An Evening With The Eastern Iowa Outlaws-- Part One

MONTECELLO – During a derby scrimmage among members of the six month old Eastern Iowa Outlaws, something went wrong in one of the turns. Upon making contact with someone in the pack, Rockin’ Romeo, the alter ego of 24-year-old Robi Jo Griffin, lost her footing, went skyward and landed on her back causing her head to ricochet violently off sport court tiled at the Monticello Berends Center Thursday.

Griffin, of Cedar Rapids, lay there for about a minute, being tended to by coaches. Eastern Iowa Outlaw founder and coach Michelle Miller, a.k.a Dead Lee Danni, instructs the other players gathered in the center of the makeshift derby track down on one knee.

“In case some of you didn’t know, when someone from your team or the other team is down, you always take a knee,” said Tiffany Vomacka, aka V Train a player/coach for the Outlaws. “It shows respect.”

Griffin, who is a service clerk and photo specialist at Walgreens, gets up and quickly rejoins the team. Her journey to membership in the Outlaws was a long one. She kept trying out and never making a team. Finally, one of her fellow skaters who made the Outlaws told her about tryout at Super Skate in Cedar Rapids. Upon observing Griffin skate, Miller, and Vomacka offered her a position on the team.

“This is something so much bigger than I could ever imagine by myself,” Griffin said. “Like I got a group of girls here that’s become family now. I mean no drama or nothing. We’re here to skate. We’re here to play. We’re here to have fun.”

A few minutes after she rejoined the team after the accident, Griffin had to sit down a few minutes later.

“I feel drunk,” Griffin said. “I feel like I’m gonna puke.”

By the end of practice Rockin’ Romeo appeared to regain her original form and relatively injury free. Fortunately she was wearing a helmet, as required in the modern derby game. Like any other athletic endeavor, the modern roller derby game carries a risk of injuries, as Outlaw player/coach Michelle Miller can testify.

While Miller was skating with the Cedar Rapids Rollergirls she suffered a tear in her Medial Collateral Ligament, located behind the knee during a practice in March 2009. “I was bad, “ she laughed. “I only stayed completely off it for one week, then resumed half- practices for the next three weeks and bouted at the end of that March. I should have stayed off of it for at least a month.”

She added her main motivation behind taking a big risk was to make a Rollergirls bout.

The Eastern Iowa Outlaws began in the mind of Miller, 45, who is an insurance analyst for Aegon in Cedar Rapids, toward the end of 2009. Since that time, Miller has hit the pavement to recruit players around the Cedar Rapids hanging posters, making phone calls, getting the team licensed, getting a tax ID and securing a venue. Not only that there was the issue of finding players for her team, which involved phone calls, passing out flyers and taking out ad space in newspapers.

“Within about two months we had 20 girls,” she said, adding that while those initial efforts to recruit players began in the Cedar Rapids area, the Outlaws are planning a major recruitment push for players in the Dubuque area in the near future.

Just a brief conversation with Miller reveals her deep love for the game, citing the friendships it brings, the sportsmanship among the players and physicality of the game as reasons why.

“It’s always nice to hit girls and not get in trouble for it,” she added with a laugh.

The Miller’s hard work and perseverance began to pay major dividends recently. Not only did the team secure a practice facility, adding more players to the Outlaw roster and, perhaps in the biggest move of all, secured a location for their home bouts, the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, which are slated to begin in October.

Many of the ladies at the practice hail from the Cedar Rapids area, but a fair number of them hail from other towns like Marion, Monticello, Anamosa, and even McGregor in Clayton County. Michelle’s Husband Robby Miller, aka Rush-N-Rob, said the Outlaws would like to bring the tri-state area into the Iowa derby universe and the home bouts at the Five Flags Center will provide an excellent venue for them to do so.

While many of the Outlaws have little to no bout experience, a slew of events are beginning to line up for them to have the opportunity. On Wednesday, many of the Outlaws will have a scrimmage with the “fresh meat” of the Old Capital City Roller Girls. This Saturday some members of the Outlaws will travel to Beloit, Wisconsin to participate in the Military Madness Roller Derby Mixer. Plans are also in the works for the Outlaws to have a bout at the Jones County Fair, although all of the details have not been finalized.

Robby Miller described himself as a “Derby Widow” for the first year-and-a-half of Miller’s career. While she did derby, he raced stock cars on dirt tracks. When she announced her intention to form a team of her own, her husband hopped aboard.

It’s hard to believe that Rush-N-Rob, by day the general manager of Marv’s Glass in Iowa City, was ever a widow of the sport watching him in practice at Monticello. One minute he is offering kind, yet firm coaching to the Outlaw girls. The next minute he’s breaking out tools to work on the skates of girls having problems with their skates. Still another minute he is holding a rope with another person to assist his wife in a drill involving hitting to solidify timing and blocking form.

“It’s more involved than I thought,” Miller said. “There’s a whole lot more than I thought. There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes. Contacts. E-mail.”