NDIAN TRAIL –When one of Union County’s newest sports teams entered Kate’s Skating Rink recently to practice, players drew stares from kids leaving a birthday party.
“Who are they?” one child whispered.
“They’re the Roller Girls,” his father replied.
The kids and their parents have a right to be curious. It’s not every day you see a group of nearly 20 women in pink and black togs, many also sporting knee socks or fishnet stockings.
Meet the Sweet Union Roller Girls, a flat-track roller derby team. Its Web site says the new team is “jumping on the derby revival bandwagon.” They’re practicing now at Kate’s and plan to launch their season in January.
Union County seems an ideal fit for the roller derby league, according to Anna Matthews, president and founder of the Sweet Union Roller Girls.
“We got a lot of support, and I’m very excited about that,” says Matthews, a Marshville resident. “So many people in the community came together. We had probably 50 different vendors who donated to us. They’re so excited about seeing a new team.”
Not just a new team, but a new sport.
Roller derby pits two competing teams of women on an oval track, often in an indoor skating rink. Each team of five has one “jammer” who earns points for each person she passes in the other team’s “pack.” The pack tries to block the jammer. That action supplies the physical contact roller derby was so well-known for in the 1970s.
But skaters don’t make contact only on the rink. They also plan to volunteer at a local women’s shelter and participate in North Carolina’s Adopt-A-Highway program.
“We want to show people we’re here to help the county,” Matthews says. “We want to show other women in Union County there is something to do and also be positive role models.”
A degree of celebrity seems to follow the team, at least when the members are in character.
By day, Anna Matthews is a customer service representative. But when she laces up her skates and dons her helmet, she is Kamikaze Bomber.
