Roller Derby: More than Fishnets and Short Shorts

Stacie Rivera is a local wife and mother; a bookkeeper for a small family owned business. Her husband Jeff is a computer guy and firefighter. They live in an old family house in a neighborhood where kids ride bikes and play from yard to yard. Their children are seventh generation Red Bankers. They are the very model of the American dream.

"I love my life. I love living here in this town," Stacie said, "I wouldn't change a thing." But Stacie, one half of a project oriented couple, will admit that as her babies grew into children and now into their tween and teenage years, she wanted to do more. Her brother, an athlete and childhood "sparring partner" of her's, suggested women's roller derby and even bought her a pair of skates. 

"I had no excuses when he did that," she said. "I just started skating and realized how much I enjoyed it and then I started thinking about joining a roller derby team."

Her husband Jeff cautioned her at first that her time was at a premium and her schedule already difficult to adjust. Her solution: to start her own team and build as much of the work and practices around her busy life. She admitted concern for how her new venture would effect her family, but those worries were quickly alleviated, when her husband, an old school street hockey player, joined the team as the coach and her kids became part of the newly formed junior derby skaters.

Eight months after inaugurating the Vixens as a non-profit, securing modest sponsorships and arranging practices at the Red Bank YMCA (three a week), Stacie is pleased by the team that's forming and getting better every week. 

"How we played a month ago, to how we're playing now," she said. "Is like night and day. We were still learning the basics a month or so ago and now we're playing and getting stronger." 

Stacie explained that the physical aspect of the game is a big bonus to the enterprise, proudly admitting shedding pounds like never before and feeling better than she has in years.

Stacie is also pleased by another part of the game that makes it so inviting to women: the opportunity to connect with other women. 

"It's a lot to do with the community that forms around it," she said.  "We're all moms and wives and working women who don't have a lot of time to work out, make new friends, be with our kids - and roller derby allows for all of that."

Indeed, the practices at the YMCA's outdoor rink are attended by friends, husbands and children, watching, chatting, playing and doing homework. Breaks in the practice mean time for moms and wives to roll up on their loved ones and spend some quality time before getting back into the action.

Stacie is happy with the progress of her team. Pointing to the skaters of the Jersey Shore league who play in Asbury Park and around Jersey, as role models, and she hopes eventually friendly rivals as well. But she also knows that sharing a rink with the likes of those skaters is about a year away. In the meantime, Stacie is always on the lookout for recruits and sponsorships and Jeff is forever reading about and discussing online and off the skills and drills of the derby player.

"The big question for us now," Stacie posed. "is where we can practice when it gets too cold outside at the Y. I really want to keep it local; I'd love to find some space in or around Red Bank, but I have this sense that, like most everything that has to do with roller derby; it will somehow make itself available to us. I hope so anyway."

If you'd like to check out the Vixens in action, click on the video or visit the outdoor rink at Red Bank YMCA. You'll find them there every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night.  You can also find out more information at: www.redbankrollervixens.com.

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