She returned to work last April after 9.5 years at home and still has not stopped.
Thirty-year-old Roxy “Loogie Vuitton” Al- pha of Allentown was searching out tattoos on the Internet when a link to the Rollergirls’ Web site popped up. “I couldn’t even skate on roller skates” at the time, she recalled, but found herself challenged to do something new on her own.
Now a full-time, dean’s list student of medi- cal technology at McCann School of Busi- ness and Technology in Allentown, Alpha credits her four years as a Rollergirl with transforming her life.
“It made me a better version of my old self,” she said. “I’m better now at keeping things in perspective, getting control over my emo- tions, thinking fi rst…strategizing my life.”
Today’s game is not your grandmother’s roller derby, not the bloodsport of elbow jabs, body slams and stretchers depicted in movies.
It has become considerably safer thanks to international rules against fi ghting, punching and throwing elbows set by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. But that doesn’t mean no one gets hurt. Gov- ern’s collar bone, broken in three pieces dur- ing a bout in 2011, is now held together by a fi ve-inch plate and four screws.
Searfass
broke a leg her fi rst year out. Alpha cracked a shin bone in half during a practice, and has broken a few ribs since.
Under association rules, fi ve members of a team can be on the track at a time, attempt- ing to block the opposing team’s scorer, called a “jammer.”
Teammates can hold
hands or bunch up to block, but at the same time, they are trying to help their own jam- mer break through, pass the competition and score. Jammers can be spotted by a large star on their helmets.
Action is fast and fun, even if you do not understand all the rules and ways to score. The women race counter-clockwise around the track (no one is sure how many miles per hour), with referees watching every move and sometimes sending player s to a penalty box. Points can rack up quickly and an an-
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