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Nov 29, 2008 1:02 pm US/Central
Roller Derby Is Pure Sport For Minnesota Couple
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) ―
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Close-up of the feet of Sasha Obama as she gets a hand roller skating at the Great Skates roller rink May 3, 2008 in Lafayette, Indiana
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The words "roller derby" usually conjure one or both of the following iconic images from the 1970s: Raquel Welch portraying a roller derby diva in "Kansas City Bomber," or James Caan's futuristic and ultraviolent "Rollerball."
But Michael and Mary Utecht of Brookston insist the 2008 version is more sport than the pro-wrestling-on-wheels sideshow roller derby evolved into during its '70s heyday.
"This isn't your mom's roller derby -- the face of the game has changed," Michael Utecht said. "It is played on a flat track now, not a banked track. There are rules. The girls are allowed to hit, but they're not allowed to elbow. There are no hits to the face, anything like that. They can't trip each other, tackle each other -- anything like that. Blocking is the main strategy.
"What kind of ruined the sport is they made it fake, like pro wrestling. Now it is pure athleticism."
The Utechts envision a day when roller derby is popular again and can carve its own niche in the sports world. Last year, they took over the fledgling local roller derby squad dubbed the Harbor City Roller Dames and hope to begin touring the region with a full team and eventually form a local league. Home base is in Superior, Wis., at World of Wheels, where Michael, 41, coaches the squad and Mary, 35 -- a former skater for the popular Minnesota Roller Girls in the Twin Cities -- is a team member.
One holdover from roller derby's glory days is the use of colorful nicknames. Mary's persona is "Pocahuntress."
"I chose that one because I'm part Native American and I like to hunt," she said.
Other members of the Harbor City Roller Dames include Monistab7, Daisey Duker and Crazy Stitch (who doubles as the team seamstress).
"Some people stay in character their whole life," joked Mandy Wagner, aka Daisey Duker. The 25-year-old from Hermantown skated on a Twin Cities team before relocating to the Twin Ports. "It's fun. It's like a whole different world -- a different name, a little bit different lifestyle. It's not usual.
"Once you are in derby, you're pretty much in derby for life. You'll hunt it down and find it."
Michael and Mary are constantly recruiting new team members, who often are new to the sport altogether. But the Utechts say there isn't a prototypical derby skater.
"You can be big or you can be small," Mary said. "We've got bigger girls and we have smaller girls -- they all have their place. All you need to be able to do is skate. That's the only requirement. If you can skate, you can play. I will train you to do the rest."
"First and foremost, we have to work on their endurance and their agility on skates," said Michael, who competes for the TC (Twin Cities) Terrors as G.I.$kooledya. "I teach them how to hit properly and how to fall properly so that they don't get injured. Falling is probably the most important thing that they learn how to do.
"We want to have a product that people are going to want to pay to see. They don't want to come see people who are shaky on their skates. They want to see a good fast-paced, hard-hitting, high-flying type of event, and that's what we're going to give them."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
