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With several employees, current students, and alumni from USC, it was no surprise that the Columbia QuadSquad made its way in the local USC campus newspaper The Daily Gamecock

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QuadSquad skates past competition Featured
By Mary Cathryn Armstrong, Staff Writer
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Hard-hitting Columbia roller derby team hopes for second-straight perfect season in 2011
It’s fast. It’s aggressive. It’s loud. And it’s all done on roller skates.

It is roller derby, and it’s giving a whole new meaning to the term girl-on-girl action.

By day, the women of the Columbia QuadSquad are ordinary citizens. They’re the tellers at your bank, the servers at your favorite restaurant or the women taking your calls behind the desk. You may even pass some of them right here on campus.

But when the skates are laced up and the helmets strapped on, their alter egos take over and these ladies become anything but ordinary. When May Q. Panic and Kim KarKRASHian hit the track, they transform into hard-hitting, speedskating dynamos, and it’s game on for these derby girls.

Now in its fourth year, the Columbia QuadSquad — like the sport of roller derby itself — is steadily growing in both skill and numbers. After a perfect season last year, the squad is looking to harness that same glory in 2011 with regular home bouts held in Lexington and several away matches versus other squads from around the country. The squad is also always looking for new talent, hosting “Training Wheel” sessions every Sunday as well as “Fresh Meat” cycles two to four times a year that can assess and train new skaters.

“Roller derby is one of those things that’s really easy to get into, but not easy to do,” said squad member Bruiser Barbie. “There’s a lot of practice and a lot of work, but once you’re in, you’re addicted.”

So how exactly does roller derby work? Each bout is broken up into two 30-minute sessions, consisting of multiple “jams.”

In each jam, there is one jammer per team, whose main goal is to speed past the other jammer and weave through a pack of three blockers and one pivot without going out of bounds or incurring a penalty. The first jammer through becomes the lead jammer, earning points for her team. Game play is mostly safe, but broken bones and bruises are certainly no strangers to the track, with blockers using everything from their hips to shoulders to knock other skaters silly.

“We work really hard to make sure that our power, skills and aggression are focused,” says skater Dani Dynamite. “We strive to be as classy as we can.”

But talking about the bout is nothing compared to seeing it in action. Dressed in everything from fishnets to rainbow skirts, jammers like Crystal Cutt and Pollie Hatchett glide easily through the mass throng of blockers with incredible ease while blockers like Chuck-Town Bruiser and Roy G. Biv knock out the competition.

“Everybody fits in where they’re supposed to,” said rollergirl Carry Anne Conceal. “We all have our special place.”

The squad works closely with a variety of local charities to raise awareness on everything from literacy to cancer and they’re huge sponsors of community involvement.

But it’s also the sense of camaraderie developed between bruises and bouts that attracts many to this “second family.”

“It really is a sisterhood,” said skater and assistant coach Eva Las Vegas. “It’s cool because I get to hit people I consider to be my sisters. It’s like ‘I love you, but now I’m going to shoulder-check you and we’ll go get Mexican food after.”

Perhaps more diverse than the skaters themselves is the mass following the QuadSquad draws. At the recent match Saturday, the audience ran the gamut from other skaters to full-fledged fans.

The majority of skaters even bring their families to the bouts to cheer the team on and snap pictures.

“Everything’s really family-friendly, which is great because my kids love coming to all the bouts,” skater Razz Berri Smash said. “They even travel to all the away bouts which is really cool.”

For more information on the Columbia QuadSquad, visit their website at www.columbiaquadsquad.com.