Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this June 14th, 2024.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here at 330. We're going to welcome our friends Maggie, Jenna, and Sue.
They'll be in thanks to Visit Wisconsin Rapids Bureau to talk about the 2024 cranberry blossom festival.
Looking forward to that and I have been waiting for this for months.
We are here and we are going to be talking mid-state roller derby.
We've got with us Blake Grogan, Jeffrey.
Want to thank you for being here.
Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it.
And Mia Petit, a big shrimp.
Hey, Mia, thanks for being here.
Yeah, thank you so much for having us.
We'll explain the nicknames and all of that a little bit more later.
We'll get into some of that too.
Actually, we can get into it right away if you want.
Because I like to start these things off first by thanking you for not only being here,
but helping really support this sport and spread the word about it and everything.
Not only do we love supporting anything mid-state does,
but I'll just speak it for myself, but I think I got a lot of the community behind me on this one.
We are fans of roller derby and it's becoming more and more popular,
which is kind of interesting considering how long it's been around.
You know, when pickleball rose up, it kind of was one of those things that seemed to kind of come out of nowhere
and everything.
But it has been great to see the sport growing.
I've got, this is an in-state, but I've got a good friend of mine in Ohio.
About three years ago, she joined a roller derby team.
And now every one of her posts, every single thing that she has,
roller derby, roller derby, and it's really cool to see.
It's one of those sports that when you get involved,
whether as a fan or as an athlete, you can't help but get all in.
And I want to talk about that a little bit with you all.
And first off, though, I want to get your origin stories.
That's one of my favorite things to do.
And find out not only how about you a little bit,
but how you got involved with roller derby.
And Blake, I'll start with you.
Yeah, I originally was a volunteer for a roller derby league up in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
And helped out with beer sales and things like that.
And fell in love with spectating.
So I moved to Wisconsin a few years after that.
And worked to get involved with the league as quick as I could.
And with living out of wassa, mid-state roller derby was the no-brainer for that.
So got out to one of their learned skates and utilized some of the equipment that they offered.
And fell in love right away.
I'd grown up roller bleeding, but roller skating was a new beast.
So that was an interesting thing to bring up.
Yeah, that's an interesting note.
Yeah.
So you've been playing for a while.
This will be my third season.
Right up.
Right up.
Very cool.
Thank you for that.
I appreciate it.
Mia, can you give us a little bit of your origin story
and how you got involved in roller derby?
Yeah, so I kind of fell into roller derby very kind of serendipitously.
So I was trying to find new hobbies for my life
because I was like, you know what?
We got to do something.
Yeah, yeah.
And a friend of mine had told me about the learned skate classes.
And they were like, hey, this is a really cool team.
Like, I think you'd have a lot of fun.
And I was like, it's 20 bucks.
What do I got to lose?
And so I showed up.
And I was instantly hooked.
It was so much fun.
I was a terrible skater to begin with.
I was hunking the wall.
Like, I was just creeping along.
But, you know, with enough practice and just keep showing up,
you get better every day and you feel good about it.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, that's great, you too.
Thank you so much for that.
I appreciate it.
Especially appreciate the kind of the idea
that you didn't just walk in there
and immediately were a great skater and knew the sport and all this.
It takes time.
And I think that's great to know and encouraging
for those out there that are thinking about joining the league
and joining the sport and being a part of things.
And if you don't mind, I would like to get into that, too.
I remember as a kid, my dad played hockey
and was a minor league hockey player.
And one of the things that would frustrate him sometimes is,
hey, Jim, what is going on out there?
Like, I don't understand this sport.
I don't understand this or that,
or I think you get a little frustrated by it.
But then eventually, he would see
what he had the opportunity to do.
And hey, I could make a new fan here.
I could make somebody a new hockey fan.
And I loved hearing him describe how to play hockey.
I don't know if he did a great job of it.
But he was very animated and very passionate.
And so I'd like to kind of put you two on that right now.
And explaining to those that don't know out there,
what is Roller Derby?
How was it played?
Well, we play on quad skates.
So it's four wheels on the ground.
Well, eight wheels, two feet, right?
And I like to describe it as kind of skating, racing,
and wrestling all in one.
So you have 10 people on the track at a time.
You essentially have two jammers, which is kind of like your
offense.
And they're working to score points.
And then you have four blockers on each team, which is your
defense.
And they're trying to keep the jammers from scoring points.
And so you skate as fast and as hard as you can.
And you hit as hard and as legally as you can.
And those jammers, for every set of hips,
is the real rule that they pass.
