It’s a new season, a new decade, and we have a new skater running our Featured Skater series: smalls! Magically Malicious has decided to take this off her plate (so she only has 799 HKRG things to do), but before she handed this job off, she suggested that we kick things off with one of the original Hard Knox Roller Girls: Bushwhacker!
Photo Credit: MissyZDesigns
Name: Barbara Bushwhacker
Number: 27
Travel Team: Allstars
Home Team: Lolitas Locas
Years skating: 14
What brought you to roller derby in the first place, considering you were someone who has been since the beginning for Hard Knox?
I think I heard about it in early 2005, so I was just about a year out of college. I needed something to do besides just go to work. I needed a hobby, and then a friend sent me a message about it on Myspace, and as soon as I saw it, I went, “Yep! That’s my thing! That’s my thing right there!” So I didn’t go to the first interest meeting, but I went to the very first practice.
How did you learn how to skate? Did you learn as a kid?
I did skate as a kid. I roller skated at the local rink, and then I got rollerblades. For many years I rollerbladed, and then when I joined derby I had to figure out how to quad skate again.
Photo Credit: John Blood
How did you end up picking your name and number?
Originally I wanted a different name, but back in the day you had to register your name on the website Two Evils, and it was already taken. I wanted something that had a bunch of different meanings, but was also a play on a name that people would know, so I chose “Barbara Bushwhacker.” I don’t really use the “Barbara” anymore, but “Bushwhacker” has a lot of different meanings. It’s also kind of a reference to my favorite wrestlers when I was growing up, the Bushwhackers.
Photo Credit: Tami Maples
Who were some of your other favorite wrestlers? What got you into wrestling?
I don’t know- it was just on TV and it was fun to watch.
Did you ever watch roller derby when it was on TV?
I actually did watch it, I guess it was on in the 90s, and I don’t really recall what version it was, but I remember watching it as a kid and being fascinated with it. “Someday I’m going to do that”...and here I am!
You’re actually doing it!
I’m actually doing it!
How would you describe your derby playing style?
I would call it “aggressive and strategic.” A couple of years ago, I made a decision to be more aggressive on the track. I was strategic: I would watch and see what was going to play out, and then find the spot that I needed to go to. I decided to be more aggressive, so now I’m either going to the action or making the action, but still keeping the strategy in mind for sure.
What have been some of your favorite derby moments that you’ve had, either on or off the track?
Photo Credit: Jason R. Scott
One of my top favorite experiences was in 2010. Hard Knox went to regional tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska, and it was the biggest thing Hard Knox has ever done. It was a huge accomplishment. We went in 9th place and came out 9th place. We got to watch teams like Texas play, and they played in a style that we had never seen before. There wasn’t a lot of footage out yet in 2010—there was some, but we didn’t really see a lot of higher-level derby, and then watching Texas play and other teams that were there. They were skating non-derby direction, they were skating backwards, they were using toe stops, and these were all things that we hadn’t seen and thought of before. It was mind-blowing to be at a tournament at that level, being such a small league that we are.
That’s a different world to think about, where toe stops and those sort of things aren’t used.
Photo Credit: Riley Jordan
Yeah, and I actually didn’t have toe stops until partway through 2010. I was using jam plugs because toe stops got in my way! Can you imagine that now! But it was such a great experience of the tournament and being around all these awesome teams and watching their style. Also, Lincoln was super receptive to derby. Downtown, they actually had—you know the flags they hang from the light poles? They actually had the tournament banner hanging from there! And when we walked around, people would be like, “Oh, you with the derby?” and start talking to us about it! Random people on the street. I’ve never experienced that anywhere else. Everyone knew about derby and knew why we were there. We were like, “What world is this? People know what we’re doing?”
So do you find that people in Knoxville know about derby in that same way, now that this has been going on for years?
No, I still hear when we go skate downtown, or when we’re out doing events, “Knoxville has roller derby?” It’s like, yeah...we’ve been around since 2006! We’ve promoted in every way possible—how are there still people that don’t know we exist? I don’t understand. We’ve been on all the news channels, every radio station, all the newspapers, everything, and people still don’t know we exist.
