PHOTO SHOW: See The Rohnert Park Roller Girls On Memorial Weekend

From Al Francis:

Women and girls were jamming, rocking and knocking over the Memorial weekend.

They were also hip-checking, blocking, pushing, falling, crashing and taking hits in fierce battles at the Flat Track Roller Derby at Cal Skate Rohnert Park.

The matches involved teams from Rohnert Park vs teams from Bakersfield and Berkeley.

Actually, the matches were, at times, like a David vs Goliath where the Rohnert Park Junior Fallin’ Angels and the women’s Cinderollas were on the losing side of the score board, 363-246, and the adult women were losing 239-29 at halftime against the Berkeley Resistance team, ranked near the top in the nation.

Girls’ flat track roller derby is gaining popularity. There are no rails to crash into like in the movie or TV matches from decades ago.

”This sport is empowering to women,” according to Brandie Mein, a player on the Rohnert Park women’s team who also goes by her skating name “Krash.”

Skaters range from age 7 to 17 in the junior league. She added that the girls are taught how to fall before they are taught the sport. There are weekly classes at the roller rink to learn the sport for $10 a session, which includes the skates and protective knee and elbow pads for adults and juniors.

The matches last for two 30-minute halves with a jam that last 2 minutes. During each jam, there is a “jammer” for each of the two teams on the track, who wear designated head wraps on their helmets. When the whistles blows, each team’s blockers attempt to prevent an opposing team’s jammer, who is the only one who can score, from getting past the pack. But once a jammer breaks past, the action really starts as she makes it around the track and, with the help of her blockers, pushes and darts past the opposing team.

The women’s team has special-ed teachers, real estate agents, moms, a preschool teacher and also a mother-daughter duo, Monique and her daughter, Ashley Evans, who just moved up from the Juniors team.

In the end there were some falls, but everyone got up and ... they accomplished a lot.

Photos by Al Francis of NapaSonomaPhotos.com