They’re on wheels, and they could knock you out.
They’re the Gainesville Roller Rebels, a local roller derby league that finished the season Sunday with a 104–90 win over the Tallahassee Rollergirls.
About 300 fans watched at Gainesville’s Skate Station Funworks as the Roller Rebels brought in their fourth win of 12 bouts played this season.
In roller derby, which started in the 1930s as an endurance sport, players assume alter egos with names like Patsy Clothesline, Grizzly Madams or Meow Mix Yo’ Face Up, which are meant to intimidate.
Each team of five players is made up of four blockers and one jammer.
Each of the two 30-minute halves of the game are divided into jams, or periods of play that can last up to two minutes, or until the jammer in the lead declares it over.
Points are scored when a jammer passes the opposing teams blockers.
But it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Those blockers will do nearly anything to keep that from happening, including shoving, tripping and “booty blocking” girls, sending them tumbling off the floor and often into the crowd.
The blocker’s job is to help her jammer pass the opposing team’s blockers but at the same time block the other team’s jammer from passing through.
“It’s like rugby on wheels,” said jammer Kerri Duffield, better known as Suzie Bonebreaker.
Duffield graduated from UF in August 2009 with a degree in architecture and has been a Roller Rebel since February 2008.
She and the nearly 50 other girls on the team practice about 10 hours a week.
“It’s truly one of a kind, and I think that’s why it’s so fun, besides the knocking girls over part,” Duffield said after the game.
Throwing elbows and pushing, however, will land a player in the “sin bin,” or the penalty box.
Sunday the Roller Rebels played to support the Spread the Love charity, which raises money to fight cervical cancer.
The women are trying to help one of their own, a Tallahassee Rollergirl named Stephanie, or Danger S, who was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer on Oct. 28.
The Roller Rebels held a raffle during halftime that raised about $1,100 for the charity.
