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| Photography by Russell Reno Photography |
Jeremy
Whitley, KindleSparx: Hi Teresa, thank you so much for agreeing to
talk with me. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and Loco City Derby Girls?
Teresa Wright, Co-Founder of Loco City
Derby Girls:
Thank you for your interest in roller derby and giving us the
opportunity to spread the word. I’m just a normal, family-oriented gal; I have
a son, with a daughter on the way. For my full-time job, I manage a small
dentist office, here in Lodi, California. Growing up, I was always very
athletic. However, when I became an adult, the opportunity to participate in
sports sort of fell by the wayside. I’ve done marathons and adult softball, but
nothing really pushed me physically and I missed the team aspect and the
competitiveness of my youth. Loco City Derby Girls (LCDG) is Lodi’s women’s
flat track roller derby team! We just started the team in late 2014 and had super
successful 2015, 2016, and 2017 seasons—we are really looking forward to more
growth and exposure during 2018, so this interview opportunity presented itself
at the perfect time.
KS: What sparked your interest in roller derby
and how did the team get started? Could you give us a little background on the
derby landscape in the area?
LCDG: One day, while being a couch potato, I came
across a few documentaries about roller derby on Netflix. I searched up local
roller derby online and found Port City Roller Girls in Stockton, California. I
went to one practice to watch, showed up to the next one with cheap Big 5
Sporting Goods skates, and the rest is history—5 years have gone by in the
blink of an eye! I skated with Port City Roller Girls for 3.5 years before a
friend of mine contacted me about a team in Lodi she was looking to start up.
She asked me to be the Vice President of the league and together, with an
awesome team of coaches, LCDG was born from a fresh bunch of recruits from Lodi
and the surrounding area.
KS: That’s so inspiring! So, this may be a little
personal for you, anything you want to say about this would be great. Why not
just stick with Port City Roller Girls? Why go to the trouble to start your
own?
LCDG: My friend Anne and I skated for the Port City
Roller Girls and decided we wanted to go a different direction business-wise. We
both felt the team could be an outlet for community outreach as well as
empowering for women. Like I had mentioned, she is the one who made the big
move and called me up one day and said, “Well, I got the business license,” and
we went from there. With her degree in accounting and mine in business, and our
history of skating together, we really make a good duo on and off the track. We
recently celebrated the team’s 1st birthday, and we honestly
accomplished so much in this first season. We obtained our non-profit status as
well as being accepted into the WFTDA Apprenticeship in 2016—we spent the 2016
season working hard to obtain our full “member league” status. We are the
first, and only, Central Valley roller derby team to accomplish both,
non-profit status as well as WFTDA association, and this was just our first
season!
KS: To be able to accomplish all of this in one
season, you must have a great community. Tell us a little bit about their
involvement and what you do to give back.
LCDG: Lodi has really accepted the team, with an
outpouring of support at our bouts (games). As a result, we had 2 teams in the
2016 and 2017 seasons. We will operate under the league name, Loco City Derby
Girls, but will have a “home” team comprised of the “C” level skaters, and a
“travel” team, comprised of the more seasoned skaters. We will let them come up
with the team names and take a vote; we let the girls vote on pretty much everything,
it helps them to feel in control and empowered and gives them a sense of
ownership of the team.
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| Photography by Russell Reno Photography |
Anyway, we have something that we call the LocoCollective. It basically
represents anything we do in the community, which would be considered charitable
or giving back. It’s a play on words, we are Loco City, but we used it to
represent Local—so instead of Local Collective, we created this whole hashtag
frenzy #LocoCollective. We have donated to the Lodi Santa Truck, Animal Friends
Connection, Case4Kids (suitcases full of goodies for foster children), Ruth’s
Room (same idea, only instead of foster kids, it is geared toward
underprivileged teenaged girls), Lodi House, 180 Teen Center, and a bunch of
smaller foundations.
KS: What advice do you have for anyone interested
in getting involved? Are there other areas besides skating that someone can
participate? If someone does want to join the team, are there openings? What are
the procedures and requirements?
LCDG: It takes a lot of guts for people to even show
up to roller derby practice for the first time. Most are super nervous and very
intimidated. My advice to anyone interested in getting involved is to just
believe in you! We are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit
for. The team doesn’t expect you to know how to roller skate, let alone know
how to play the game. We are fully equipped, and more than willing to teach
anyone what they need to know to not only start but to excel.
I
had never even seen roller derby in person before I showed up, and I kind of
think it was a good thing. Had I gone to a bout beforehand, I may have never
had the courage to skate onto the track myself. I guess my official advice
would be to check out our Facebook page, check out our website, and send us an
email to find out a good night to show up to practice and watch. Our doors are
open at all times to anyone interested. You could even come out to a bout at
the Grape Festival grounds in Lodi to check it out, but like I said, that may
have been a deterrent for me; you will see a lot of hard hits and falls and at
that point, you don’t realize that these girls have been training to know how
to do everything safely.
