Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(Epic Background music.)
(ACDG Derby girls chant.)
(Santa Cruz Derby Girls chant.)
Announcer: Picking up another 4 points, a huge jam for Angel City!
(Epic Background music continues.)
Female Announcer: Candy Hooligan
Male Announcer: Candy Hooligan with some jammer on jammer action!
Male Announcer: Fightin' for it!
Female Announcer: She almost gets stuck back in the pack...Ohhh!!
...goes down at turn four!!
Male Announcer: Kristi Yamagotcha is through the pack, she is lead jammer
Female Announcer: Annie Hooligan is right behind her.
Female Announcer: Black Star Heroine - lead jammer for ACDG
My husband filmed a game up in Seattle, and came home and told
me about it and I looked it up and I was like, 'I gotta do this!'
and so I started Roller Derby.
Interviewer: How long ago was that?
Four years ago.
Interviewer: Four years ago? Chica Go Lightning: Yeah.
Yeah.
Interviewer: You've played for ACDG for four years?
No, No. This is my third season with ACDG. I skated up in
Seattle for a little while, and then took a break and came down here. Yeah.
Interviewer: How about you?
I started in New York. Heard about it from a girl I played hockey with.
Got invited to a fundraiser and the rest is history.
I played in New York at Suburbia Roller Derby for two years.
And then I moved out here and... played for...this is my third season also
Chica Go Lightning: Yeah, we actually joined (ACDG) the same month.
The strategy of the game has changed.
When I started it was a really fast game, and all I had to do
was avoid the hit and be fast.
Now there's all this strategy of slow walls, and you have to really
break through and it's different for jammers.
I know for blockers it's a slower game too. It's slowed down.
It's smarter. Much smarter. Chica Go Lightning: Yeah.
Announcer: Referree's calling no pack... releasing the jammer...
Where's she gonna go?... Where's she gonna go??
Black Star Heroine: The slow strategy, actually it's western derby but it's not us.
We didn't originate it, but we are learning from people in the west who
started this idea of just slowing everything down instead of racing,
building a wall instead of going individually.
The culture has changed to though. Interviewer: How has the culture changed?
Well before it was alot about underground culture.
And now we've really gotten into this competitive sport.
We really want to be taken seriously.
Less maybe now about the DIY kinda culture, more about
the kinda getting it out to people, getting people excited
about watching the sport.
Interviewer: DIY? Chica and Heroine: Do It Yourself.
The old school punk scene is really what started derby, like
safety pinning your number on, showing up to practice whenever,
very punk rock. It's (now)a true sport. We train alot.
There's alot of camaraderie. There's alot of sportsmanship now.
Like you can't tell a ref...anymore, (hand motion..flipping him off)
and you used to be able to. Chica Go Lightning: Yeah.
Male Announcer: No penalties yet I'm surprised. Are you?
Female Announcer: Yes, after one jam I expect so many penalties.
Male Announcer: Sooo many. Female Announcer: Yes, sooo many.
Female Announcer: Lulu Lockjaw on the outside for Santa Cruz.
Getting waterfalled out by ACDG's front line.
Female Announcer:She does make it out and is lead jammer for Santa Cruz.
Female Announcer: Team Cruz in full support of Lulu Lockjaw's lead jammer status.
Male Announcer: Kristi Yamagotcha is still trying to make her way
through that pack. She's out!
Female Announcer: Getting a good assist by Duchess Von Damn at the front.
Male Announcer: Both jammers on their scoring run.
Male Announcer: Oooohhh! Female Announcer: Lulu hits a
3 wall at the front. Sends everybody down.
Interviewer: How do you deal with someone alot bigger than you?
You're small framed? How do you hit just as hard as them?
I put all my weight into it and I just go for it.
Just go in for the hit,get 'em on their leg, and knock their feet
right out from under them.
Definitely, and positional, like we're both faster on our feet than
alot of these bigger girls. So you just gotta get your foot in front of
them and your hip in front of them and you got them.
It's positional and then impact. Chica Go Lightning: Yeah.
(hard driving electric guitar music)
You can't let the bigger girls intimidate you.
Female Announcer:Black Star Heroine just scored a Grand Slam for Angel City.
Announcer: Ghetto Fab-ulez! (crowd cheers)
#402 Go Go Gidget! (crowd cheers)
2009 was our rough year where we lost 8 veterans.
We had a bunch of transfers. But we were playing with a team of
nine people against Atlanta and it was brutal but
you know this change has been amazing. We've grown from it.
And we've bonded. Chica Go Lightning: We rebuilt.
It's a totally different league. It's a totally different team.
It's like so positive and we're all focused.
And we all have the same goal in mind. Instead of being the one
and only. We're a unit. Chica go Lightning(CGL): Yeah.
Interviewer: What do you get out of Derby?
Well, I mean, you see the camaraderie. You know the
sportsmanship, exercise, and all those things you get
but you also learn how to lead. You learn how to teach. You learn
how to sacrifice. You know it helps you in all aspects of life.
Like it's a support system that I would never have expect that, not
that I would have never expected but I wouldn't be able to be
in LA if it wasn't for ACDG and these girls really rallying around
and helping each other in hard times. It's like a family.
and a support system. And we spend so much time together.
It's like we're all sisters.
Yeah.
Black Star Heroine: Look at these jerks.
Black Star Heroine: Sorry. Interviewer: That's ok.
Black Star Heroine: This is also why we do Roller Derby. Because
it attracts amazing idiots like this.
Interviewer: When you retire from playing do you think you'll become coaches?
(laughs)We already are. CGL: Yeah, I mean we are
and it's difficult you know the more I think I need to do
my life, I'm like, I have to work roller derby into it.
because it's such a big deal in my life that I just can't
imagine like you know letting it go. So you know, it's like
do I wanna go to school or give up roller derby? And I'm like I
I don't think so. So it will definitely be around for awhile.
(music)