Skating since: June 2014

What made you get involved in roller derby?  I've always really loved roller blading, and I was doing a little of it on my own and mentioned it to a friend of mine (Whiskey Ginger). She told me all about how Rocktown was having open intake and convinced me to try it. I came to one practice (having no clue what derby was) and I was sold! 

Favorite Derby Memory:  My first practice scrimmage is, at this point, my favorite memory. In particular, one of my first times jamming sticks out in my brain--at one point I managed to break the pack and snag lead jammer and it was a great feeling to start my scoring pass!

Derby Mantra: My mantra plays off The Great Taylor Swift's immortal song "Shake it Off"--
"Haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate but baby I'm just gonna skate skate skate skate skate, skate it off, skate it off!"

What has been your biggest challenge?  I had a really hard time getting the hang of transitions. Crossovers, jumps, laterals, one foot glides… All of that came really easily and pretty quickly, but it took me months  and months to get transitions! We would start working on transitions in practice and I would fall every time--I had some HUGE bruises from that. One day they just really suddenly clicked, and I was over my mountain!

What are you most looking forward to about playing derby?  I'm just really excited and ready to see all of my hard work and training go into play in an actual game. I've learned it--now I want to play it!

Likes: freshly washed gear, jamming, suicide drills, aquarium keeping, cold weather, and bad sci fi 

Dislikes: tearing leggings during practice, lunges, changing bearings on my wheels, being outside in the summer, and celery

Real job: I'm a full time undergrad college student at JMU, as well as a part time employee at a Sunday School as well as a local daycare.

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