The Appalachian Hell Betties have a new floor to help them raise hell on competitors.
Coach Shelly “Vodka Tonic” Tracey said the floor will allow the team to hold bouts, or competitions, anywhere. The new flooring is made up of 1 square-foot plastic sport panels. Tracey said the floor cost about $4,500.
“A lot of people were hesitant to roll on their floors because they were afraid we will scratch them,” Tracey said.
Tracey said it is her fifth season as the coach, but she skated for two seasons as a Bettie.
“Roller derby is the most empowering sport ever,” Tracey said. “It’s the best thing for female camaraderies. It’s a game where people gather points by skating in circles past the other team.”
The Hell Betties play about six games in a season, with 20 to 30 active members on the team, Tracey said. This year the team will play 11 games, which run March through November.
Tracey said the league was created in 2010, and the team’s name came as a play off “Appalachian Hillbilly” as a way to bring positivity to the area. It is a full-contact sport in which members are not allowed to use their hands to get past the other players.
“One game and you’re hooked, always,” Tracey said.
Erika “Dazey Lovedirt” Galentin joined the Hell Betties in 2011. She’s 38 years old and a clinical herbalist. She said roller derby gives her a powerful feeling that allows her to not think about the outside world.
“I think one of my favorite parts is the fact that I feel like who I am, a person, is that I need to be able to get up and go to war sometimes,” Galentin said. “I have the opportunity to express a warrior goddess side of myself that I don’t normally get to express.”
Galentin said for her and a lot of others on the team, members join during tough times in their lives.
“I had gotten out of a bad relationship; it was really a low time in my life,” Galentin said. “I had low self-esteem and was kind of broken … I joined roller derby because it was community. It seemed like people who were trying to achieve the same thing and fire through, and the phoenix rose.”
The game is hectic and chaotic, yet it remains controlled. Galentin said it’s a dichotomy of wild chaos.
“You have this yin yang experience of it,” Galentin said.
Liz “Bruzer von Hammerstein” Hammer plays as a blocker for the team. She’s 32 and the director of finance for a solar racking company. Hammer said she started roller derby in October 2013.
Hammer said her job is to keep an eye on where the pack is during the match and see what is happening while blocking the other team.
“There are four blockers on the track at one time,” Hammer said. “Each team fields a jammer. Within those blockers, there’s also a pivot, and that person is kind of like a lead blocker, and that person can also switch out to be a jammer.”
Hammer said being a member of the Hell Betties has been a journey about figuring out herself, both mentally and physically.
“I really enjoy working with the new skaters and helping them figure out those things about themselves too,” Hammer said.
The Hell Betties’ next competition will be against the Marietta Hades Ladies on April 14.
