Kaylee Remington
Ohio.com
Photos by Hilary Demko
The sound of squeaky wheels and the rolling of skates echo the gym floor where the Rubber City Rollergirls practice. Thirty women are lined up against the wall and push off to gain momentum to barrel into a punching mat. Some nearly knock their coach over and others wipe out from the freshly waxed floor.
Falling isn’t a problem and the women who do get right back up effortlessly in line.
A lot of time and motivation is needed to be on the RCRG roller derby team, but that’s not all these women do. Their lives involve more than just skating and the occasional bruise.
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Already into her third season with the RCRG, Christy Huckabone, 24, always had the dream of playing hard. “Ever since I was little I grew up watching WWF big-time wrestling and I truly thought I wanted to be in the WWF as a female wrestler,” Thunder says, her derby name. “The closest wrestling school at the time was in Ohio Valley.”
She saw a banner of the RCRG on the back of a car and checked it out.
“These ladies were real. The shoulder checks, hip checks and can openers are all real, and all for charity,” she says. “It’s a big commitment, but it’s a lot of fun.”
She doesn’t have children or a husband to worry about, but she is a sales and service manager at Snap Fitness in Kent when she’s not skating. When she gets an injury during a practice or a bout, it’s not as hard to explain to her job since she works at a gym. During a practice, she flipped over another roller derby member, Sin City, and split ligaments in her right hand. The team had to send her to the ER during practice. “It was pretty funny,” Thunder says. “I had to wear an ACE bandage to work and I told them, ‘well, I flipped over a girl.’”
Despite the bumps, bruises and scars that are involved with the commitment, Thunder enjoys the competition, team and organization as a whole. “It’s not just a team, but good friends.”
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26-year-old Kerri Sturgeon, Georgia Roll-mero, does a lot of, well, different things in her life. For one, she is a cake 
decorator at Streetsboro’s Wal-Mart.
“A lot of people are amazed I do this,” she says. In addition to being on the roller derby team, which she joined in August 2009, she is also in a analog pop band with her husband, Matt, called Sharpe Tooth.
With all these responsibilities, Georgia Roll-mero doesn’t have a lot of free time.
“Sometimes I just want to sit around and do nothing,” she says. Although she doesn’t have kids to worry about, she does have two cats, Bava and Fulci, to tend to. “They’re my babies,” she says.
Her sister first put the thought of roller derby in her head. When she thought it would be something she would be interested in, she went to open skate. There she saw a poster for Akron’s Rubber City Rollergirls team. It had been 11 years since she put on skates, but she contacted them anyways.
Georgia Roll-mero says she’s had her share of injuries, but one that stands out is from a time she went to open skate to practice from her 11-year hiatus. She had tripped herself and her left leg turned black and blue. “I called it my zombie leg,” Georgia Roll-mero says.
Georgia Roll-mero is happy she put back on the skates. “When I joined, I thought there would be drama,” she says. That wasn’t the case. She says even though there are two teams, the AK Rowdy Rollers and the Rubber City Renegades, “both teams work well together.” “It’s possible to have two really good teams,” she says. The women who make up the A team are those with higher skill. Those in the B team can move up. Even though there are two teams, both show great skills.
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Sarah Sexton, otherwise known as Shady Gaga, skates away from practice to rest. Shady Gaga, 21, is a full-time Kent State University student majoring in graphic design. She joined the roller derby team in May 2010 after meeting another team member, Krakatoa at a party. Since then, she knew it was something she would love to do.
“It’s absolutely insane,” Shady Gaga says. With the team, school and her job at Lawrence Adams Design Agency, she doesn’t have much time for anything else. “If I do have free time, it’s usually on the weekends,” she says. Most of her free time includes going to the movies with another roller derby team member, Snowfight. “I’m really close with all the girls,” Shady Gaga says.
Having other obligations means having to explain the battle wounds the women get from bouts and practices. Shady Gaga remembers her mother’s concern following a black eye.
“’Did someone hit you,’” her mom asked. “No, mom, someone hit me with their elbow at practice,” she explained. As far as her job goes at the design agency, she isn’t too worried about explaining her injuries. “My job knows I do this,” she says.
Shady Gaga says it’s an interesting relationship, different from the normal family. There is strong sisterhood among the women. “It’s kind of hard when you need to hit each other, but we know it’s not intentional,” she says.
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A recent addition to the RCRG team, Kris Ledford, Vixen, has wanted to experience roller derby since her grandma talked 
about it to her as a young girl. Now, she says, it is her outlet to become Vixen and no one else. When the 38-year-old isn’t Vixen she’s a wife, a homemaker and a mother to two sons, Brandon, 18, and Kyle, 4.
Roller derby has been a place for her to find comfort and relaxation from some of the events that have happened in her life recently.
“We have been through very traumatizing events this past year and a half,” Vixen says. “My son Brandon was hospitalized in September of 2009 and put on the heart transplant list.” Now long after did Brandon receive a heart April 30, 2010. Vixen says it really changed the way she thinks. “I still worry daily, but I am just trying to live as normal as possible. Derby lets me do that,” Vixen says.
Despite all that’s happened, Vixen says her family supports her love for roller derby even though there are injuries that come with it just like with any other team member. Vixen remembers knocking a right rib out of place. “My chiropractor had to pop it in a month later because my muscles were so tight,” she says. Another time she got a large bruise on her back. “I showed that with pride,” she laughs.
Whatever the injury is, Vixen lets her youngest son Kyle know that’s how they play the game. When Vixen is watching a roller derby video, Kyle is almost always by her side watching with her.
