An Interview with Hether Skelter of the Wisconsin River Valley Rollergirls

When the Wisconsin River Valley Rollergirls All-Star team visited the Des Moines Derby Dames on April 10, D3 came away with a resounding 223-88 win. Under normal circumstances, this would be a demoralizing defeat. But further examination reveals that the circumstances leading up to the April 10th bout were anything but normal. Just before the D3 bout, the team suffered a major blow with a mass defection of skaters. Despite this, Wisconsin River Valley's founder Hether Skelter and the rest of her team persevered and played in Des Moines under circumstances that could have led to the disintegration of a lesser unit.

This weekend, the Des Moines Derby Dames will make the long trip to Warsau to play Wisconsin River Valley in a rematch of the April 10th bout. IRDD talked with Hether Skelter about what her squad has been up to over the last couple of months.

Q: It will be a little under two months since the bout against D3 in Des Moines when you take the Oval with them on Saturday. What has been going on with the team since then?

When WI RVRG played D3 on April 10th, there were a lot of new skaters thrown into the game due to some unfortunate league drama; resulting in several of our more experienced skaters choosing to violate our Charter and Operational Agreement, by among other things, bailing on us a week before the bout. Though none that left had ever actually bouted, I HAD introduced them to derby and spent months training, conditioning and preparing them. Having received my own introduction to roller derby and first three seasons of experience skating with The Arizona Derby Dames ( a long established and very successful non-WFTDA League, founded, in part, by veteran former members of pre-WFTDA. I found it necessary to take a 'crash course' in familiarization with the WFTDA standardized rule set in order to accept and rise to the challenge of two
such bouts in our debut season; as up to that point, since August '09, we had been very busy training and gearing up for our April 2nd interleague debut played by our own "house" or renegade rules. Come April 10th, the newer skaters had to wing it, learning the rules as they went.

Since then, the Wis. RVRG has played a WFTDA rule set mixer where the ladies met and played alongside many great, seasoned skaters and learned a lot! Our girls barely received any penalties and rocked the mixer, gaining a whole new level of respect for our league.


Q: Any more WFTDA BOUTS? 

WI RVRG played the Statelne Derby Divas mixer 'Military Madness' on May 22nd in Beloit, WI and we have a WFTDA rule set bout vs. The Eastern Iowa Outlaw Roller Derby League scheduled October 9th, \in Dubuque. We are working on booking a full schedule of both Renegade style and WFTDA rule set bouts throughout our 2011 season.

Q: New members? 

WI RVRG has gained about 5-6 new members since April, who are all very skilled skaters with positive attitides and strong, genuine individual characters.

Q: Team Chemistry?

Afore mentioned drama having successfully eliminated alot of negativity, our team and league chemistry is better now than ever! Everyone is working together extremely well, and we've been planning and putting into motion a lot of civic involvement activities in our effort to give back to our communities. The vast majority of our skaters are now fully trained, and legitimized RVRG's, having actively participated in and successfully completed our minimum 24 practice 'Fresh Meat' Training and evaluation period.

Q: In your opinion has the team gotten better?

Of course the league, and it's respective individual teams have improved immensely. Growing in skill and ability, as well as in the fundamental understanding of rules, regulations and strategems relevant to the (WFTDA ) game. We have all been training really hard, as well as building our Friendships off the track, which wasn't quite as practical when sudden, rapid growth brought previous membership to just under 50 skaters, and ultimately precipitated difficulties in both communication and coordination.

Q: Team injuries? 

There have been no major injuries, just your typical derby bumps and bruises. One injury in our League history, a spiral fractured pinky finger, incurred in our debut bout on April 2nd. She's all healed up now and really excited to play again!

Q: I’ve noticed some talk on line about the Renegade vs. WFTDA style and it seems like there are some misconceptions about the differences. How are they different? 

Simply stated, to us, Renegade Derby is that which isn't bound by the WFTDA prototype.We pride ourselves on our willingness and ability to play anyone, anytime, on any surface and by any rules- or none at all! Myself having participated with The AZDD in an '08 bout in which we defeated the highly renowned and much feared Arizona Renegade Rollergirls and playing by their ( the challengers ) one and only regulatory tenet of 'Do unto others' we literally fought for every point! I've also bouted on the Banked track with AZDD's Wrecking Crew vs. Oklahoma's Red Dirt Rebellion Rollergirls. It was in my freedom to explore the various elements of modern Roller Derby that I truly fell in love with the sport and it's Culture. Unlike the highly regulated and 'set in stone' nature of the WFTDA standardized rule set, our ultimate aim is to allow change and progressive evolution to continue the sport's development through selection and use of what we believe to be the best and most entertaining elements from all the various manifestations of the sport.

As for specific regulatory differences between our own (WI) RVRG Bout specific rules and those of the WFTDA standardized; some include fighting. We train our Ladies to safely initiate and /or defend in a fight situation, and understand that emotions can sometimes run high. Furthermore, we see sanctioned aggressiveness to have been much of that which made old school Derby a household name in previous decades. Some Leagues and styles sell sex, we sell violence and a more punk rock DIY ethic... Some pick apart opponents over minor penalty infractions, we strive to out-skate, out-maneuver and out-heart our competition.

Of course, in our Rules there are still regulations regarding fighting and all other aspects of play, and you still get penalties. In our game 3 minor penalties make a major. Our Major ( Non Fight participation ) penalties last the entire two minute duration of the subsequent jam. We do jumps, take downs and fancy whips, and REAL fights happen, sometimes even in the penalty box! We have Track Security refs to break up the fights and to ensure the safety of both Skaters and spectators.

Our penalties are imposed at the beginning of each subsequent jam, with none entering or exiting the track once the jam is started .There is no point of no return, no skating around the outside of the track to get to the box etc. If the Lead Jammer is going to call off the jam in our game, they have to be on their feet and in bounds! Our major penalties for fight participation require 5 minutes in the box. ( The equivalent of two full jams, with the two 30 second formation allowance times. )

Q: How are they the same? 

The game is still Roller Derby. We skate fast and turn left! All the rules are similar with regard to positions, engagement, formation, timing and scoring. We require the same safety equipment,(mouth guards optional). We utilize quad roller skates, of course, and our official track dimensions are the same. We have 30 seconds between jams, whistles and on skates Official's directional and communicative gestures match and only Team Captain or designated official representative can communicate directly / dispute with the refs.

Q: What do you believe are the keys to victory for your team on Saturday?

The keys to victory are definitely knowing the rules, avoiding the commission and /or receipt of the myriad minor penalties that resulted in at least two of our blockers occupying the box throughout most of our previous Bout vs. D3 and hitting hard to stop them from scoring!


Q: Who do you expect to have a big night?

Every member of our league wants some! We have all been training really hard for this bout! Des Moines will also enjoy Rock Star treatment, before and after the bout, as we believe in honoring the duties incumbent upon any Host!

Q: What are the areas your team is strong in? 

We are a very well rounded team, with super fast, agile Jammers and very effective hard hitting blockers.

Q: Where do you think the team needs improvement? 

More bouts will give them more experience and make them even more badass skaters! This is our first season and already our skaters do more on the oval than some very seasoned roller girls that I've encountered.