Lincoln native Emily Epperson's life has been consumed by a monster over the last year — a monster named derby.
"It's like a whole different life," Epperson said. "It's crazy, the derby monster eats your life. It takes over everything."
Epperson, also known as Bully McSkater, has been part of the No Coast Derby Girls since November. She means no disrespect when she calls derby a monster — she loves the sport and wishes more people would give it a chance.
"So many people still think it's like the old school kind of WWE-style fake wrestling," Epperson said. "People ask me all the time if we punch each other or clothesline each other, and I'm like do you really think that any professional sport would let you do that other than MMA or whatever?"
The girls may not be punching each other on the track, but the action, and the injuries, are definitely real. Most derby injuries involve bruises or sprained ankles, but sometimes they can be more serious.
"I broke my arm in derby not very long ago," Epperson said. "It's really scary at first, but once you just realize you're going to get hurt but you're going to get back up, it's a lot of fun. Then that fear kind of goes away."
No Coast Derby Girls was founded in 2005 by a group of girls who brought it to Lincoln after seeing derby demos at South by SouthWest in Austin, Texas.
"They're kind of the godmothers of roller derby, the Texas roller girls out of Austin," said Andrea Tarnick, executive director of NCDG and captain of the varsity team, the Mad Maxines. "By word of mouth, it spread to different girls across the board. Everyone knew somebody who they thought might be interested, and pretty soon we had about 25, 30 girls."
After practicing for a while and holding a "Foxy Boxing" fundraiser, the group approached Pershing Auditorium General Manager Tom Lorenz about holding derby bouts at the Pershing Center.
"We just kind of knocked on his door and were like this is who we are and what we want to do," Tarnick said. "It was becoming a pretty popular phenomenon across the country, but it hadn't hit Nebraska yet and he was very welcoming. He got us in there, and we've skated in there ever since."
The girls train hard to keep the matches entertaining and competitive. They practice three to four times a week, two hours a night, with additional off-skate work-outs on the side.
"I used to get sick before I would come to practice because I would just be so nervous," Epperson said. "I actually got my name because right when we first started, our recruitment season was kind of around Thanksgiving. I had eaten a full-on, with all the fixings, Thanksgiving dinner, and I came to practice and I didn't really realize that it was going to be like so … I ralphed my guts out. So DropKick Muffy was like, ‘You know what, I dub thee Bully McSkater #i82much, cuz that is you.' So, it's pretty hardcore, definitely."
Recruitment season starts in November, and NCDG allows any woman over the age of 19, from advanced skaters to novices, to try out.
"When I started, I was holding on to the wall," Tarnick said. "Now, I'm the captain of our travel team and have been for several years."
The skaters spend their pre-season practices working on the endurance needed to skate the two 30-minute long periods of each bout.
"It's a lot of endurance skating, long distance skating, sprint skating, lot of drills and agility skills like that," Tarnick said.
As the start of the season draws closer, the girls begin working on drills that focus on strategy.
"Roller derby is unique in that you play offense and defense at the same time, and there's no other sport that you do that in," Tarnick said. "You could be the best skater in the world skill-wise — you could be amazing — but if you don't understand the concept and what's going, it doesn't matter. It's a lot about not how hard you hit and how fast you skate, it's about being in the right place at the right time."
Tarnick said she was first attracted to joining NCDG because it gave her a chance to have a hand in the development and training of the teams.
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