Photo Credit: Jon Blancett
What would you say to people if you were trying to get them to know, “Hey! Derby’s a thing!” What would you want them to know about us?
Action-packed sport on roller skates. That would be the best catch-phrase or tag-line I think. Full-contact on roller skates, that’s enough right there.
What are some of your goals for this season, either as a skater or as a coach?
As a skater, I want to increase my stamina and continue working on jamming, just to be that extra asset for my team and be able to pull it out whenever I need to. As a coach, I want us to really build team unity and chemistry, and just find that magic together on the track, during practice and during games.
Especially since that’s a goal that the team came up with together.
Exactly. It was my goal as a coach before the team decided it, so when the team decided it, it was extra bonus—yes! We’re all on the same page! We can do this now, as long as everybody’s in agreement with this, we can absolutely work towards that goal.
So do you see yourself as a blocker who just happens to jam sometimes?
Photo Credit: Rusty Riot
Yes, definitely.
And has it always been that way?
I haven’t always jammed—I only started jamming in the last probably two or three seasons. It just kind of started, “Hehehe I’ll jam! It’ll be weird!” and then it turned into, “Wow, I’m not actually that bad, so let’s try to get better at it and break it out once in a while.” Obviously my jamming style is going to be completely different than most of our jammers because I am a blocker. So when I go out and jam, it’s a different style to mix it up.
How do you find a balance between roller derby and “real life”?
Derby has been an obsession of mine since I started in 2006. When I found it, I knew, absolutely, this was my life now. But at this point, I’ve done so many events and I’ve done so many team things that now I don’t overcommit myself. I won’t commit to anything—I’ll just be a ‘maybe’ most of the time, and that probably drives people crazy. But at the same time, I’ve done so many things and I also have so many jobs that I can’t do all the things. I have to remember that I need to have a personal life also and do other things, so I try not to overschedule myself basically. I will show up if I can, if I have enough energy to do it and not burn myself out.
What’s something about you in “real life” that might surprise people in derby?
I’ve always been a nerd—that’s not very common knowledge. I was a band geek in high school, I love playing Magic: the Gathering, I love Mario.
What did you play?
Flute. I still have it and will sometimes break it out. I even still have a book of sheet music for my flute and I’ll break it out and be like, “Can I remember how to play this? Alright, let’s do “Flight of the Bumblebee,” let’s go!”
Are you going to pull a ‘Beat’ and do the national anthem for us?
Oh my God, that would be hilarious! No way. I knew how to play it at one point because we always did it for basketball games and stuff.
Do you have anything that pumps you up or motivates you to get you out on the track? Theme song, anything like that? Or how do you get in the zone?
Actually, I space out before games, typically. Other people are skating around, listening to music, getting pumped up, and I like to just sit on the bench and just zone out for awhile. Not talk, just think about my game plan: go over a lot of different scenarios in my head and how I’m going to react to it. I don’t even listen to music, typically—I just sit on the bench and stare, and then people are like, “Are you ok?” and I’m like, “It’s just my face! Just over here, zoning!”
What’s something that you’ve gained from roller derby that you didn’t expect?
A sense of finding ‘my thing,’ or my place. Finding my niche, I guess. Finding the one thing that I’m actually pretty good at. I’m ok at a lot of things, but roller derby, as soon as I joined, I excelled at it, and I was like, “This is my thing!”
Photo Credit: Rebecca Sword
Do you have any advice for people who want to play roller derby but maybe are scared of it, don’t know what to think about it?
I would say it’s definitely intimidating at first, but look past that and know that you can absolutely do it and absolutely accomplish your goals.
Photo Credit: Nv-US Photography
Last question, who do you want to nominate for next month? What do you want to ask her?
My best friend Pinion! I want to be mean: one of her goals was to be more positive this year, so I want to know how she plans on bringing the positivity to 2020.
Thank you for taking us all the way back, Bush! This season promises to be an exciting one with her as our Training Head. Follow Hard Knox Roller Girls on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you don’t miss a single moment!
-smalls-