APPLETON, Wis. — Three days a week you will find a group of athletes at an Appleton roller rink practicing roller derby.
Rookie Margaret “Terrordactyl” Stadig said she was a fan of roller derby for years. She finally decided this year, to strap up her skates and learn how to play the sport.
“It wasn't, a New Year's resolution, but it was like I needed something for the new year, and I needed to do something,” said Stadig. “I was in a slump, and I went, ‘You know what?' If I don't ever try it, I'm never going to. I came to the first practice and immediately fell in love and have been coming back ever since.”
Stadig is on the 920 Honeys team which is for newer skaters. She said while she learned to skate as a child, her biggest challenge is skating backwards.
“We're so used to learning new things when we were kids. You ride a bike, and you get it in a weekend,” said Stadig. “Well here takes a lot longer… What I've actually learned is to give myself that space to learn and give myself that space to fail.”
Sara “Tsumami Mommi” Benzel is one of the veterans on the Fox Cities Roller Derby team. Benzel said she tries to take the new skaters under her wing.
She said she loves the physical aspect, friendship and competitiveness of the sport.
“You are in charge of your own derby career,” said Benzel. “What you put into it is what you're going to get out of it. Don't be your worst critic. Don't compare yourself to other people. You're going to develop your skills at your own time.”
Stadig is still in the process of learning the ins and outs of the sport. She said she is also learning to use her entire body instead of just her hips.
She encourages others to take up the sport.
“Try new things, this might not be for you, but maybe this opens the door to go, ‘Okay, maybe not for me, but I'm going to try this other scary thing that I didn't know about,’” said Stadig. “Try those scary things. You never know what you're going to love. You might hate it, and you might find the people who connect with you so wholly, but it feels like family almost instantaneously.”