July 16, 2009
Heather Mead is rolling over the competition, literally.
Mead, rolling under the alias Blonde Bomber, is a member of the Red Dirt Rebellion Rollergirls based in Oklahoma City. Mead began participating in roller derby after a friend introduced her to some people in the sport and she said she loves it.
"I love to roller skate, I love the friendship and getting together as a league," Mead said.
Mead is one of more than 20 women in the Red Dirt Rebellion. If it wasn't for roller derby, these women could be confused for average Janes.
Mead is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, another member is a meteorologist, one owns a restaurant and another is a mother of five children. Their ages range from 20 to over 40.
They race on old-school quad skates and not only dress the part of hard-hitting roller derby women, but they have names to match.
Mead's teammates are known as Suzi Uzi, Roxi Horror, Nikki Knockdown, Sham Rock, Psychogenesis, Mary Rotten and Smackety Anne just to name a few.
The all-women roller derby began in Oklahoma several years ago, but Mead and the rest of the Red Dirt Rebellion are the first to compete on a banked track.
The majority of roller derby matches are on a flat track, which is an easier format because competitions - known as jams - can be easily set up by taping off any flat surface.
The banked track is a throw-back to the 1970's when roller derby began.
Banked tracks number in the mid-teens in the United States, one of which is owned by the Red Dirt Rebellion.
The differences in flat track and banked track roller derby is that the banked track skaters build up more speed leading to harder hits, bigger crashes and more points.
Roller derby isn't what would traditionally be considered a girls sport. It's more like a cross between hockey, football and NASCAR.
Hard hits and scary spills are par for the course with track rash and bruises as battle scars for the derby girls.
Track rash is friction burns on the arms and legs from hitting and sliding on the track from falling. Scoring points in roller derby is as simple as passing opposing skaters, but that is where the hard hitting action is.
There are five skaters from each team on the track. One pivot, one jammer and three blockers. Pivots and blockers from both teams make up the pack.
Pivots control the speed of the pack and jammers score points by continually lapping the pack.
Mead is a jammer for the Red Dirt Rebellion.
The jammer gets one point for each opposing player they pass but as they try to weave through, it's like trying to run the gauntlet. The jammer is hit, shoved and checked into the side by blockers trying to derail the jammer.
The jammer that laps the pack first is considered the lead jammer and can stop the match at any time as a strategic maneuver.
The scoring sessions last for one minute and are called jams. The jams are strung together into quaters; four quarters equal a bout. Bouts last for approximately one hour.
The Red Dirt Rebellions first home turf bout was held Saturday night at the Cox Convention Center. They hosted the Arizona Derby Dames. They also competed in Austin, Texas, at the Battle of the Bank II where the faced the LA Derby Dolls, from Los Angeles, Calif., and Hurricane Alley Roller Derby (HARD), a Texas team.
The Red Dirt Rebellion Rollergirls is a league that consists of three teams, the Motley Cruisers, the Machine Gun Maulies and the Twilight Riot. However, because they don't have enough skaters, they race as one team.
They practice on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays.
Sundays they encourage women to show up at practices to workout with the team. This Sunday, July 18, the Red Dirt Rebellion will be holding open tryouts for the league.
It will be held from noon to 3pm at 101 NE 16th Street in Oklahoma City (one block east of Broadway on NE 16th.)
For more information about Oklahoma banked track roller derby you can visit http://www.reddirtrebellion.com/
PICTURE CAPTIONS:
1) "Family Time" Heather Mead spends a few moments with her parents, Dr. Glenn Mead and Ann Mead at half time of the Red Dirt Rebellion Rollergirls home debut Saturday night in Oklahoma City.
2) "Speed Racer" Heather Mead, aka Blonde Bomber, speeds around the track in front of a packed house at the COX Convention Center in Oklahoma City in the Red Dirt Rebellion's home turf debut Saturday night.
