LITTLE ROCK — A young roller derby team in Cabot just won its first bout - with a team from Poteau, Okla. - and plans to begin its fi rst offi cial competitive season in January.
Girls Rollin’ in the South (GRITS) are women who live in and around Cabot and don’t want to drive long distances twice a week to practice with the roller derby leagues in Little Rock, Fort Smith or Fayetteville.
“We’ve only been around since March,” says Bailey “Daisy Fever” Fitzpatrick, team captain. “Our website just became active in the last month.”
The GRITS women work out from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday and Wednesday at Joyland Skate Center in Cabot. They are seeking new recruits, and invite anyone who thinks she’d like to play the rowdy contact sport to join them at any practice session.
They won their Rookie Rumble Royale on Oct. 16, defeating the Mountain Gateway Sisterhood of Steel (SOS) in Poteau, 120-83.
“As of right now we’re actually training a lot of new girls. We just had our fi rst scrimmage with about 10 girls who have been with us for a while, but we’ve had six or seven new girls come in,” Fitzpatrick says.
The team has a coach (Fitzpatrick’s husband) who helpsbeginners master “the basic skating stance, how to do the stride through the straight-aways, working on crossovers, and we do squatting and skating in a pack with new girls,” she says. “There’s some girls that come in knowing how to skate, and there are things we can work on with them - skating faster, more endurance.
“But several of the new girls are just having a tough time being on their skates. That’s where we teach them how to push out with their skates and how to cross over properly. When the new girls get pads and gear, we can teach them how to fall properly, how to give and take hits - the basic skills.”
The league is more than willing to train mothers with young children and lifelong nonathletes who have sit-down jobs.
“Even if they’ve never skated a day in their life, we will teach them how to skate, and no matter how long it takes, we will work with them,” Fitzpatrick says, adding that she had never worn a pair of skates or played any sport before she became intrigued four years ago while watching a documentary series about roller derby on cable TV.
She joined and then dropped out of two (short-lived) central Arkansas leagues: She became pregnant not long after joining each of them. But she developed enough skill and experience toeagerly undertake the project of forming a Cabot league when a friend proposed it at the end of 2009.
“Our dues are only $10 a month, and your first month is free. We focus more on fundraising than on asking for dues from our girls.”
The league will hold a Fall Festival fundraiser from 1 to 5 p.m. Nov. 14 at Joyland. “It’s going to be like a carnival that you’d see in the elementary schools,” she says. “We’ll have carnival games, bouncy houses, a cakewalk, a silent auction.
“We’ve also held car washes. We actively help in our community as well. Our rink owners don’t charge us a rink fee, so we work with them and help maintain their rink. They had their house destroyed by a tornado a few months ago, so we had a fundraiser for them. And we’re working with the animal shelter and we’re talking to Hope’s Closet about helping to get donations together for the holidayseason.”
Although they’re looking around for a larger rink in which to hold bouts, “we will always practice at Joyland,” she says, because its owners, Brian and Delana Knight, have become the team’s best friends. “We will always be loyal to them,” she says.
That’s just the way they roll.
More information is at [email protected], girlsrollininthesouth.com and on the league’s Facebook page.
Feet and wheels
Main Street Russellville’s Downtown Fall Fest will once again include a 5K footrace and the Tour De Pumpkin bicycle ride.
The 5K will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, followed by a 1K kiddie run at 8:45. The 14th annual bike tour - which is not a race - begins at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Russellville Train Depot downtown.
The River Valley Runners will conduct the 3.1-mile footrace on a flat, fast course that begins and ends at the depot. The fi rst three overall men and women will take home awards, as will the first three masters runners (age 40 and older) and the fi rst three fi nishers in fi ve-year age divisions. The fastest three male and female walkers will also win awards.
In the 1K run, awards will go three deep for boys and girls in these age divisions: age 4 and younger, 5-6, 7-9 and 10-12. The fastest three boys and girls overall will win awards.
Registration costs $15 ($10 for age 12 and younger). Race-day registration will cost $20 and will be accepted beginning at 7 a.m.
More information is at mainstreetrussellville.com.
In the Tour de Pumpkin, cyclists have their choice of 17 or 30 miles, each course with maps and road markings, aid stations and sag wagons. All riders must wear helmets.
Cheery people will hand out door prizes after the ride. There will also be awards for the youngest male and female participants, best costume, participant who lives farthest away and so forth.
Registration, which costs $20, will be accepted from 7 to 8:45 a.m.
More information is available from Poppa Wheelies bike shop at (479) 890-6665.
Crystals
Forty-fi ve runners competed in the fi rst Run for the Diamond Trail 5K at Jessieville last fall. But if 100 racers turn out for the Paul Bewie Boys and Girls Club fundraiser Saturday, volunteers will be ready for them.
The 3.1-mile course, partly road and partly trail, begins at the Ron Coleman Mining quartz mine on Little Blakely Road in Jessieville and runs on roads and trails to the boys club. A shuttle will carry racers from the club to the starting line at 7:45 a.m. The race begins at 8.
Registration, which costs $35, is available online at bgclubon line.com (under “What’s New”) and on the club’s Facebook page.
ActiveStyle, Pages 24 on 10/25/2010