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• Millicent

  yeah!!!! Go Rock Coast Rollers!!

• Anonymous

  Yeah Baby………….
  Big Legged Emma in action.
  My kinda woman.

• Millicent

  “It just shows that you don’t have to be skinny and 115 pounds to be an amazing athlete.”

• Anonymous

   you go  girls

• PabMainer

  There’s nothing better than a little friendly competition…..and someone to keep you warm on a cold winter’s night…..

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJYZV7JWWJCPG7BX65EM6UOHZ4 Skowhegan Resident

  I love Roller Derby! I went all the time to see the games at the Boston Garden

  Who remembers San Francisco Bay Bombers?
   Joanie Weston?
   http://derbymemoirs.bankedtrack.info/mem_Weston_Joan.html

• Moose

  That is so true. I was just having fun and as a kid I used to watch it all the time and it was fun. They are strong woman to beable to do that. I wish they would play up this way I would go watch them.

• Pamela 058

  I think its great…lol

• Anonymous

  I remember the SF Bay Bombers!  Some friends and I went to some of the matches in Oakland when I was in the Navy.  What fun we used to have.

• Millicent

  I bet you wouldn’t last 30 seconds out there with them.  Roller derby women come in all shapes and sizes, just like everyone else. These women work hard and are very agile on their skates, and love the game. They also participate in community and charitable events. To mock them says an awful lot about yourself. 

• Anonymous

  I see my friend Jen!!  Go Jen!!!  :)

• Anonymous

  Double post, go itchy trigger finger.

• Anonymous

  So you won’t comment on someone’s character or morals, and that somehow makes commenting on a stranger’s physical appearance acceptable? Please reread Millicent’s initial response; not all derby girls are small, nor are all derby girls large.

• http://twitter.com/CherryClobber Jennifer Begley

  My thighs certainly may roll like thunder, but that’s ok.  I love them. My thighs are strong.  They are powerful.  They make me more agile. They get me where I want to go on the track, and they most definitely are an asset when it comes to knocking my opponents to the ground.  I am not now, nor will I ever be, a thin lady. But I play roller derby.  In derby my curves: my child-bearing hips, my thunder thighs, my voluptuous booty? They are celebrated  for all of the amazing, powerful things they can do.

  To you? My thighs  may be things to poke fun at. To joke about.

  And that’s fine.

  Because to me? They are fabulous. Derby has given me the confidence to know that even though I am not a size 2, even though my thighs roll, I am beautiful. And strong. And capable of amazing things.

• Anonymous

  Cat fight on wheels!

• Anonymous

  Confidence rocks!  You go girl!!

• Anonymous

  Looks like a blast, wish we had one in Downeast!

• Anonymous

  Well I guess we have different views. I want to stay a size 3, I walk, run and eat healthy. Being over weight has a tremendous strain on your heart and  joints–to name only a few. You may have a different view when you are 50′s-60′s and you cant walk with your grand kids.

• Anonymous

  Here’s the thing: Not everyone is designed to be your size 3. It’s as much in how we’re built, as it is how we treat our bodies.

  With that in mind, you can certainly say what you please and judge as you like. But it’s exceptionally bad form to edge toward catty, and just bad karma in general. Have you ever been to a derby bout before? These girls train exceptionally hard, and skaters who are serious about their sport earn the title of athlete. That doesn’t mean they’re going to be the aforementioned 115 lbs. as matter of course — quite frankly, the muscles you develop when you play derby prohibit most women from being that tiny.

  The long and short of it is that you don’t know these women any more than they know you, so blanket judgments and blanket statements are as disappointing as they are rude. I would honestly recommend that you try attending a bout and seeing the sport for yourself before you commit to being judge-y re: other peoples’ appearances. If nothing else, you may find it to be a fun experience.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VANZLIHKQPPLZPYRZHKFC3MDTM Kim

  Bones are for dogs! :)

• Anonymous

  Hahahaha… OK, CCS.   I don’t think anyone debates the health issues of being overweight.  In my opinion, what you just did was the equivalent of telling a racist black joke, and when called on it, said “Hey, well, you know… I have black friends.”
  It’s pretty easy to snipe at people when you are doing it anonymously over the internet.  I bet we wouldn’t see 90% of the hatred and insults if people were required to use the real names (which Jen and I are both doing, unlike yourself… coward).Wouldn’t it be fun to see a picture of you up here for all to comment on?  Wouldn’t it be interesting if you were brave enough to train hard and venture onto the track and compete?  Or even use your real name?

  I have full confidence that none of those things will happen.  

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJYZV7JWWJCPG7BX65EM6UOHZ4 Skowhegan Resident

  I like to see Nascar drivers and fans put on some skates on and try going around in circles with  these female roller derby players  …BAM!  pow! zonk!

• Anonymous

  yup..that is right..and meat is for man..:0)

• Anonymous

  but it helps.

• Anonymous

  I have a helluva time trying to think of more than the smallest handful of sports where weighing 115 lbs. will get you anywhere other than soundly thrashed.

• Anonymous

  Please don’t resort to cheap shots. If you want to make a case for derby, do. Goodness knows that it’s a case of ‘the more love, the better’. But fighting rudeness with rudeness isn’t going to get derby or derby girls the credit and positive attention which they deserve.

• Anonymous

  As is the point I was making: that unlike a wealth of sports, derby is extremely accommodating toward a wide variety of body shapes and sizes, provided you’re willing and able to put in the effort toward training. And like any serious sport, the training is hard as hell. Strapping on a pair of skates and zipping around a track is nowhere near as easy as it looks — that’s payoff from hours upon hours of drills.

  I think it’s fairly obvious that obesity is often detrimental toward good health. That said, at the risk of repeating myself, we’re not all built to be the same size, and that can also apply to skaters who bust their tails during the aforementioned training. I would really and truly suggest that you consider attending a derby bout, just so that you can appreciate the full scale and spectrum of what’s involved. There are tiny girls who play derby, there are big girls who play derby, and the joy of this game is that you can be either. So long as you put your everything into the sport, the details don’t particularly matter in the face of a player’s skill.

  All that said, a moment to be blunt: Regardless of what someone looks like, regardless of whether your “thunder thighs” comment — and that’s *all* the comment was, nothing useful or otherwise constructive prior to it being deleted and you being prompted to talk — was true, it’s still a shitty thing to say. Not because of it being true (or not; take a look at some of those photos, they’re clear examples of skaters running across the body spectrum), but because it’s all you bothered to say. I’m not a big advocate of banal homespun phrases, so I won’t throw “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all” out there. Instead I’d suggest that if you don’t have something constructive to say, bite your tongue for a moment until you can actually contribute.

  That also goes for those of you who are hurling insults, instead of looking at this as an opportunity to share the derby love.