They score a point.
And each jam can last up to two minutes.
It doesn't always last that long.
There's some more rules involved with that.
But essentially, two minutes at a time, you skate as fast
as hard as you can and score as many points as you can.
Then you do it again.
Nicely done.
Yeah, that was a good one.
I feel like I had actually the Wikipedia page up just
in case to add some notes to that.
You did a better job than Wikipedia did, I think.
Nicely done.
Straight to the point.
Beautiful.
Yeah, very well done.
Now, one of the things that I think
that was cool about that description
is that it's, I don't want to say that the game is basic.
There's nothing basic about the game.
But I feel like it's like a lot of sports.
The first time you catch it, you learn.
You watch it again, you learn, and you learn.
And before you know it, you know the sport inside and out.
That one of the cool things I think about roller derby
is there's not any, like some sports where the rules
keep changing every second or some of these things.
They're pretty standard.
And the sport itself has been around for quite some time.
So I believe the 60s is when it first really got going
and everything.
So it's one of those things that catches people up
or maybe gives them those little holes in the rules
that they didn't know.
So Nicely done.
I appreciate that.
I have a couple of other questions
that I don't want to get to help people
can be a member and I want to talk about the games too.
But to the point of now we know the game
and we know you're a bit of origin story,
what keeps you playing roller derby?
What keeps you coming back?
Because everybody that I know that is into the sport,
they go all in.
Like they're, they're, oh yeah, roller derby on the side.
Like no, no, this is like one of the first things
they tell you about themselves.
Which is really cool to me.
I think that's fantastic.
What is it that brings that out of you about this sport?
And I'll start with you, Jeff.
Oh man, it definitely keeps you coming back.
One of the reasons I originally got into roller derby
was to have a team oriented athletic outlet
in my adult years that I found myself craving.
And so you have this incredible support system,
just kind of on call all the time.
And you all work towards one goal
and then anytime you exercise,
it's one of those, sometimes it's hard to go,
but once you're there it always makes you feel good.
And so you all have that like mindedness looking for that
and then just the intricacies of the support system
that you find both on and off the track.
Or I mean, I don't know how anybody walks away from it.
Shroombitt?
Yeah, so I would agree with Jeff there.
The community is so awe-inspiring
and it just, it really keeps you in.
Because even on your hardest days,
people will, they'll see that you're off
and they'll be like, hey, like, are you doing okay?
Like, and it's just anybody on the team.
If they notice you're off, they're like, hey, are you okay?
And it's so wonderful, like the support that you have.
And it's, to me, it's the community, like,
it's really cool.
One of the things that always stood out to me,
I grew up in an athletic family
and athletes all over the place and I'm playing it.
And one of the things when I talk to my dad
about what he misses about the game or anything,
we're all competitive.
We like to win.
There's that, but right away,
without a second to think, the guys.
Like, that's what he misses.
He misses the guys.
He misses being in a locker room.
He misses being out there, the camaraderie,
the family of it.
And I think a lot of people are in that spot
where they're looking for that.
And maybe you get it from, you know,
a bar league horseshoes or softball league
or something, there's also this option.
There's also this here is an option of something
to look into and think about, especially if I can.
And this is a bit of my mother, the feminist in my head.
But there's not a lot of these things for women.
There's just being blunt about it and everything.
There's not enough opportunities for,
not only women supporting women,
but women having athletic opportunities and everything.
I don't know why societies like that
are thinking we can get into that in another conversation.
But it is something that we're dire you're missing.
It's cool to have this.
It's cool to have this option.
I'm not, obviously, not every woman's going to get into it
maybe or something, but man,
it's nice to have a, not only a organization
in any sport that I think is not only female friendly,
but if I can be a blunt again, rainbow friendly.
And that goes a long ways in this day and age,
where we just, I'd like to see,
I'd like to see more sports do that.
I'd like to see more sports getting better with that.
You're only expanding your market by doing that.
I think, actually, oddly enough,
I know this is gonna be a weird connection,
but I can connect it.
Ben and Jerry's.
Ben and Jerry's was the biggest ice cream in the world.
And they sat back and instead of just going,
oh, we're good, like, wait a minute.
There's a whole bunch of people out there
that can't eat ice cream.
There's a whole bunch of vegan people out there.
Why don't we make vegan ice cream?
And Ben and Jerry's gets even bigger.
Like, I don't know any sport that doesn't,
you know what, we're good.
We don't need to get any bigger.
Like, you know, it can expand your sports
by expanding your audience and bringing,
be on more inclusive, bringing more people in.
