She entered Fresh Meat wanting to learn how to stop on her skates, but there’s no stopping her now! Cat is one of the newest jammers that you’ll want to keep your eyes on when the Brawlers next take the track!
Photo Credit: Phanovich Photography
Name: Cat
Number: 505
Travel Team: Brawlers
Home Team: Black Bettys
Years skating: 1
You were nominated by obLIVion, who wants to know how skating/derby has made a difference in your life.
Skating is like the first outdoor exercise that I got into. I didn’t do a lot of sports growing up, and then I got a pair of skates to go trail skating with my boyfriend who has roller blades. We started doing trail skating together, and then I heard about roller derby, and it always seemed really cool, kind of intimidating, but it seemed like the next logical step. I also wanted to meet new people and make new friends and all of that, and I found all of those kinds of things by joining the team! And I also discovered that I really enjoyed it. I have never been a competitive person, and this is probably the closest I’ve gotten to being a competitive person, so that’s probably a good thing.
Had you skated as a kid?
I had— I got skates for Christmas when I was 8, but I didn’t really do it well, or learn it, or use it very often. I just did the birthday parties and those kinds of things. I rode bikes sometimes, but that was about it. I didn’t leave the neighborhood very often.
What was your experience of the Fresh Meat boot camp like?
It was really fun! I’m easily intimidated, as I’ve said, so I was a little scared going in, but once I got there, it was just really great and supportive. I wanted to learn how to stop properly, because that’s pretty hard to figure out on your own, so I went in and was like, “I’ll just learn how to stop and maybe skate backwards and that will be good.” Then I got there and I had lots of fun, and I learned things that I didn’t think I would be able to do, and I realized that I wanted to keep learning more things after it ended, so I stuck around.
Photo Credit: Lyda-Kain
What was something that surprised you in Fresh Meat?
I cried less than I thought I would?
I’m a crier so I LOVE that answer!
Yeah, I tend to be a crier, and I get frustrated easily, but I found that it was probably just a good environment to try something new. Everyone there was trying something new and learning something new, so I didn’t get as frustrated or cry as much as I thought I might.
What accomplishment from Fresh Meat are you most proud of?
Oh man, I would say turning around, but I didn’t really figure that one out until after Fresh Meat ended, until it was like solid solid. I really liked knee taps, and found out I was really good at knee taps, and I could do lots of those, and that was helpful, because it didn’t always kill me, but that was pretty fun. And I didn’t fall as much as I thought I would. I found out I’m pretty good at not falling.
Photo Credit: Linda Twohig
You skated in your first bout with home teams back in February. Did you have any goals for yourself before that bout?
Goal-wise, I just wanted to jam at least once, and I did get to do that. It got pretty intense. I think our team won our first bout, the Lolitas of course won at the end I believe, that’s how it goes, but I just wanted to get to jam a little bit. I think we actually only had a few jammers— it was me, Tex, and Oblivion for the new people that were supposed to be trained during the season. And I think a couple other people went in, like Jen and Katie, but it was fun! I got to do it a lot, and I don’t remember the details, but I only had one major penalty I think, and that’s all you can hope for.
Yeah! I mean, first bouts are always a blur, because you’re just trying to figure out what’s going on the entire time.
Absolutely. Still trying to figure out how to listen for things I need to know. Listen for refs.
Do you have a favorite part of that night?
I don’t have a specific favorite part. I enjoyed when we were scorekeeping. That was fun just because it was the home bout, so we were taking turns scorekeeping. It was a great chance to cheer everybody on, so you were just cheering for your team. And I got to learn more about the rules. It was also fun that my parents got to come out and they had been wanting to see what I was up to, so it was cool having them there.
Are they local?
Yeah, I grew up in Oak Ridge, so [Tri County Roller Arena] was the rink that I went to birthday parties at.
So do you want to be a jammer, or has that been your favorite position so far?
I think that’s my favorite position so far, but I like spending time doing blocking as well, just because I’m so new. There’s a lot of strategy to it, and I want to make sure I understand what they’re thinking too to help with the jamming aspect of it. It’s probably just starting out, but it’s hard when you’re there and not sure what to expect, you’re not sure what they’re going to do, and there’s a lot of subtle things you can learn to pick up on with blocking, so I’m hoping that I still get to do a little bit of that.
Photo Credit: Magically Malicious
It sounds like you’re trying to get in your opponents’ heads!
Yeah, a little bit! I think I like the strategy of it.
How would you describe your derby playing style?
That’s a great question. I wish I had more time to develop it in the season, but I’ll say “Trying my best and willing to push through” for now. I’m still working on the technical part of it.
When our season resumes, what are some of your goals for yourself?
Oh man, that’s a great question. I want to obviously play more. I want to start keeping better metrics and things like that, like start actually figuring out when I’m getting points and what’s working and what’s not. I also really want to get better at things like crabbing and laterals and going around people. We were drilling that a lot towards the end and it’s not natural-feeling to me at all. I’ve been working on it a little bit and I’m excited to keep working on it. I want to be able to spin around people.
What is the story behind your skater name and number?
Ooh, I don’t like big decisions, and I’ve never been a nickname person. Actually I only a couple of years ago I started going by “Cat” at all, so it’s just my go-to nickname. And then my number is my birthday, and I’ve just always liked it because it’s May 5th, so 505 and Cinco de Mayo and all of that. It’s a good number to pick.
How do you spend your time outside of roller derby?
I do lots of computer stuff. I work as a data analyst, so I spend a lot of time in front of screens. I have lots of pets, I like my pets, I have my cat and my dog. We like taking our dog trail skating. She’s a ten-pound miniature Pinscher who’s 14, 15 years old. She can’t keep up as much, but when we were first starting, Andrew was very good at skating, so he could stop and keep her safe and all of those good things. It’s a great way to get her exercise. I like board games a lot too. That’s about it. Been doing a lot of Quarantine D&D.
Nice! What kind of character do you play in Dungeons and Dragons?
Oh man, right now I have a Triton great old one warlock, so I’m like a crazy stuck up mermaid/merman and it’s going pretty okay as you’d expect. We’re doing a pretty nautical campaign. It’s very Little Mermaid/A Whole New World.
It has been years since I’ve played D&D, so I’m very jealous of you right now.
I’m very lucky. We have a lot of people that I went to high school with, and we have just played on and off throughout the years. Honestly in quarantine we’ve really embraced all of the online tools and everything, so I’m keeping in contact with a lot of people who moved away and we’re all playing every week the same campaign, and it’s really fun.
So my next question was going to be “What is something about you that would surprise most people?” I think that might be one thing, that you play D&D, but is there anything else?
It’s really funny because someone just started at my job and we were talking about how we miss exercising, and she found out that I did roller derby, and she was surprised by that. That’s usually the thing that people are surprised by. That’s probably the big one. I have a snake. We bonded over snakes.
What advice would you give people who might want to play roller derby?
They should just do it. They should just start. It’s not intimidating, just do it. Everyone’s really nice and there’s no better time to start than as soon as you can to get on skates and just keep falling down and feeling silly until it feels more fun.
Who would you like to nominate for next month, and what do you want to ask them?
I want to nominate Texas Tease because I really like skating with her and I like her color scheme. I want to ask her a strategy question: On the starting line, what do you look for in the blocker swarm?
Thank you for a great conversation, Cat! Our unusual season continues as the world slowly starts to reopen. We will definitely keep you up to date about when games resume, because you do not want to miss seeing Cat in action! Until next time, be like Cat: try your best and push through whatever life throws at you.
-smalls