The idea of girls roller-skating may not sound intimidating — unless you’re on the rink with the local roller derby team, the Burn City Rollers.
The team’s first bout, billed as the Debut Taunt Brawl, is at 6 p.m. Saturday at The Skate Center on Opelika Road. The Burn will take on Baton Rouge’s Red Stick Roller Derby.
Carrie Holzmeister, whose derby name is Cho Cold, founded the 16-member team about six months ago. She had never played, but thought it sounded like fun.
“It was a complete and total whim,” she said. “Everyone thought I was kind of crazy. I realized right away that for a lot of women this was a niche for them that wasn’t really available in Auburn.”
First, Holzmeister learned the rules.
Two teams send five players onto the track. Three blockers (defense), one pivot (last line of defense) and one jammer (who scores) for each team.
The jammer attempts to pass the pack as many times as possible, scoring points in the process.
The pivot and blockers help their jammer through the pack, while simultaneously stopping the opposing team’s jammer.
“We practice a lot of blocking,” Holzmeister said. “No hands or forearms. You’re just trying to block them off balance, more of less.”
Only one girl on the team has previous experience in roller derby.
“We’ve had plenty who have never been on skates. It doesn’t matter what your skill level is,” she said.
The team is still recruiting players.
Tracey Collins, or Big Terrible Easy, played roller derby in Milwaukee before moving to Auburn.
“I went to practice a couple of times and fell in love with it,” Collins said.
Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $10 through the team’s Web site (http://burncityrollers.com/) or $12 at the door. Children 8 and under are free.
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