Roller Derby got that right away.
Roller Derby for a long time has been a,
you know, a supporter of these things
and an encourager of these things.
So all you out there that are interested in this kind of thing,
an encourager to check this out, support this team.
We love to support local, love to support our team.
I'm a huge homer.
So anything, any chance I get to root for a hometown team,
I'm gonna do that.
We've got some opportunities for you guys to come in up
to be able to support this team.
Saturday, June 22nd, I see you have a double header event
at the KB Willett Ice Arena in Steven's point.
That should be a go-on.
First game is Mid-State Roller Derby
versus Aurora 88s Roller Derby from Aurora, Illinois.
The second game is a skater mixer
where a beginning skaters from different leagues
will compete against one another.
That sounds kind of interesting.
Yeah, it's a great opportunity.
Is that what that one is more, is kind of geared towards,
no pun intended.
Yeah, towards bringing out new skaters
and giving them kind of getting their feet wet and everything.
Yeah, it's just to help give new skaters opportunities
to get comfortable playing at, you know, a level.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
That's gonna be a fun matchup at a double header.
We love those.
And then on Saturday, August 3rd,
there's a multi-game event at the KB Willett Ice Arena
in Steven's point where the doors will open at five.
Mid-State Roller Derby is hosting a multi-game event
with that will bring Mississippi Valley mayhem
lacrosse Roller Derby League,
Chippewa Valley Roller Derby League,
and Marquette Roller Derby League from Marquette
to Central Wisconsin.
Wow, that is pretty cool.
That is a real, it's, at first off,
it's cool for our area to bring in all these others
and to take in this sport
and to have all these different teams.
I'd like to know what it means to you all
to have all these teams from all these others come in.
You talked about the camaraderie,
talked about in your own team.
I imagine in the league,
when you're playing each other, it's one thing.
But as soon as the game's over,
I gotta imagine there's quite a bit of camaraderie
with these other teams and getting to talk to people
from out of state and what they love about the sport.
Yeah, absolutely.
We, like you said, there's competitive nature to it,
but something about bringing other people
from other leagues in, especially out of our core
central Wisconsin and neighboring communities
to our area to share with other people.
It brings different skill levels.
It brings different kinds of people,
which, as you said, we like to celebrate the differences
and that each person can bring.
And then once we're off the track,
it's just because you're not on the same team,
it doesn't mean that you guys don't enjoy the same thing.
We're all there, it's because we love Roller Derby.
And then actually one of my favorite things
is after the fact, and this will be a huge event.
One of the biggest ones we've put on in years,
but we always have an after party.
This year in Siemens Point, it'll be at Ranchitos.
And we go and, you know, they support us
by providing food and a space for us
to really unwind after the fact.
Is there anything about it that stands out to you,
Big Shrimp?
I'm gonna say that as much as I can,
I'm gonna say it as much as I can, I love that thing.
It's a great name, that's my favorite.
Is there anything about the event
that you're looking forward to
or kind of similar to Jeff here, a lot of the same?
It's a lot of the same.
I think Jeff said it really well
that it's just, it's so fun to meet different people
and, you know, with the inclusivity of Roller Derby,
you meet so many people from different walks of life
and it's so fun.
And especially, this is fun for the community too
because these events,
they're just a skip away.
They're, you know, they're not even that far away
and everything to be able to take these in.
And it's not only a great way to support your community,
support your area, but think about this too
as many people out there, maybe on the fence
or if you are on the fence about taking in these games
and another incentive to that, Roller Derby
is adding to our economy.
That is one of the bigger things that we are seeing.
Again, my friend Denohaio talks about this too.
There are areas that people weren't going to for a long time.
All of a sudden, the Roller Derby games are there
and not only are they going to that area,
but hey, a little gas station is there now
and a grocery store is over here and these things,
it adds up, it really does.
So it's another one of those incentives
and another one of those reasons
we encourage you to support these team,
support these events when they come up.
We are going to be talking about them
on our morning shows, nonstop.
We'll be making sure you guys got a good crowd
and maybe a little home field advantage here.
Maybe a little bit.
Let's see what we can do, let's see what we can do.
When it comes to being a member,
I want to talk about that a little bit
because that is another purpose of the conversation.
We want not only more people to attend these games to watch,
but love to get more people volunteering,
being a part of the team.
What is, first off, how often do you guys get,
I was going to say rehearsed because I'm an actor.
How often do you guys get to practice
and what are the practices like?
