by Logan Gruber
A few times a week, Tami Johnson and Nicky Lahr strap on skates and get rough-and-tumble in a roller derby at River’s Edge Convention Center in St. Cloud.
Johnson, a Sartell resident, and Lahr, a Sartell native, are St. Cloud Area Roller Dolls. S.C.A.R Dolls was founded in 2011, and is the first and only women’s flat-track roller-derby league in central Minnesota. S.C.A.R. Dolls, a non-profit, was created as a chance for women in the St. Cloud area to participate in a modern roller derby.
Johnson
Johnson has been a S.C.A.R. Doll for about four years. She is a skating official/referee, which means she keeps the other skaters in line while they play very intense matches.
During normal play, a position called the “jammer” attempts to pass the opposing team’s “blockers” as her own team’s blockers attempt to stop the opposing team’s jammer. Each team deploys one jammer and a team of blockers during a match, so each team is playing both offense and defense at the same time. Each team has up to 14 players who field up to five members for each two-minute jam. As many jams as possible are fit into two periods of 30 minutes each.
Johnson’s roller-derby nickname is Dita Von Payne. Players tend to choose roller-derby names to play under, many of which are creative examples of word play with satire, puns, alliteration and allusions to pop culture.
“I didn’t know a soul before I joined,” Johnson said in a Newsleader interview. “I saw a flyer at the gas station by my office and walked into practice a week later . . . I knew learning to skate would be a challenge.”
Roller derby is currently one of the fastest-growing sports in the world with more than 1,450 amateur leagues currently in existence and new leagues forming all the time, according to the S.C.A.R. Dolls website. The S.C.A.R. Dolls field two teams, the Pin-Up Prowlers and the Gargoyle Brigade. These two teams face off against each other at home. There is also a traveling team which faces off against other regional teams.
“I love the gals I skate with,” Johnson added. “We have a great group of supportive and encouraging women – not just on the track but life in general. They’re friends, not just teammates.”
She is also proud of the way the group supports the community.
“We’ve gathered school supplies for kids, items of need for the humane society, hosted a blood drive, skated with the Girl Scouts, done photo booths for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk and much more,” Johnson said. “Last weekend we plunged for Special Olympics to help out fellow athletes.”
The S.C.A.R. Dolls designate a charity for many of their events.
Special Olympics Minnesota is the charity for the home team playoff game at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27 at the convention center, where the Gargoyles will face off against the Prowlers. There are many local St. Cloud faces among the two teams.
Johnson said a typical roller-derby match in St. Cloud can bring in more than 700 spectators. If it’s your first time at a roller-derby match, be prepared to be overwhelmed.
“We get kids involved with programs, have a great half-time show and have a lot of fun playing,” Johnson noted. “I think people who have never seen derby might be surprised that it is a real sport with real rules. The skater names might surprise people, as well as our ’boutfits,’ or bout outfits.”
Johnson said she loves the S.C.A.R Dolls are like a family and says it’s nice to have women lift each other up instead of tear each other down.
Lahr
Lahr’s derby name is Sybil Disobedience, and while she is a Sartell native she currently lives outside of Holdingford.
“I wear a star on my helmet which indicates I’m a jammer,” Lahr said.
She is on the Gargoyles’ home-team this year, and she is the co-captain for the traveling team this season. She has been with the S.C.A.R. Dolls for about three years.
“I was really not into sports in school and definitely not as an adult,” Lahr said. “Derby seemed like more than just a sport though . . . It was a community of supportive women who just so happened to hit each other. Derby also seemed to be something unique which would push me out of my comfort zone.”
Lahr says she doesn’t know what she would do without roller derby.
“I stay in for the exercise and for all that we do as a league for our community,” she said.
Lahr said she once broke her leg while doing warm-ups for a tournament in Iowa. It was her first broken bone and first ambulance ride. After surgery and some physical therapy though, she was right back on the track.
“It is a real athletic event . . . we aren’t punching and tripping each other, but we are strong athletes,” Lahr said.
The S.C.A.R. Dolls Facebook page indicates they are recruiting both skaters and volunteers to be referees, scorekeepers and other positions. The season runs from September to May, with clinics and boot camps in the summer for new recruits. You can find out more about joining or watching them on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SCARDolls.