NEW EGYPT: Office workers by day, roller derby queens by night

by Peter Geier, Staff Writer
   Two Ocean County women are among many donning old-fashioned four-wheel roller skates and colorful monikers to ride roller derby’s new wave of popularity across New Jersey and the United States.
   Grettel Guerra, 32, a senior graphic designer at Tricore Interactive Inc. in Princeton, lives in Cream Ridge. Tammy Watson, 30, a customer service representative for New Jersey Natural Gas lives in New Egypt.
   The women are members of the Right Coast Rollers, a team in the Jersey Shore Roller Girls roller derby league that trains at Jackson Skating Center and is preparing for a bout this Saturday evening against the Murder Beach Militia at Asbury Park Convention Hall.
   Neither woman was athletic in her past: Both said that they were looking for a fun and energetic outlet and found a welcome place in the close-knit yet diverse world of women’s roller derby.
   ”Before I joined, I was about going home after work, making dinner, doing the laundry and cleaning up around the house,” Ms. Watson said. “My husband kept pushing me to get a hobby and I had no idea it would turn out to be this.”
   Ms. Guerra, who is single, said she always had found sports intimidating when she was growing up. But, she said, she had a lifelong love of skating, always felt confident on skates, and has been welcomed and encouraged by her teammates.
   ”Once (roller derby) started gaining popularity, it piqued my interest. I knew a couple of girls who were doing it and I went as a spectator,” Ms Guerra said. “I was worried about my age, that I never did sports before; is it more of a young person’s sport.” But she said she overcame her concerns when she joined six months ago.
   This ain’t yo’ momma’s rip-roaring roller derby.
   The sport — and participants insist that’s what it is —in its latest incarnation is more what Ms. Guerra refers to as “a controlled chaos” teamwork with attitude and high jinks rather than the hair-pulling, elbow-throwing mayhem of yore.
   ”This is a no-nonsense sport. Some girls are a little more theatrical than others when they get into their alter egos,” said Ms. Guerra, who skates as Mojito Blackout. “There’s a lot of creative freedom in how you express yourself, but there’s nothing fake about it; there’s no choreography. You’re really getting hit.”
   Ms. Watson agreed.
   ”It’s not just about knocking girls down — there’s a lot a rules about it,” she said. “It’s nothing like the 1970s when girls threw elbows into each other and pulled hair. There’s a strategic reason to hit people — a reason for everything that is done out on the track.”
   Despite rollers’ names studded with creatively aggressive hyperbole that reflect the sport’s bruises, thrills and spills, there is rigorous training and strict rules and regulations established by the Chicago-based Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. This organization, founded in 2004, places particular emphasis on participants’ safety and good sportswomanship, according to its Web site.
   ”It gets pretty fast out there and there’s metal on your feet. There’s a high likelihood of getting hurt and you can cause a lot of damage if you’re not trained properly,” Ms. Guerra said. “They teach you how to fall; there’s actually a proper way to fall: you tuck everything in and make yourself as small as you can.”
   The Right Coast Rollers offer three training sessions a week: two hours of endurance training on Monday evenings, and two hours of scrimmaging on Wednesday evenings to develop skills and technique. Beginners, known to the sport as “fresh meat,” train for three hours on Thursday evenings for three months before taking a skills test to make the team.
   There is a $45 a month fee to participate, and the women provide their own equipment. The league Web site says all participants must be at least 18 years old and have proof of health insurance.
   The team encourages participants to get in as much “open rink” skating as they can on their own time, Ms. Guerra said, adding that she spends six to eight hours per week of her free time on skates.
   Roller derby events are called “bouts.” Each bout lasts one hour. A bout is broken into three 20-minute periods within which are multiple “jams,” the basic unit of play, which last up to two minutes apiece, Ms. Guerra explained.
   Each team is composed of five players: three blockers, a pivot and a jammer. Both teams’ blockers and pivots skate around a relatively small flat track as a single pack, with the pivots in the lead setting the pace.
   The jammers, who are usually the teams’ fastest skaters, begin about 20 feet behind the pack, pass through the pack to commence scoring, and then score points each time thereafter when they pass an opposing team’s player in the pack as they try to lap the pack as many times as they can. The physical contact and strategy lie mainly in building or breaking up a wall of blockers as each team tries to help its jammer through the pack while blocking the other team’s jammer, Ms. Guerra and Ms. Watson said.
   The referee designates the first jammer to get past the opposing team’s pivot as the lead jammer.
   The lead jammer gains the advantage of being able to “call the jam” before the end of the two-minute period, which she does if she thinks that she has scored more points than her opposing jammer. The lead jammer calls the jam by putting her hand on her hips.
   Play stops either at the end of the two-minute period or when the lead jammer calls the jam. Referees then tally up the score, giving teams get one point for each opposing player the jammers passed during each lap, which is usually one point per player or four points per lap.
   Ms. Guerra said she looks forward to the vigorous exercise away from her sedentary desk job. Ms. Watson agreed.
   ”I love being a good wife. This is a bonus,” Ms. Watson said. “It’s great when I’ve had a tough day to get out on the track and get all my aggression out. In one week I’ve had more bruises than I’ve had in my whole life. It’s amazing!”