Sisterhood of the Traveling Slams: Meet The Black-Eyed Suzies

Before they even laced up the skates, players from the Black-Eyed Suzies strolled into the Wednesday night scrimmage with the requisite snarl and swagger of the modern-day roller derby girl and enough tattoos, red lipstick, torn fishnets and snark to fill a roller rink.

“My son just loves it that I hit other girls,” coach “Shank the Tank” said jokingly before the scrimmaging began. Shank—aka Christen Shank Walter—has a 7-year-old named Aden.

“Actually, a lot of our players are moms,” said Shank, whose eyes were covered in black face paint. She wore stockings meant to imitate Frankenstein-like stitches on flesh. Her skates were neon yellow and her shorts were of Spandex and neon pink.

Patch caught up with the Black-Eyed Suzies at the team’s last practice before its season opener Saturday against Pottstown. Game time is 7:30 p.m. at the Rockville Sportsplex.

The Wednesday night practice was scheduled for at least two hours at an adapted flat-track at Striders Fastpitch Academy, in Rockville, where they’ve trained since 2009.

Flat-track roller derby is not quite as gritty as its disco-era, banked-track origins (Shank says the nearest banked track is in New Jersey). 

But the aggression is still there.

You still have to know how to shove, push and force your way through—or at least know how to keep other skaters from crossing your path.

On Wednesday, the team finalized its roster and fine-tuned strategy and technique on the flat track, like keeping the pack of skaters tight and together—or as Shank described it “keep it tight, keep it right”—and remembering to block mindfullly.

That said, the coaches insist that the physical part of the game is actually a very small part of what it takes to be good at roller derby.

“Roller derby is 99 percent mental and 1 percent physical,” Shank said.

Co-coach Theresa Grosse talked more about the mental part—like turning a misfit into a team player. Sometimes being a misfit is a good thing.

“It makes them good players but not good teammates,” said Grosse. “We help give those people confidence and empowerment so that their attitudes improve.”

“Misfit” might not be the right word to describe derby player Bettie Bam Bam, known outside the rink as Jessica Jimeno, of Bethesda

But Jimeno said she could relate to the confidence part. She said her confidence has improved since joined the team in August.

“I started doing it because I’m actually going through a divorce,” said Jimeno, an inside blocker for the Suzies. “I needed an outlet for all that hostility, frustration and sadness.”

Jimeno said she originally asked to be the team’s mascot, but that spot was already filled. The only option was to lace up and skate on the team.

“You really didn’t have to be good to get on the team,” Jimeno said. “You just have to have the drive to get better.”