Derby brats love hard knocks

Most people would consider a contact sport like women’s roller derby to be something only for the adults.

Just don’t tell that to the Seattle Derby Brats.

Seattle’s junior league, consisting of two leagues of girls aged 6 to 17, practice every Friday at the Lynnwood Skate and Bowl. They play as one of three junior derby leagues in the Pacific Northwest with many more growing.

And don’t let the cute faces, face paint and glitzy helmet stickers fool you — the girls’ favorite reason to play is pretty unanimous.

“I love to hit,” said 11-year-old Audrey Vann, who plays under the alias Audrey Headburn. “That’s really it; it’s so fun.”

In its second year, the current group is the brainchild of Krista LaFontaine, better known to the girls as Betty Ford Galaxy from the Rat City Rollergirls. According to her, the idea of a roller girl league started as an after-school program at Pathfinder Alternative School in West Seattle.

“They needed a coach,” she said. “One of my friend’s kids went to school there and told me about it and I volunteered.”

The program started while being limited by size and experience. According to LaFontaine, as the girls further learned to skate, the school became too small to continue.

“I decided to move it to a rink and open it up and just start it on my own,” she said.

The group consists of two groups of two teams each, divided by age. The older group, aged 11 to 17, consists of the Poison Skid’dles and the Evil Angels. The younger group, aged 6 to 10, is known as the TooTsy Rollers. As for recruiting fresh meat, as the Rat City girls like to call it, LaFontaine’s had few problems, if any, finding enthusiastic girls.

“It’s just like any sport; they have their heroes in the adult leagues that are their favorites,” she said. “I think six of the girls came from (Pathfinder), one girl saw our documentary and didn’t even know there was a junior league; her dad researched it for her.”

In addition to the appeal, several girls have parents that are either derby fans or even derby players themselves. Twelve-year-old Taylor “Lilly Lightning” Williams started alongside her mother, Brianna, who plays under the name Anna Mosity for the Jet City Rollergirls in Everett’s league.

“It’s cool to see her in roller derby,” Brianna said. “It’s boosted her confidence. She comes to a lot of my team things and practices, it’s something she loves.”

The derby brats also include sisters Olivia “Liv Vicious” and Chloe “Victoria Deck’em” Wake. Chloe, the oldest girl on the team at 17, started after a growing interest from her 11-year-old sister and the enthusiasm from their father, Mark.

“It’s taught me a lot more things than I thought I knew,” Chloe said. “This is the most young kids that I’ve been around, so it’s gotten me to learn to communicate with them better; it’s good to have some younger friends in the group.”

The sisters play on opposing teams, sometimes both as jammers, yet they both claim there’s no rivalry.

“It’s just fun to have your sister to compete against,” Olivia said. “I guess there’s kind of a rivalry, but it’s more sisters than derby.”

One of the true challenges with the Derby Brats is finding a stable location and players making the commute. After Pathfinder School, they moved to their first rink in Bellevue before finding a new place in Lynnwood. Even then, people come from places like Tacoma to play here. One girl comes from Index, but is sidelined with a broken arm — not from roller derby, LaFontaine quickly adds.

“The commute to get here really sucks,” said Brianna Williams, who lives in Fort Lewis. “There are other leagues down there where we could definitely play, but these ones are much better, so the drive is worth it.

In the center of it all stands LaFontaine, who has served as a huge inspiration for the girls.

“She really knows how to work with kids, and she’s good at being one of the kids when working with us,” said 12-year-old “Poison” Izzie White, who was among the very first girls to be a part of the league at the Pathfinder School. “Seeing her as Betty Ford Galaxy is awesome, she’s the same person when she deals with us.”