Ruby Roughhouser of local roller derby league Eves of Destruction (photo by John Robertson).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nRoughhouser says that when she saw the movie, she was turning 30 and had a bucket list of things she wanted to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had had some issues with my own mental health that had just been resolved,\u201d she says. \u201cI was feeling good, feeling happy, with a new zest for life. I had seen this movie, and I had also seen an advertisement for a local league. I thought, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m going to do it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roughhouser says that the only skating she had done before was as a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe nice thing about derby is that no matter where or when you join, there is always a \u2018fresh meat\u2019 group,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey will teach you to skate. Then they will teach you to derby. Then, well, then you play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roughhouser says that while lots of people know how to skate, knowing how to derby is another thing entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo be able to derby, to manoeuvre, to hit people, to think while you skate\u2026 Your body is doing one thing, your brain is doing another. It\u2019s very complicated,\u201d she says. \u201cSo that\u2019s why you can\u2019t just skate and jump in. You\u2019ll get hurt. People get hurt anyways, but you would really get hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roughhouser broke her leg in 2016, and re-evaluated her derby involvement\u2014for a second. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had to question how much do I really love doing this,\u201d says Roughhouser. \u201cA few people think you are crazy for going back. I\u2019m lucky I have a supportive husband and a really supportive daughter. It\u2019s clear too, though, when someone has a passion, something that they have done on an every-day basis for eight years, it\u2019s obvious it\u2019s something they love doing. So it really wasn\u2019t that hard for them to support me in that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roughhouser says roller derby is also a great tool for dealing with the unpredictability of regular life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a lot of nurses, caregivers, a lot of frontline workers of the opioid crisis playing derby. We have mothers, teachers, and non-binary folks, as well. You have a hard day and feel like you need to hit something. It doesn\u2019t come from a place of anger, though. It comes from a place of celebration, of what you have found your body can do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eves of Destruction roller derby
5 pm Saturday, May 18
$10, Archie Browning Arena
evesofdestructionrollerderby.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whenever a person hears the words \u201croller derby,\u201d there\u2019s a very specific image that comes to mind. It\u2019s an image of angry women\u2014women you don\u2019t want to offend\u2014pushing and clawing their way around a rink. There\u2019s an aura of mystery around it too, and everyone who hears those words is instantly curious. That\u2019s why when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,231],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-may-15-2019-issue"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17667,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17665\/revisions\/17667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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