Rat City Rollergirls rock

Roller derby is cool. Believe it.

On Sunday, I went to see the Rat City Rollergirls at KeyArena. I was there writing a story for Columns magazine and got the VIP treatment from some of the nicest ladies around. Thing is... they could probably knock me on my tail.

It took me a bit to figure out the rules, but once I had it down I could easily see how much strategy went into each bout. No, they're not games. They are called bouts. Get it right. But this isn't pro wrestling on skates. These are legitimate athletes playing a legitimate sport with legitmate winners and legitimate fans. I was impressed by the entire production and can't wait to write the story.

Turns out more than 15 of the girls hold UW degrees, including two of the three founding members. And these aren't your typical sheet metal workers, as Rani Khan (aka X-Khan) points out. A 2001 graduate of the UW's Foster School of Business, Kahn said of the roller girls: "It’s the Type A, overachievers who are like, ‘Bring it.’ They have that extra adrenaline that you don’t get out when you sit in an office or in meetings 10 hours a day. It’s people who are in charge, running shit. People with ingenuity and moxie and brains who need a little aggressive outlet." She's not lying, either. These are doctors, professors, scientists and, oh yeah, bad-asses.

Click here to see a short video I put together after the derby. That's Valerie Morris (aka Valtron 3000) hanging somebody out to dry. Valerie is Rat City's marketing lead. She's tall, pretty, athletic and in 2008 earned a Ph.D. from the UW in molecular and cellular biology. She does leukemia research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Like I said, roller derby is cool.

-- Derek Belt