Amherst home to roller derby stars (Part 4)
This is part 4 of a 4 part series devoted to local members of the New Hampshire Roller Derby.
Read Part 1 here
Read Part 2 here
Read Part 3 here
It was winter and Dan Wheldon was Christmas shopping in Portsmouth and this is where he saw a giant sign that read “New Hampshire Roller Derby is Looking for Skaters and Referees”. Being a fan of roller derby from “back when it was popular” Dan emailed the organization and was reborn in January 2009 as a referee named Woody Yankabitch.
Photo courtesy of SS Trixe
Woody never owned a pair of roller skates until he joined the New Hampshire Roller Derby (NHRD) and ended up buying a pair of skates on eBay after the head referee told him the first pair he bought from a local skate shop was “unsafe”. Woody says he learned all about roller skates and how to take care of them from a clinic put on by the NHRD.
Today it’s Woody’s job as the referee to watch the skaters on the track and access penalties for illegal actions. He said referees are also responsible for “running the whole show in the middle of the track, much like a ringmaster at the circus.”
Away from the track, he works in the real estate and home building industry home. Dan is a husband and father of three and maintains a “mini farm” where he and his family raise 30 chickens a horse, two cats and a parrot.
I asked him who he thought would be a good fit to play him if Hollywood made a movie about roller derby and he responded with Whoopi Goldberg. I’m interested in learning more about this answer, but honestly, I’m too afraid to ask. Maybe you can ask him this weekend at the 3rd annual “Roller Consolation”, Saturday, July 31, 2010 hosted by the NHRD at the JFK Coliseum in Manchester, NH.
Visit the NHRD website for more details and a full schedule.
How is roller derby played?
NHRD matches are ten girls skating laps, often at high speeds, on a flat, circular track. Players try to stop the opponent’s jammer from passing their teammates while helping their own jammer skate past players from the other team. Points are scored for each opponent the jammer passes. It’s a rough sport and if you can imagine NASCAR combined with football on roller skates and add the flair of a professional wrestling match, you have something pretty close.
For more detailed rules, visit http://wftda.com/rules
PART ONE – http://amherstadvocate.com/2010/07/amherst-home-to-roller-derby-stars-part-1/
PART TWO – http://amherstadvocate.com/2010/07/amherst-home-to-roller-derby-stars-part-2/
PART THREE – http://amherstadvocate.com/2010/07/amherst-home-to-roller-derby-stars-part-3/
Main page slideshow photo used courtesy of Ryan Joseph and New Hampshire Roller Derby
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
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