More from The Q&A: Brooke Burleson
The Oklahoma Victory Dolls are doing a benefit roller derby bout tonight to help out Tahirah Johnson, who was injured during a bout a couple years ago.
It’s also a great opportunity to ask Brooke Burleson all sorts of crazy roller-derby-related questions. Known on the track as Sally Strych9, she is one of the original members of the Victory Dolls and helped to form the league in which they play. Even though she is now one of the league’s top players, she didn’t start out so well.
She needed a donut after her first practice, in fact.
Jenni Carlson: Tell me how you got involved in this.
Brooke Burleson: My husband. He went to Austin and saw a roller derby bout. I was on vacation with my girl friends, and he went on vacation with his guy friends. I was in Puerto Vallarta, and he went to Austin. And they got drunk and went to a roller derby bout. He came back and was like, “I saw these girls on roller skates, and they were awesome, and you have to do this.” I was like, “OK, I’ll check into it.” Then, I became obsessed with the idea of playing roller derby. I didn’t know how to roller skate. I haven’t roller skated since I was a kid, and then, I was awful. And I’m a klutz. But I was talking to my friends, “Let’s start a roller derby league.” And I was not athletic at all. Never had been to a gym. I was trying to find somebody to start a league with me. Then … I found the Green Country Girls in Tulsa and they told me about a league starting here. One thing led to another, and I started skating, and I was awful. I was the worst one at practice. Our coach found me and was like, “I’m going to teach you how to roller skate.”
JC: It’s like you’re back in elementary school learning how to skate for the first time.
BB: I was terrified. There’s all these big, mean, scary looking girls. I had these skates that I bought at Academy for like $30, these white, Roller Derby brand skates, and they were these fake artistic skates. I was so embarrassed, and I was terrified. They all looked so mean. And I came out here and I broke my tailbone first practice.
JC: You did?
BB: First practice. I was so embarrassed. I was so scared of every single one of them, but they wound up being the nicest girls ever. I was like, “I can’t believe I was scared of you guys. Why was I scared of you?” I realized size has nothing to do with it. Looks have nothing to do with it. It doesn’t matter. That’s the great thing about roller derby. Everybody’s accepted no matter your size, your race, your sexual preference. We’ll take anybody. Old. Young. It doesn’t matter.
JC: I hope you haven’t had any more broken tailbones.
BB: No, but that took awhile to heal. I had the donut for awhile. They don’t make those in a non-obvious color. It’s like bright blue, carrying it around with me.
JC: So, your skate name is Sally Strych9, but what’s your favorite name on your team?
BB: I like Mount Crushmore. It’s all about her personality, too. She comes up with the best names. We’ve just decided that she should just name everybody coming in. She has come up with some of the best names. She named one girl Party Pants, which is pretty funny.
JC: Do you feel like certain names bring out certain personalities? Like with yours, did you feel like you had to play a certain way as Sally Strych9?
BB: Maybe in the beginning, but not really. I would be fine using my real name. Some people are going to that now. We’re trying to get taken seriously as a sport. In the beginning when roller derby was kind of coming back, it was kind of about the show of it, the fun and the campiness. But now the focus is really back on the sport. A lot of people are going back to their real names. I could go either way, so for me, I’m pretty much the same on the track as I am off the track. I could be Brooke Burleson. I would be fine. I would like to see it go that way eventually because I think we’d get taken a little more seriously.
JC: Do you think that respectability has gone up?
BB: For sure. A lot of leagues nationwide are finally starting to get coverage in the sport section. We’re finally starting to get coverage on ESPN. MavTV is starting to cover nationals. We’re a member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which is a national governing body. It took a lot of work for us to get accepted. There’s 400 leagues worldwide. There’s 78 leagues that are part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. It’s a pretty elite group of women. We’re the only league in Oklahoma City that competes on a national level. We’re the only nationally ranked team in Oklahoma City. We traveled all over the country to play. So, yes, I do think we’re getting taken seriously as a sport, not just nationwide but worldwide.
JC: What does it take to play with you guys?
BB: A lot of work.
JC: I’m thinking practice, cardio, weights.
BB: It’s a time commitment. It’s more than fun to us. It’s a lifestyle. We practice in our offseason now two to three times a week. We have to do on our own the other days a week training on our own. During on season, we are constantly training. We have to travel. We have an all-star team and a recreational team with a little less time commitment. That’s just for people that wanna have fun.
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i love that roller derby is being covered: i liked reading about brookes donut: too i hope to see more