Mia Engel was just looking for something to get out of the house, maybe a pottery class. Instead, the legal secretary and mother of two has turned into SlaughterGirl.
“You put on some fishnets and a short skirt and tight top and get out there and you’re another person,” she said.
The Secretaries of Hate meet Scare Force One on Saturday at the Dulles Sportsplex in Sterling, Va., as women’s rollerderby returns locally. The DC Rollergirls four-team women’s league offers a “peep show” matinee at 4 p.m. before starting its season on April 21.
There’s Mother Clucker, Camila the Hun, Guantanamo Babe, Beltway Betty and Summer Fling. The crowd favorite may be Speedy Gonbraless.
They are mothers and wives, college graduates and free spirits from 18 to 41 with a penchant for racing around the flat track faster than Michael Weiss on wheels. There are jammers, blockers and pivots … oh my.
Longtime Washingtonians remember Saturday night rollerderby on Channel 20 as great theater. The new sport is more athleticism than acting, but it’s still fun cheering on the DC DemonCats versus the Cherry Blossom Bombshells or Scare Force One and Secretaries of Hate. Come on — what GS-er working 9 to 5 doesn’t like Secretaries of Hate? Engel’s two boys (“Hatertots”) and her downtown law office mates at Bach, Robinson and Lewis will be among the expected crowd of 1,000.
“There will be a lot of family and friends and half of everybody’s office,” Engel said.
And maybe some Marines. Shannon Flowers is a military wife whose husband is stationed at the Marine Barracks in Quantico, Va., after recently touring Iraq. The 31-year-old mother of three learned self defense moves for the bout from her husband, who will also referee. “Miss Priss” of the DC DemonCats grew up watching her mother compete in California.
“I am totally stoked over this,” Flowers said. “We’ve been training for a year. I know we can do this.”
All good drama has its heroes and villains. Rachele Huelsman is “Harley Quinn” — named after the Joker’s sidekick in Batman. The former figure skater who works for a homeless coalition and notes “first kisses” among her myspace.com interests figures to draw the crowd’s interest as a jammer.
“I hope no one boos me,” said the woman who’s sporting a bruise the length of her arm from a recent bout. “I’m not so tough, though I’ll hit somebody if I have to.”
Alter egos sometimes overtake true identities. Several skaters no longer remember teammates’ real names. Scarlett O’Snap of the Bombshells won’t even recall her own legal identity, saying she has been transformed by rollerderby.
“I tried kickball in Adams Morgan and was discouraged by the sexist attitudes, beer slinging and lack of actual physical exertion,” she said. “Maybe I didn’t even realize it at the time, but I joined because I needed something to give me confidence and boost my self esteem. And derby did that for me.”
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at [email protected].
