Denver Roller Dolls take hits, dish out love > Adult > Stories > Denver

RECENT STORIES

Fifth annual Indigenous Film & Arts Festival ( Jeanne Rubin )
Police blotter: Woman shot in drive-by ( YourHub.com )
Historic debates challenge students' understanding ( YourHub.com )
Denver Preschool Program lifts early education ( James Mejía )
Walk to School Day a healthy step for kids ( Toni Gatzen, CDOT )

share a story | more postings »

YourHub.com \\ Denver \\ Stories \\ Sports \\ Adult

Denver Roller Dolls take hits, dish out love

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

NEXT › ‹ PREVIOUS

Contributed by: Eric J. Lubbers/YourHub.com on 2/20/2007

In a saturated sports scene like Denver's, where on any given night sports fans can find plenty of spectator sports to quench their athletic thirst, an upstart outfit has to have something pretty special to grab attention.

One local group seems to have figured out a winning formula: Girls in short skirts and rollerskates knocking each other around for a bit on concrete.

The Denver Roller Dolls, a nonprofit flat-track roller derby organization, celebrated Valentine's Day with their biggest bout yet, Bloody Valentine, at the Denver Coliseum on Feb. 16.

Don't be fooled by the vicious athleticism on the track; the Roller Girls are more than just a sports league. In many ways, the group functions a lot like a social club. Roller Doll Jersey Trouble, aka Jessica Reutlinger, one of the founding members of the Dolls, said that after finishing her master's degree at CU and spending her time rollerskating on the Boulder Bike Path, she was looking for something to fill her newfound free time.

"You meet people that normally wouldn't come into contact with each other. We have women as young as 21 and as old as 42," said Reutlinger, 25.

The Dolls, who as a league have been around since 16 members of the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls decided to start a league of their own in December 2005, have quickly built a strong fan base.

Cruisin' for a bruisin'

What:War on Wheels. It's revenge time for the Mile High Club, the Denver Roller Dolls' elite traveling team, as they host the Kansas City Roller Warriors, who beat them in their first out-of-town bout last August.
When: 7 p.m. March 9
Where: Denver Coliseum, 4600 Humboldt St.
Cost: $13 presale, $15 at the door, kids free

The evidence of the group's growing popularity is in the books. The group sold 1,932 tickets for the Valentine's bout and, considering the dozens of complimentary tickets and children, who get free admission at all Roller Dolls events, that puts the total well above the group's goal of 2,000 spectators. To put things in perspective, the last bout, December's Yuletide Beatings, drew about 1,200 ticket holders to the same venue.

So who are these new fans?

"When we started, we assumed our fan base would be in their 20s and 30s and mostly male," Reutlinger said. "But our largest, and definitely our favorite, group of fans, are the children, especially the young girls."

As a result, the group has tried to make their bouts as family-friendly as possible, Reutlinger said, with age-appropriate bands playing intermissions and even specific kid-targeted events, like the children's costume parade at last October's Halloween Bash.

A cornerstone of the Roller Doll experience is community service, according to Reutlinger. The list of organizations the Dolls either donate to or volunteer for is a who's who of metro area charities, including Family Tree, Project Angel Heart, Bonfils Blood Center and The Gathering Place in Denver, to name only a few. Future projects include helping political refugees and, as Reutlinger said, "staying very active in the community."

In the meantime, the league will deal with the other sign of their increasing popularity: new recruits. A tryout session last month resulted in a crop of nearly 25 rookie skaters, or "baby dolls," who need to be rigorously trained in order to pass the league's strict skating tests to be allowed on the track for a real bout.

Know your Dolls

Want to know more about your favorite Roller Dolls? Click here to see profiles of some of your favorite derby girls.

They can be found practicing most days at the Wagon Wheel in Brighton, which is owned and operated by a Roller Doll, Rockett, aka Jhantel Oberhill, who just this weekend showed what being a true Roller Doll is about.

According to Reutlinger, Oberhill, despite being nearly nine months pregnant, toughed it out and helped coach the Love Takers to victory at Bloody Valentine. The celebration went from being about a victory to a birth when she went into labor Friday night and gave birth Saturday morning.

"It's my new favorite story," Reutlinger said.
______________________________
To learn more about the Dolls and to see team photos visit denverrollerdolls.com.

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Current Rating

Based on 5 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.

SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY

digg	Google
del.icio.us	Yahoo!
reddit	newsvine

What is this?

STORY RSS FEEDS

All stories

All stories in Denver

All stories by Eric Lubbers

WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?

Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

Loading Ad