Meet the December featured skater!! This gal has sure been around to help the league before she chose to cross into the dark side of being a skater! She has completed her first season as a Hard Knox Roller Girl and has many more to look forward to. Keep reading to find out what makes this chick want to lace up her skates, what she loves about being a part of the team, and of course some unknown facts about Rabbit. Congratulations to Rabbit, number 88 on the Hard Knox Roller Girls, for being chosen as the featured skater of December.
Our last featured skater, Cut n Dye, wants to know about your love for derby and how it feels to go from a fan in the stands, to a referee for HKRG, to now a skater. Would you please elaborate on this for us?
Well, I will be completely honest; skating is a lot easier than refereeing. Plus, skating looked like way too much fun to just watch and not actually try. When I started out as a referee, I knew there were rules but I wasn’t aware of how many rules and how much you have to pay attention to during a game to make a call on any of the 10 players on the track. I will say that I know their job is hard and I appreciate them even more for the hard work they donate to us for a game to be able to go on.
So of course I have to ask the traditional question, how did you come up with your name?
As I have listened to most skaters’ background stories, they were usually good at coming up with their own skater name. I, on the other hand, was not having much luck in picking one out. On the first night I went to practice, Queen Beatdown (former skater), started calling me Rabbit because she said that I looked like the rapper Eminem since I had short hair—well it was shorter when I started skating—so I went with it. I was ok using that name cause I was already having trouble coming up with something and her suggestion helped me decide on it rather than going with another name. I also grew up with rabbits so it seemed to be a good fit.
I believe that you have something unique about yourself and something that you really like that most people would never guess about you. I believe you may like a man called Bigfoot?
Yes, I have actually liked him since I was a kid. I know it’s a unique thing for someone to like, but I have my degree in anthropology which has a lot to do with what I enjoy. I love the history and the uniqueness of things like Bigfoot. I believe he is living somewhere in the world, and I actually have a sticker on my car that represents the Bigfoot Research Club. A cool fact about this club is that our own Knoxville Mayor is involved in this club also.
That is a neat fact that you share the same liking as the mayor. Along with this unique liking of yours, which city in the US do you like so much that you would consider living there?
There is one place that I like to see as my second home, besides the one I currently have, but I would like to move there because of its unique culture and how much I am drawn to it. It is a city full of learning experiences and exploring new cultures and backgrounds of the folk that are from there. I have always loved this city since I was a kid. I would love to live in New Orleans!
I have to say that I have never been there, but I have placed it on my bucket list to visit sometime in my lifetime. I will have to take your word on how great it is there because you make it sound so wonderful and fun! Back to my questions for you, I know that you have completed your first season as a skater, how did you end your year?
I ended my year with one awesome award, Rookie of the Year! I have worked so hard to learn how to skate and also learn how to play the game. I was shocked to know that they picked me for Rookie of the Year, and it made me feel like I had put in all my hard work and it paid off.
It feels good to feel the accomplishment of reaching a goal. Since this was your first season, what was your favorite game and why?
I would have to say this is a hard one to choose from since I loved them all, but if I must pick one… I will have to choose our away game to Charleston. The reason why I chose that game is because it was my very first game that I played as a jammer and got lead jammer! That was a great feeling to have during a game!
What is one of your favorite team bonding experiences?
I don’t have just one to pick from, but I love that we go out together after derby events or practices and enjoy dinner as a “family”. We still get to bond and hang out and it doesn’t even need to be derby related. It could be conversations over how our day at work went or how the weather is, but it connects us as a family even after we are off the track.
I hear that you are into the gems or stones. I know of a few girls on the team that believe that there are different meanings to each type of stone or even the color has some effect on their personal well beings. What are your favorite stones that you feel have a positive impact on your well-being?
I like a few different ones. I like quartz because it helps keep negative energy away, amethyst since it’s my birthstone, and I like hematite, which also helps keep negative energy away. There are so many to choose from which makes this question hard, but I think those would be my top three.
Stones are an interesting subject to learn about and how each one has a “power” within it. I know that at the end of season HKRG likes to give back to their volunteers for all their hard work, and before you became a skater, you were a volunteer. What was your volunteer gift at the end of that season?
Well funny that you ask this because it reflects my skating name. Pitbull Pistol got me my very own bunny as my volunteer award. Plus, she works for Young-Williams, which helped place a bunny in a forever home! My bunny is a “she” and her name is Apex because of derby and she hops!
How sweet! Ok, finally! One more question for you. Who would you like to see as our first 2016 featured skater for the month of January, and why?
I would like to see Kilty Konscience! He is our first male skater to join Hard Knox and skate in the home team bouts. I would like to ask him what it feels like to be the first male skater and what his first year of skating was like for him.