The C-U Rollers take Champaign by storm
Patrick Wood
Issue date: 3/3/10 Section: News
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Meet Sheila. If you passed by her on the street, you probably wouldn't think that she was too out of the ordinary. But that couldn't be more untrue. Sheila Hurt is one of the founding mothers of the C-U Rollers, a rapidly growing Champaign-Urbana roller derby team.
The idea of forming a roller derby team actually began with Sheila's husband, Lee.
"(Jim) was listening to the Jim Croce song "Roller Derby Queen" in the car and he came home and just kind of had the idea that I'd make a great roller derby girl," said Hurt, "I said that he was crazy, that there was no way."
But after mulling over the idea in her head, Hurt began to think that maybe her husband was on to something.
"Growing up and seeing (roller derby,) I thought that it would be kind of cool because I didn't have a lot of friends in the area, as I'm from Chicago," said Hurt, "I thought this would be a great way to make friends, get women to come out and be active, build friendships, and help the community in the process."
With the help of an ad on Craigslist.com, Hurt recruited five interested women from the area and soon, many began to follow.
"After a few months, (the team) started to bloom and now we have about 30 girls," said Hurt.
Parkland student Zoe Mann, 18, is the youngest member of the C-U Rollers and said that she joined after seeing a flyer at the college.
"It's a lot of fun, very low pressure, and there's something for everyone: good skaters, bad skaters, and people who just want to be involved." said Mann, "It's also a really good way to de-stress and I encourage people to look into the sport."
So what is roller derby? Some people hear those words and instantly think of angry, tattooed women, dressed in pink and black, throwing elbows and punches on a skating rink. Other people have no idea what roller derby is.
"Roller derby is pretty much like any other sport," said Hurt, "People prefer football, baseball, basketball, but roller derby is another sport. A lot people don't think that the girls are athletes, but we're doing exercises, we're keeping up endurance, we're trying to build our bodies so that we can get better for our competitions."
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