”
Admission is free, but you’ll want to get to the Ice Park early. The seats will fill up quickly.
“Our fans are not quite hockey level, but they’re pretty intense,” said SRD’s Chris Schwader.
Jammers, blockers and collisions
That intensity has been building for more than 15 years. Springfield Roller Derby has been jamming since 2006, staging bouts in the Queen City and traveling to other towns. It’s a passion for league members, who pay dues to participate.
“We pay to skate. We don’t make any money at it,” Schwader said. “Everyone pays dues so we can rent the facility and things like that. People are getting babysitters for this and it’s a hobby.”
The hobby involves skating around a flat track for two 30-minute halves, crashing into opponents — and sometimes teammates. Each team sends five players onto the track at a time, one jammer and four blockers. The concept is pretty simple. The jammers, designated by stars on their helmets, score points by skating past the other team’s blockers. The blockers try to stop the other team’s jammer from passing them.
The jammers start at the back of the pack on the jam’s first lap, skating through the crowd to get to the front. Whoever gets there first is the lead jammer, giving them the power to call off the jam whenever they want.
“So strategically you want to get points, but you don’t want the other jammer to score points,” Schwader said. “If the other jammer is stuck in the pack, you can keep going and do as many laps as you want before you call it off. If the lead jammer doesn’t call it off, or there is no lead jammer, it lasts for two minutes. … It will be up to a two-minute jam, with 30 seconds in between, and another two-minute jam. You do that until the 30 minutes are up.”
Whoever has the most points at the end of the two halves wins. Then comes the afterparty, attended by both teams.
“It’s pretty great because you play on the track, beat each other up, and then go you have the afterparty and hang out, drink and do karaoke,” Schwader said.
Community, friendships are big in the roller derby world
It’s all part of being a member of the worldwide roller derby community, a community that athletes find very supportive.
“Everyone’s been so nice,” said April Ebersol, aka Trauma Queen No. 76. She’s an SRD rookie who will play in her first bout on July 29, as a member of the Battle Brigade. “It’s a very encouraging environment. I feel very comfortable. It’s easy to get to know people when you have to hit them and they hit you. There’s a sense of camaraderie. ‘I’ve been in your armpit, so I guess we’re friends now' — because if you’re not friends, it’s going to be a little awkward.”
Those friendships are part of the reason Colvard, currently serving as league president, started playing roller derby. She’s been involved in the sport for 12 years, the last eight with SRD.
“Making friends as an adult is hard,” she said. “I was in a bad relationship where I was very isolated and finding friends of my own, my people, really helped me be like, ‘Nah, f**k that. I’m not going to do that anymore.’
“Getting out and meeting people is really scary, so a lot of time we tell (new players) they did the hardest thing. You showed up, the hardest part is out of the way. Now you have this whole community of people who are just going to be obsessed with you and love you.”
‘It gives them a sport and the strength to be who they are'
And those people will love you no matter what.
“We’ve had a lot of people who come and don’t feel comfortable being who they are out in the world, but they feel comfortable being who they are here,” Colvard said. “It gives them a sport and the strength to be who they are — non-binary, gay, trans, whatever. We’re actively antiracist, pro-BIPOC, pro-trans, pro-gender expansiveness, pro-age expansiveness. We’ve had skaters from ages 18 to 55.
“Now, we don’t allow (people) who hate people. They’re not allowed. This is a place where it’s all love and community and support. If you act like an a**hole and hate people, there’s the door.”
SRD to recruit new players in 2024
This season is wrapping up for SRD, but there are opportunities for new players to join the team in 2024. Schwader said they’ll have a recruiting class early next year. Those players will eventually graduate and get to participate in bouts, either with the All-Stars or the Battle Brigade.
“The All-Stars are our varsity team, for lack of a better word, and the Battle Brigade is also a competitive team and they travel sometimes,” Schwader said. “They’re our new, up-and-coming skaters, or they’re people who don’t want to commit to the training schedule that the All-Star level requires. If you want to casually do it, (the Battle Brigade) has a little bit of a lower attendance requirement and things like that.”
And if you’re wondering if you could, or should, give roller derby a try, Colvard and Ebersol both say yes.
“If you’ve been thinking about trying it, then try it. Don’t be afraid and just try,” Ebersol said. “One of the things that was really cool with how they taught us was we actually played derby in our sneakers, so it was like slow-motion at first. We were walking and running while we learned the game, then we added skates on top of it. It was extremely helpful because the first time we played on skates it changed things completely.”
And don’t worry if you don’t know how to skate. They’ll teach you that, too. Or you can find a job that doesn’t require you to lace up your skates.
“Anybody can do this. Anybody,” Colvard said. “Be it as a skater, a (non-skating official), a ref — you can be part of this team and be a valued member whether you skate or not. We have (non-skating officials) who are differently abled, in wheelchairs, which is great for them. We all roll. We’re all on wheels. So there’s a place for everybody.
“Also, there’s a place for every kind of body type. I don’t care if you’re big, small, tall, short, whatever. All of them have value, all of them have things that are valued on the track. Bigger bodies, you can’t knock them down. I don’t care how much you try. And anybody who’s short can zip through the pack and you can’t see them. It’s one of the few sports I’ve seen where it doesn’t matter where you are in your life journey, you can do this and be part of something that’s very, very cool.”
Want to go?
What: Springfield Roller Derby Doubleheader — SRD All-Stars vs. Capital City Crushers, SRD Battle Brigade vs. Rolla Rockets
When: Saturday, July 29; doors open at 3:30 p.m., first whistle is at 4:30
Where: Jordan Valley Ice Park, 635 E. Trafficway St.
Tickets: Admission is free, but seats will fill up quickly
For more information: Find Springfield Roller Derby on Facebook and follow them on Instagram.
