Chelsea Marqueda is a jeweler by day, but when she laces up her skates and hits the track, she is known as Little Miss Slamshine, or Slam. Marqueda says she fell in love with roller derby after seeing “Whip It!”, a roller derby movie starring Elliot Page. When she found out Greenville had its own team, she signed up. She joined the Greenville Roller Derby in 2019.

“I was looking for a community. There are not a lot of ways of making adult friends,” she says. “Roller derby let me check out something I wanted to try, but it was also a way to find new friends.” She enjoys the inclusivity and support of the sport. The team has taught her a lot about confidence and speaking up for herself.

“I love the physical contact. You learn how to hit people and it’s chaotic and I embrace that,” she says.

Greenville Roller Derby just announced dates for its 2022 season. This will be the team’s first time back in competition since October 2019. The first game will be at 7 p.m.  July 23 at the Pavilion at 400 Scottswood Road, Taylors.

Skaters range from 18 to 46 years old currently, but skaters as old as 56 have competed on this team.

Emily Mihelic, known as Abacus, is 36 years old. She joined the team in 2009 and has currently been on the team the longest. In 2007, she moved from Florida to Greenville, where she had her husband and job — but no friends.

She saw a roller derby tearaway flier at Starbucks and hoped it would be a cool group to join and get some exercise. She thought it was a skating club. At the first practice, she found out it was a full-on, full-body contact sport.

“I found out I could hit people, and it was wonderful, and I never left,” she says.

The roots of roller derby date back to the 1920s. The sport originally began as roller skate races, but by the ’30s had evolved into a more physical competition, with crowds cheering over collisions and falls. The sport began to be televised in the ’40s, but by the early ’70s roller derby’s popularity dwindled. It wasn’t until the 2000s that modern women’s roller derby got its start with the Texas Rollergirls in Austin, Texas.

By 2010, there were more than 450 flat-track roller derby leagues worldwide.

“I’m a regular person with an 8-5 job,” Mihelic says. “It’s nice to have a place to go outside of work and volunteer or enjoy myself on wheely shoes. It’s a rewarding thing to be a part of. This team gave me a community.”

Mihelic said she met her best friend on the team.

Greenville Roller Derby is not just a women’s club. Only those who are women — including any individual who identifies as a trans woman, intersex woman, and/or gender expansive — are allowed on the track to compete during games, due to international governing body rules for Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby, but Greenville’s team is open to everyone. There are close to 50 people on the team including practice-team skaters, volunteers, referees and coaches.

“Our team is gender-expansive and there is a whole family, DIY aspect to it,” says Mihelic. “If it weren’t for our partners, friends and spouses, we couldn’t keep the team going.”

Roller derby team member names are a rite of passage. After several name options, including some with expletives that her grandmother refused to shout in a crowded room, Mihelic settled on Abacus. The name was appropriately chosen because she works in accounting. During a bout, or game, you might hear something catchy from the announcer like, “Add them up and knock them down, Abacus!”

Names are chosen by the skaters, or one is given to you by your friends, coworkers or team. Sometimes the nicknames are a bit risque but are at the very least humorous. Barium Betty, for instance, is a chemical engineer. Janky Bangs always has choppy bangs across her forehead. Laughing, Mihelic said she can’t remember her teammates’ given names half the time.

New skaters are called fresh meat, or freshies. If they show up and stick it out through training, there is a place for them on the team. Hellvis, a retired team member, trains the new skaters. She doesn’t compete any longer, but she wants to stay involved. She teaches basic skills like how to skate forward, how to cross over for speed, how to give and take a hit and how to fall properly. Once you graduate from training, the real work begins. It can take six to eight months as a new team member to get off the bench.

“The key to training is to treat it like a real sport, to exercise and hydrate. People get out of it what they put in,” says Mihelic. “If someone is looking for something that makes them happy and a reason to get up in the morning, even if you don’t skate, there’s a place for everyone on our team.”

She warns that it is a legit sport with injuries, though. Skaters can, and will, get hurt on the track.

The first Greenville Roller Derby game will be July 23 at the Pavilion. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the game starts at 7 p.m. Games continue on the third Saturday of each month July to October at the Pavilion. For more information about Greenville Roller Derby, visit GreenvilleRollerDerby.com.

Flat Track Roller Derby is played on a flat, oval track. Each game has two 30-minute periods, broken into units of play called jams. Jams last up to two minutes, and there are 30 seconds between each jam.

During a jam, each team plays up to five skaters. Four of these skaters are blockers, which are called the pack. One skater is called the jammer who wears a helmet cover with a star on it.

The two jammers start the jam at the jammer line behind the pack and score a point for every opposing blocker they lap. They must make their way through the pack, then all the way around the track to score points on opposing blockers.

Although roller derby is a full-contact sport, skaters cannot use their heads, elbows, forearms, hands, knees, lower legs or feet to make contact with opponents. Skaters cannot make contact with opponents’ heads, backs, knees, lower legs or feet. Contact that is unsafe or illegal may result in a penalty, which is served by sitting in the penalty box for 30 seconds of jam time.

The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Correction: A prior version of this story stated only cisgender women are allowed to compete on the track in roller derby. All women, including any individual who identifies as a trans woman, intersex woman, and/or gender expansive, are allowed to compete. The story has been updated to correct the mistake.

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