I don't mean to keep putting you on a spot, Jeff,
but you're killing it, so I'm not going to be going to.
You're doing great too, Ben, you're doing good too.
We practice right now, we're at KB Willett,
Icerina, three times a week, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday.
We have a 50% attendance requirement,
and essentially that's because the more you're on skates,
the safer it is to be on skates.
And we're always working to win,
so the more we have people at practice, the better.
But so three days a week, and that's every week,
and it's a two-hour time frame in which we do off-skates warm-up,
we do on skates warm-up, we'll work on some basics
and get our ankles and our feet warmed up.
And then we try to play as much Derby-like scrimmaging
as possible, and we'll work on game play
as well as some endurance-type things,
which are always favorites.
Right up, right up, again, nicely done.
Very nicely done, anything you want to add me?
No, Jeff's got this down, so I'm just here to support.
I'm just making sure the mics are on.
That's all I'm doing.
You've run this whole interview.
I did a great job at it, too.
When it comes to one of the kind of elephants in the room,
if you will, shape, you know, this is something
that I run into with a lot of my friends,
and oh, man, I go out there and I do that.
Who are you kidding?
Like you don't even want to pick up a football,
let alone go out there and actually throw one.
But there are people out there who are itching
to find something to do, to get that out,
to get a workout in, to get some of these things in.
If people are encouraged,
if people want to be a part of this sport,
I not only encourage them, too,
but I don't really, I don't feel like age or,
or you know, quote unquote,
what kind of shape you're in necessarily plays into this.
But not at all, being very blunt about it,
I think of this very similar to softball to other sports,
where if you are in quote unquote rough shape
or however you want to word it, this will get you in shape.
This will do that for you.
This will help do that for you.
And it's not something that you have to think you're going out there
and you're going up against Olympic athletes or anything.
This is something we're gonna go up against people
that are often like-minded and similar in body type
and some of those things.
So I wouldn't want that to get anybody not to want
to be a part of the sport.
The friend that I mentioned,
she is on the taller side and she's a little bit bigger
and she thought that, well, there's,
I can't get into this sport, I can't get into this one.
She discovers roller derby and she's perfect for it.
She's built for this practically.
She's enjoying it too.
I think that that's something to keep in mind as well.
Maybe there have been sports in your life
that just didn't fit or you didn't really get a real feel for.
This is one of those ones encouraged you to give a chance
because not only does it involve so many different things,
but it's a fun sport to play.
Just, do you have anything on that?
Yeah, I mean, we try to stay away from saying
that people are built for really anything.
You know, we strongly encourage people to do the things
they love and do them with passion,
which is oftentimes why we're all in the same team.
So it does take all shapes, sizes.
I love that you said ages because we have a very,
very wide age range of people that skate with us
and everybody brings something unique to the team.
But yeah, it's a great way to maintain some athleticism
and some cardio in your normal workout
and actually one of the things that I love
is the encouragement and sports system
to actually cross train.
So both on and off the track bringing that into your life.
That's really good stuff.
Really good interview, you too.
This was a lot of fun.
Thank you so much for the time, really appreciate it.
I do, there is a catch.
You did a good job.
You're gonna have to come back.
That's the catch.
I don't wanna tell you that before the interview.
But if you do a good job, you have to come back on.
So we would love to have you guys back on and soon too.
I don't want it to be too long
because while the season's going on,
I'd love to have you on to be able to talk more about it
and encourage more and more people to be a part of this.
We encourage you to know if you can, be a member.
If you can, we're always looking for good volunteers.
You can find out more at midstateroelerderby.org.
Midstateroelerderby.org.
You should follow them on social media as well.
It's a great way to keep up to date
and all the great things they are doing.
And again, their next match, I believe it's your next match
Saturday, June 22nd, next one is coming up June 22nd.
Double header at the KB, Willett, Ice Arena,
and Steven's Point, Doors Open at five.
Meet them there.
Again, we'll be talking about these in our shows
and make sure you guys get a real home field advantage.
I mean, just say, you know, we'll make sure it's well-attended.
Four.
Doors Open at four.
Doors Open at four.
Yeah, yeah, got that.
Make sure that you're there right now, about 350.
Get there before four.
Get there, you know, I'm sure you're gonna get seat.
Thank you both again for the time.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having us.
This has been so awesome.
Cool.
Midstateroelerderby.org.
Is the website.
Be sure to bookmark that and keep up the day
and all the good things this team's up to.
We'll take a time out.
We'll come back and have some more fun on the morning show
here at WFHR, locally grown radio.