Many
people show up to derby and decide rather quickly that the athletic endeavor,
along with the commitment required, is a bit much for them, but have met so
many awesome people that they decide to become off-skate volunteers. Our league
is a non-profit organization, so we absolutely need, appreciate, and LOVE all
of our volunteers! Our off-skate volunteers are an integral part of our team
and we would definitely not exist without them. Many people (both male and
female) choose to become referees for the team, which is an on-skate, official
position that does not involve the full body contact that a player encounters.
If anyone is interested, there is training available to be successful as a
referee as well.
KS: You must know a lot of roller derby ladies. Are
there any predominant characteristics you've noticed in ladies who
gravitate toward this sport?
LCDG: There are a lot of different personalities
that show up to derby. Some gals are there for the, how do I say it nicely?
Male attention the sport gets. Those women don’t typically last too long
because it really is hard work and that idea of fishnets, boobs, and butt
cheeks is a thing of the past. Other gals show up as like, mid-life crisis type
of situation. It is very common for ladies that are unsatisfied at home to show
up to derby, become empowered, make changes to their personal lives that they
were unable to do before, skate a season or two, and then move on to the next
thing. I figure it served its purpose for them, helped them find their inner
hero and do what they needed to do to find fulfillment in their lives.
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| Photography by Russell Reno Photography |
For
those of us who have stuck it out season after season, it is totally and
completely because we are bat-shit crazy about our fitness, female empowerment,
and being strong role models for the women and girls within our community.
These ladies are always, always, always incredibly industrious; they tend to be
the ones to get things done in all aspects of their lives and are usually very
well-rounded—derby is only one of the awesome things they do!
KS: How many girls are on the team? How often do
you recruit?
LCDG: At this time, we have approximately
twenty-five active skaters, a handful of referees, as well as a family of
devout off-skate volunteers. Like I said before, our doors are one hundred
percent open at all times to anyone who is interested in the league. We do hold
official recruitment events a few times throughout the year at the Grape
Festival grounds in Lodi, California. This would be what we lovingly refer to
as a “fresh meat” recruit night. Zero experience is necessary and it is more of
an information gathering night, although, if you are comfortable and equipped,
you are more than welcome to skate. On these nights, you get to see the team in
action, find out what it takes to be part of the league, and learn more about
what types of positions within the league would best suit you.
Here
is a link to the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/148302322191940/
KS: What about men? Are there male or co-ed
counterparts to LCDG?
LCDG: Men’s Derby, or as we lovingly call it, Merby,
is a growing sport! The closest men’s team that I know of is in Antioch,
California. You are more likely to find co-ed teams simply because there are
still not enough men, all located within the same area, to make up a full team.
While LCDG is a women’s team, we do have many men that are part of the league,
mostly as referees; a lot of our gals play on co-ed teams in addition to our
women’s team.
KS: How likely are injuries? What are the most
common injuries?
LCDG: Injuries are very real, and do happen,
although the higher the skill level of your play, the fewer injuries you
experience. Broken ankles, torn rotator cuffs, broken collar bones, fractured
tailbones from falling incorrectly, busted noses, and road rash are among the
most common injuries we see. I know a girl that didn’t tuck her hands in when
she fell and lost a fingertip due to someone rolling over it—Roller Derby 101
is all about how to fall properly. However, when injuries do happen to your
teammates, we really rally around them. Things like take dinner to them the
first week or so, visit them in the hospital, cart kids to and from school,
fundraise to help them pay medical expenses, etc. That really is what makes
derby so special—there really is camaraderie of people that look out for each
other on, as well as off the track.
KS: I love the name, Loco City Derby Girls, where
did it come from?
LCDG: The name Loco City Derby Girls has actually
come to mean so many things since we first formed. Initially, Anne chose Loco
as a shortened term for locomotive, since the idea is that the league is made
up of people from all over the Central Valley and the railroad tracks symbolize
the joining of the different areas. Now, we play off of it because we are
straight crazy (or loco in Spanish) when we play. It has become part of our
team chant and when we skate out, we play the song Crazy Train, and it just
accidentally worked. We also incorporate it as a play on words for our
non-profit work, as I mentioned, using #lococollective anytime we do something
within the community.
KS: You all have such great derby names! Why the
pseudonyms?
