The Secret Lives of Derby Divas
By Jolie Myers
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Thousands of women across the country are joining a revival of the full-contact sport made popular in the sixties and seventies: roller derby. Derby girls of the new generation fight it out on the track during monthly matches, or bouts. But they’re also fighting to balance day jobs with their derby nights.
Sheila Noonen of the Los Angeles Derby Dolls slips her fishnet-clad feet into a battered pair of skates as the announcer’s voice echoes through the cheering crowd. She is wearing hot pants and heavy makeup. For Noonen — better known as Haught Wheels — it’s game time. Her team, the naughty cop-themed Sirens, is last year’s reining champion. But the undefeated girl-scouts-gone-wrong Tough Cookies are looking to keep their winning streak alive.
Miniskirts, stage makeup and campy theatrics collide — quite literally — during bouts at the Doll Factory. Right now, Noonen says, she’s suffering from a bruised knee.
But she has to manage another clash off the track: Before she assumes her derby alter ego, Haught Wheels is Ms. Noonen, a popular high school English teacher.
The disconnect between her day job and her night life is apparent. But souvenirs from her violent bouts sometimes follow her into the classroom. Worried students forced her to come clean about her after-work activities.
“I started showing up banged up, and they were unbelievably concerned for my safety and well-being,” Noonen says. “And so I explained, ‘No, I’m just playing this game; I fall down a lot. I’m actually doing the hurting to myself.’ Luckily you have to be 21 to come check out our games, which makes me pretty happy, so I don’t have to worry about any of them showing up while I’m still competitive.”
Like Noonen, most skaters have to reconcile derby with their careers. Meghan Gaynor is a West Hollywood librarian by day; Judy Gloom comes out at night.
“I work in a library,” she says. “How much more sedate can you get than that? And then I… come here in the evenings, and take bitches out,” she says laughing. “It’s a completely different world.”
Gaynor says a lot of people talk about how roller derby helps them get their aggression out, a kind of personal therapy on the track. “Yeah,” she admits, “I guess that applies for me too.”
The Tough Cookies beat Noonen’s Sirens in a come-from-behind victory. There were some hard hits and some bruised egos. But for the Derby Dolls, winning is doing what you love — whether by day or by night.
Tags: jolie myers, LA, roller derby
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