Gotham producer ensures shows roll

Special to the Democrat-Gazette/ERIC FRANCIS
Leslie Garrett braids a player's hair before a Gotham Girls Roller Derby bout in May in New York. A former blocker for Central Arkansas Roller Derby in Little Rock, Garrett is the Gotham Girls' bout manager.
Special to the Democrat-Gazette/ERIC FRANCIS Leslie Garrett braids a player's hair before a Gotham Girls Roller Derby bout in May in New York. A former blocker for Central Arkansas Roller Derby in Little Rock, Garrett is the Gotham Girls' bout manager.

Leslie Garrett doesn’t skate anymore. After three years of rolling with the Brooklyn Bombshells in the closest thing to derby’s major leagues - Gotham Girls Roller Derby in New York - arthritis-induced joint problems made retirement a necessity last year.

But derby is too much of her life to simply let it go, so she has stayed involved as bout producer for Gotham Girls, taking care of a lot of the details that make it possible for the league’s four borough-based teams and two all-star teams to hit the track.

“I scout venues and I work with the coaching staff and president of the league to develop the schedule,” said Garrett before a match between the Bombshells and the Queens of Pain in Harlem earlier this year. “I secure contracts so we can play [in local college gymnasiums], I hire the truck to move the flooring in, the halftime entertainment, the sound equipment, announcers, video crew. … I even drive the truck sometimes.”

Known as “nameLes” during her days as a blocker, Garrett was born in Little Rock and grew up in Fort Smith. She was one of the first people recruited to join Central Arkansas Roller Derby, then helped found Little Rock Derby Girls. She moved to New York in 2008 and tried out for Gotham Girls the following year, skating her first bouts in2009.

“It’s fun and exciting and it’s the best form of exercise I’ve ever found, as far as keeping my interest,” she said. “Also, the camaraderie. I’ve always hung around with boys all my life, but this was a bunch of girls on the same wavelength as me.”

The difference between derby in Arkansas and New York is fairly profound, said Garrett, starting with just how seriously the Gotham Girls take it.

“There is much, much more serious athleticism,” she said. “We cross-train on land drills, jogging and endurance. The practices are extremely structured and focused on drills that improve skills. It’s coached very strictly. We practice more frequently, we practice longer, we practice harder.

“It’s just more serious about being a serious sport rather than a fun spectacle.”

A lot of smaller leagues still embrace that spectacle, what Garrett called “the punk-rockness of it,” with things like fishnet stockings and garish face paint. While she gets that, she fears it hurts the leagues that are trying to get their scores into the sports pages of local newspapers or get a mention on local television sports telecasts.

“Looking like it’s not serious makes it not be considered serious,” she said.

Garrett, who works as a registrar for a Manhattan art gallery, takes derby so seriously that she spends anywhere from 10 hours a week up to 30 (on bout weeks) on Gotham Girls business - all of it on her nickel. The league is run entirely by volunteers, and all the participants pay to play rather than collecting a paycheck. It’s a pretty steep demand on her time - and on her 2-year-old marriage to Dave Cunha - but she can’t imagine a life without derby in it.

And it’s a safe bet her husband’s OK with that. After all, they met at a party following a roller derby bout.

“He’s a huge fan,” she said.

ActiveStyle, Pages 32 on 09/09/2013

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