LCDG: Honestly, I don’t agree with skating under a
pseudonym. I do it because that is how it is done, but I feel like it is
something that holds us back, prevents the sport from being taken seriously; I
really struggled with picking a derby name. I really wanted to be Nitrous
FoXXXide, but years ago when I started, there was a national registry, and you
could not have the same or a similar name to anyone else on any other team
anywhere in the United States. As the sport has gained more traction and become
more popular, the whole registry system has gone out the window and now players
just pick whatever name they want. I ended up with GingerFightis, which has
been shortened to Ginger and finally Gingypoo over the years. I have a
reputation for being the well-mannered derby girl (the nicest derby girl to be
afraid of). Some girls are really brave about their names and pick things like
“PantyRaider,” but I try to think about my kids and being a good example—what
if my grandma comes to a game? I wanted something everyone could feel
comfortable yelling from the stands. As a result, my family has pseudonyms as
well: Dad sometimes announces himself as “GingerPop,” my son has a shirt that
says “Lil Fightis,” and my bun in the oven already has a onesie that says “Baby
Fightis.”
KS: What kind of marketing do you do for LCDG? A
lot of our readers will be interested in getting their own names and shops and
causes out into the universe. We had spoken before and I know you said there is
an incredible turnout at the events. What is the average number of spectators
per event? How did that number grow over time? What advice do you have for
someone who is trying to promote something and get the word about what they
have to offer?
LCDG: We do anything we can to get our name out to
the public. Namely, we focus on events within the community. Getting the team
out into the public to meet people personally is invaluable. One real-life
event is worth more than 150 posts on any social media site. We have been able
to network with other local businesses, forging awesome relationships and
helping us to establish a pretty darn good reputation within the community. We
host bouts regularly each year, and our turnouts tend to be 350 to 500 people
per bout. I really think that our community has been starved for fun,
affordable, family-friendly events and things to do that are exciting; it’s
nice that we get to quench that thirst.
There
are many, many options and opportunities for businesses, big and small,
interested in working with the team. We have sponsorship levels that range from
$25 for a single event to $1000 for a season—some are even tax deductible. You
can check out our website for more information on that at www.lococityderbygirls.org.
For example, Stockton Railcar Repair sponsors me—he pays $500 per year to be
named as my sponsor. The business’ logo is on my uniform, the owner gets free
VIP tickets for the season, free advertising, and free representation at any
events he does during the season. His sponsorship pays for my monthly dues and
could go toward new equipment purchases, but I am pretty set on equipment, so
this year, I just donated the rest to the team.
We
are also open to listening to ideas, suggestions, and trying to cater to the
needs of individual businesses. As we are well aware, not every business model
is the same, so if we can work out something that is mutually beneficial than
you can’t beat a win-win.
KS: That sounds great! I am going to have to
think about doing a sponsorship or some advertisement. This is honestly
something that I had never thought of before, I’m sure there are roller derby
teams all across the country; which is virtually an untapped resource for many small
businesses.
Is there an opportunity for
an entrepreneur or small business to participate in the events themselves? I
know you had mentioned getting a booth or table to sell items during the
events. What all is involved in that and is this normal across the country at
similar events, you think? Perhaps this is an untapped resource for new
businesses to get inexpensive exposure?
LCDG: Having vendors at roller derby events is par
for the course wherever you may go throughout the United States. Hosting these
events comes at a substantial cost to the team, so offering vendor and
advertising spaces helps us to make it all happen. At our bouts, we typically
have a food vendor, beer and wine vendor, and offer “other” spaces as well.
Roller derby is an affordable way to get the word out about your business to a
hard-to-reach demographic that typically has disposable income.
KS: How much does a typical bout cost a
spectator?
LCDG: The typical cost all depends on the
spectator. If you plan ahead, early bird tickets are $10 each, which covers
come in, watch the game, and leave. However, there are very few people who just
do that. Our bouts have Mexican food, the beer booth I mentioned, snacks and
sodas, team merchandise, local vendors booths, as well as a “fan party” after
the bout at Take 27.
KS: Perfect! So, it sounds like it could serve as
a unique, fun date night—or a family-friendly outing that most people have
probably never thought of.
I want to give a great big
thank you to Teresa Wright, Vice President of Loco City Derby Girls, for taking
the time to talk with me and share your insight, and walk our readers through
the ins and outs of roller derby as a potential business opportunity as well as
a possible extracurricular activity or way to get or stay in shape that they
may have never thought of. Please keep us updated on any LCDG news and I will
be sure to share with our readers! I look forward to following up in the future
and checking in! I will definitely be coming out to a bout or two during the
2018 season, and I recommend everyone else in the area do the same. Even if you
aren’t able to make it to the Lodi area, maybe you will be able to see the 2018
“travel” team Teresa talked about or support a roller derby league in your
state.
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| Photography by Russell Reno Photography |
If you’d like more
information about Teresa’s team and everything we’ve talked about, and you want
to support them, please check them out on their website, their Facebook, and
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