Pain on wheels

The Petal Roller Dome resonated with the sound of squealing skate wheels and scantily clad feminine flesh clapping against hardwood Saturday when the Southern Misfits, Hattiesburg’s roller derby team, trounced the Capital City Roller Girls 160 to 75.

The Misfits’ first home venue bout, as roller derby matches are termed, packed the rink with fans -- cheering under the flash of brightly colored tungsten light bulbs and singing along to the bout’s contemporary soundtrack.

“We beat them by coming together as a team, with every individual person working together to help us win,” said Amanda “Bulletproof Barbie” Jenkins, a Southern Misfits member since the team’s inception in March 2008.

“After we started scrimmaging with our team, we realized that we were all actually friends, and we didn’t just have a mutual attraction to roller derby,” Jenkins said. “I think it’s why we’ve lasted so long and gotten so good.”

Teamwork and camaraderie have played a central role in the Southern Misfits since the beginning, said founding member Courtney “Roxy Revolver” Germany.

One idle afternoon in early 2008 during Germany’s final semester at USM, she stumbled across a roller derby bout on television. Enjoying more free time than in previous semesters, she quickly found what she wanted to fill the void in her schedule with.

Following some Internet research, Germany discovered the Capital City Roller Girls and convinced friend Jennifer “Bianca Bullet” Devereaux to accompany her to a CCRG practice sion in Jackson, Miss.

“After we saw them practice, we knew we had to start a team,” Germany said.

The campaigning began. The two posted fliers. They paid for a newspaper advertisement. They told all their friends.

When the date set for the first recruitment meeting came, nearly 30 women showed up.

The Southern Misfits were born. But the first practices were tough for the team.

“I couldn’t skate at all,” said Germany. “I grew up on rollerblades.”

Through sharing the advice of coaches and players from nearby teams, the Misfits began to learn their way around the rules and strategies of the game.

The rules: Inside an oval-shaped track with a 236-foot outer circumference, two groups composed of members from each team skate laps. Four blockers from each team start first and stay in a pack. One “jammer” from each team starts later, and must pass the pack of eight blockers.

A point is awarded for each opposing team member a jammer passes, and the jammer in the lead can call the play to a halt at any time and claim her points. Elbowing, strikes to the back and tripping aren’t allowed.

But fierce elbows are on occasion thrown, and derbyers often fall down, sometimes producing the high-pitched oscillating squeak that comes with the friction of skin sliding across a high-gloss wooden floor. This means injuries can be a cause of concern for the Misfits.

The team has dealt with cracked ribs, shattered elbows, separated shoulders, broken ankles and one “grapefruit-sized bruise the girl had to have drained,” said Germany. Before the team’s first bout in January, Devereaux tore the PCL tendon in her knee and was out of commission for six months.

“I haven’t broken anything yet,” said Germany. “It’s really not as dangerous as people would think, though, because we’re padded from head to toe and we practice falling in ways that don’t hurt.”

Even though maple floors and what can add up to a 500-pound mob of angry opponents take a toll on the body, Devereaux, Jenkins and Germany all agree that roller derby is soothing to the soul, creating lasting friendships and positive character traits.

“Most of us didn’t have any female friends,” Devereaux said, “but since we got into derby, now we have 20 girls who are our best friends.

“I was a very shy and quiet person,” the Columbus native said. “I didn’t know how to take up for myself, but since playing derby, I know exactly what to say, how to say it. I have the confidence to do what I feel is necessary, and I think a lot of the girls feel the same way.

“We accept all walks of life. We take nurses, teachers -- I’m the mother of two kids. We have everybody on our team. The only requirement is that you have to be 18.”