Fridays after school, while most OVS students go home to sleep and study, OVS ninth graders Keely Howell and Delaney Hanson strap on their skates and drive down to Skating Plus in Ventura.
For both girls, it’s not just a stroll around the rink.
For the next hour and a half, the girls will smash, push, and scratch just to make it past the blockade of opponents and score a point for their team.
Keely and Delaney play flat-track roller derby for a West Coast Junior Knockouts club team. Last season their team traveled to Washington D.C. to attend nationals, and this season the team is currently ranked fourth in the nation.
Freshman Delaney Hanson (in pink) shows just how tough you to be to step onto the roller derby track.
Both girls have been skating roller derby nearly their whole lives. Delaney watched a friend play and soon joined the sport herself at only 9 years old. Keely took up roller derby after being inspired by her cousin, who also played.
“I used to be a cheerleader,” Keely said, “but roller derby just sounded better.”
Decades ago, roller derby was at its height. With more than five million viewers, the sport was a large source of sports entertainment for Americans from coast to coast, according to the National Roller Skating Museum
Originating in 1930 by Leo Seltzer and Damon Runyon the sport began as a couples endurance competition in Chicago where teams could circle a rink for 57,000 laps, a distance that was said to equal a trip across the United States, according to Britannica. The sport’s popularity has wax and waned over the decades, but it hit new heights in 2004 when a group of women in Austin, Texas, launched the Women’s Flat Track Derby Assn. (WFTDA), a group dedicated to promoting and revolutionizing the role of women in the sport.
The WFTDA has more than 400 members on six continents, according to the WFTDA website.
Delaney and Keely compete with the West Coast Junior Knockouts and are a part of the Junior Roller Derby Assn., which has more than 100 teams in the United States. The girls often have to travel hours to compete in a singular game due to the scarcity of teams.
West Coast Junior Knockouts practice three times a week at Skating Plus in Ventura. The Juniors Knockouts have two teams, the Uppercuts and the TKOs, on which Delaney and Keely compete.
Delaney’s mom, Laura Hanson, knows her daughter has always been a daredevil and after running into an old friend and learning about a children’s Roller Derby league she was certain Delaney would love it.
“Knowing my daughter and her desire for high action, high-speed kind of activities, I thought she should give it a try,” Ms. Hanson said.
Delaney tried it. And she loves it.
One part of Roller Derby that both the girls value is the community’s diversity and inclusivity. From their colorful jersey to the close friendships formed in the sport, the community is extremely accepting.
“I’m really good friends with a lot of the girls on the team,” said Keely
Roller derby is a very high-risk dangerous sport that presents a risk of injury. Parents often worry about their kid’s safety but Ms. Hanson doesn’t want that to stop her daughter from doing what she loves.
“The possibility of injury is real but there’s possibilities of injury with a lot of things,” Ms. Hanson said. “So I don’t think that should prevent my daughter from pursuing something that she loves.”
Throughout the two 30-minute halves there are many rounds in which a “jammer” tries to make it through a blockade of “blockers.” The blockers use their bodies to try and prevent the jammers from passing through.
Roller derby is a very competitive and aggressive sport in which injuries are not rare. Keely, aka “Killer Kiwi,” and Delaney, aka “Cinderhella,” had their first game and win of the season on October 14.
“Derby’s like football on skates minus the football,” Keely said.
Recently, the small team from Ventura traveled six hours to the town of Lodi to play the Lockeford Little Rascals where they emerged victorious, beating them 307 to 78.
“We came in not knowing what to expect as we had never played the team before,” said Delaney, who was recognized as the MVJ (most valuable jammer) for the match. “But once we got the hang of it. It was a really fun game.”
Weeks later, the Junior Knockouts emerged victorious 196 to 194 after a close game against Major Turbulence.
The competition isn’t going to get any easier, but Keely and Delaney wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’m super excited for this season and I’m confident in our team and that we will make champs again this year,” Delaney said. “I’m curious to see what the competition has in store for us.”
