Roller derbies and cornbabies
11/30/2022
Des Moines Roller Derby holds weekly practices at Franklin Jr. High. Photo by Sofia Legaspi Dickens
Full-contact sport on wheels
When Katie Akin moved to Des Moines in 2019, she didn’t know a single soul in town.
Then, in a Starbucks bathroom, she saw a poster advertising a local roller derby. It could be fun, she thought, so why not?
Her first practice came with a steep learning curve.
“I could not skate at all. I’d been to birthday parties — that was the level I was operating at. So I was not a particularly good skater, but I was, like, ‘We’ll see what happens!’ And I ended up just really loving it.”
Derby players use quad skates (not rollerblades) and a full set of safety gear including a helmet, wrist guards, elbow pads, knee pads and mouthguard. Two teams of five skaters compete on an oval-shaped track. Each team has a jammer, designated with a star on the helmet, who must try to lap opposing skaters as many times as possible. All other team members are blockers, playing offense and defense at the same time.
“And this is all happening at once,” Akin said. “It’s very crazy, and it’s very chaotic.”
It’s chaotic in the best way, and a big reason Akin chose to stay in Des Moines. Originally from Maryland, she went to school in Chicago and came to Des Moines for an internship — initially.
Katie “Skatie” Akin is the organization’s events director. Photo by Yvette Sojka
“I’ve been in Des Moines way longer than I thought I would,” she said. “But I really liked roller derby, and then I made friends here and I made friends in other space. And, yeah, I just really love it here.”
The Des Moines team is skater-coached and consists of 15 or so active members, although Akin said the team is in a “post-COVID growing period” and focusing on recruitment and training.
The team changed its name to Des Moines Roller Derby in 2019. Before that, they were known as Team United Roller Derby — or TURD, for short.
“I know,” Akin joked. “They loved it. It was on purpose.”
As per tradition, team members are known under often-punny derby names. Some are simple — Akin’s is “Skatie.” Other names are even more creative: Apocalypse Meow, Kriss of Death, Karly Marx, Tour de Pain, and the list goes on.
Des Moines Roller Derby is just one of hundreds of amateur leagues across the United States. As a flat track team, they can be flexible on practice locations. Some teams practice in skating rinks, others in parking lots. The Des Moines team regularly meets in a gym at Franklin Junior High.
Less prevalent today are banked track roller derbies, where a slope in the track lends to a quicker — and often more violent — sport.
“A lot of people, when they think of roller derby, they think of what it looked like back in the 1960s, where there was a lot of fishnets and punching,” Akin said. “It’s not like that anymore. It used to be a lot more rough and tumble.”
The sport finds its roots during the Great Depression, when Leo Seltzer introduced a multi-day endurance race on skates. In 1938, sportswriter Damon Runyon urged Seltzer to ramp up the violence. The crowds loved it. In the glory days, derby players were some of the highest-paid female athletes of their time.
Roller derby had mostly fizzled out by the 1970s but has recently resurged on the amateur level. While it has mellowed on the theatrics, it continues to maintain its cultural significance as an inclusive sport. Akin’s team welcomes adult recruits of all genders and abilities.
As a novice on the team, you’ll have the honor of being known as a “cornbaby.”
“It’s mostly just a joke that got totally out of hand,” Akin said with a laugh. The cornbaby mascot she designed is strangely… endearing? See and decide for yourself. Stickers and merch are available via TeePublic.
Cornbabies or not, Akin and her team strive to make roller derby accessible to all members of the community.
“It’s really fun, and truly anyone can do it,” she said. “You don’t have to be a great skater; you don’t have to be super badass and tough. We’re happy to teach people, and there’s a lot you can do and a lot you can learn.”
Des Moines Roller Derby is open to anyone older than age 18. More information is at desmoinesrollerderby.com. For those younger, Des Moines Derby Brats is open to recruits ages 10-18, with a non-contact junior roller derby for kids ages 3-9. Find their website at desmoinesderbybrats.com. n
