Name: Madam Bomb
Number: 94
Travel Team: Allstars & Brawlers
Home Team: Bombshell Bettys
Years skating: 14
She always rocks an amazing boutfit that is matched only by her fierce playing style! Get to know June’s skater of the month: Madam Bomb!
You were nominated by Sin City Rebel, who wants to know two questions that may or may not be connected. First, how do you get ready for a bout, and how do you always keep your hair looking so magnificent all of the time?
A lot of my bout preparation, especially if it’s a home (different if it’s home or away), but if it’s home, I’m thinking a lot about the theme and my boutfit. That really gets me amped up. I get to run the door, so I get to say hi to everybody coming to watch us—that gets me excited for being out there. Beyond that, just on a personal level, there’s a lot of times where I have my eyes closed and I’m just breathing, and I like to remind myself this is a cool-ass thing that we get to do. I play derby—you know, not everybody can say that. There’s really so few people that can say that, and it’s just so cool to be part of that community, so I just breathe it in, say: I get to play derby, and I get to do it with the people that—you know, it’s the one day when we’re all on the same team (unless we’re doing home teams!) we’re all on the same team. So everything that makes Bush a heavy hitter, and you [smalls] annoying because you can get at my ribs in a way that absolutely no one else can, or Bear and blocking—I mean I could name something for everybody—and Sin’s calm.
So just being able to be a part of their team, too. We’re all the same. So just thinking of that, breathing it in, and just thinking this is just the coolest thing that I get to do, like wow. That’s how I get ready!
Sounds like a good mindset! And do you want to share any of your hair secrets with us?
Oh, hair secrets! I mean, there’s certain products, but a little known fact: in Grease, there’s the “Beauty School Dropout” song. I technically am a beauty school dropout because I too, as a junior, went to cosmetology vocation my junior year, and then I dropped out in my senior year, but always had a love of hair. I get a little help from what I do to my hair, but that, to me, is fun, you know? It’s like wearing wigs or wearing hair pieces and stuff like that. It’s a different persona.
I think we all kind of take on a different persona when we’re out in derby, you know? It’s a part of who we are, but that’s a different persona that we get to play during that time too, so the hair makes that more fun, and I don’t have a job that tells me I can’t! So yeah, I have a couple of products that I’ve used for ten, twelve years, and they’re my favorite, and they’re from Sally Beauty because they’re cheap. I just bought a sticker yesterday from Dollywood that says, “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” Which I think is funny.
So how did you come up with the persona of Madam Bomb? Like how did you decide on that name?
When it came time to make up names, since I started derby in ‘09 (us playing in ‘09, ‘10, and ‘11) at that time, you had to go to Two Evils to look up your name, and you couldn’t have it very close to anybody else’s. So I was looking at a lot of those names, and I actually started looking at Garbage Pail Kids cards because they had some fun, quirky names. And I think it was Adam Bomb, so the male version, and I was like, “That is cool, and I can make that Madam Bomb.” So that’s where it came from, it came from the Garbage Pail Kids card, and I was like, that’s cool. And then as I started looking it up, I found out that 94 (being a sciency kid, people don’t know that I am) so on the periodic table of elements, that is Plutonium, so that is why, one of the reasons I’m 94. The other reason is because I graduated in that year. So I was like yeah, that makes absolute sense, so we’re gonna be 94 Madam Bomb. That’s where that came from!
I didn’t know that—that’s so cool! So you’ve been a part of derby since ‘09. How did you discover it?
My husband and I, I don’t know if we were out riding motorcycles or whatever we were doing in Toledo, Ohio, but we were at a bar and grill, and it was quite packed from what I remember it usually is, but it looked like they had a band or something going on. But as I got closer, I was like, “No, this is a lot of women in roller skates and tutus and what is going on?” And here, the Glass City Rollers were doing a community event, just being out in the community, promoting their team and letting people know they’re here and we have bouts coming up, and we’re about to start our season and all of this stuff. So I got to meet a couple of the skaters at the time, and one was, of course with her skates because I didn’t have skates on, she was tall already, but with her skates, was just massive, and she was just beautiful and I was like, “How fun!” And growing up, I grew up in roller rinks, and I remember being five and I remember when I finally got to be twelve and got to go by myself, and they’d just drop me off at the front, so I loved roller skating, and I was like heck yeah. And it didn’t include a ball, it was a sport that didn’t include a ball. So I was like this is great, no hand-eye coordination, I think I can do this.
They told me that they weren’t going to be playing their home bout for a few weeks, but they were going to be out of state. And I thought, yeah, I’m gonna make a trip. So I went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; I watched this team that I’d never seen. They played on a sport court in a hockey place, and I was like, “Yes, I have to do this.” Just the whole team and their camaraderie, it was just like I’d found my tribe, you know? This is where I wanted to be.
So we came back, I was like yes, I am right there, fresh meat, what all do I need? And I got cheap skates (thinking of it now makes my feet cringe). But yeah, and I started, it was a terrazzo floor in this little skate rink, actually in Swanton, Ohio, it’s just outside of Toledo, we bouted in Toledo, and yeah, I played for them. And so started fresh meat I guess in ‘09, I was bouting mostly in ‘10 I think, one of them carried over into ‘11 that I did, and then we moved in ‘11, so that’s why I stopped doing that. They were even the largest table at my wedding when I got married in ‘10, all of my derby girls. So that’s where it started, but then there’s some years off.
I was going to say—is Knoxville the only other team that you’ve played for?
Yes, so when I moved down here in ‘11, I was like, “Heck yeah, I wanna play, I wanna play with Hard Knox, they have a team, great!” Well I came down, we watched a few of their bouts, and I was like, “Ooh, okay, you guys are legit ranked.” So I was a little scared, a little intimidated, new people, new hitters, all of that stuff. I went down after a bout where they were playing where the Ice Bears play, I was talking to a few of the skaters, and found out they practiced in Oak Ridge. At that time where we were living, that would have been like an hour and fifteen minutes for me to get to practice, and I wanted to do it so bad, like I wanted to do it so bad, but I knew I probably couldn’t commit that to the team. It wouldn’t be fair, I wouldn’t be able to commit three hours of driving time a day to be able to do the practices and that wasn’t fair to the team. So, didn’t do that, and just went and watched them, and wished I could.
Goodness gracious, fast forward and I guess it got to be COVID times. I knew they weren’t practicing, like I was still following, and then I saw a post come up. I wanna say it was September of 2021, and they said, “Ahh we just had our first practice at the Change Center!” And something told me, I was like, “Wait a minute, that seems different.” I looked it up and found out it was downtown Knoxville, and I was like, “Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah.” I immediately sent a message (I now know it went to Kilty, but it was just messenger, so I didn’t know who it went to) and I was like, “Hey, so I used to skate like ten years ago. Interested, how do I come back?” They said something like, “Do you have gear?” And I was like, “Yeah, yeah, I have actually not gotten rid of my gear,” and I went and checked, and I even had my mouth guard from ten years ago (that’s gotten thrown away since). But yeah, I had everything, I put it in there, and went back. I wanna say it was, it ended up being around September 28 or October 28, one of those—it wasn’t soon after I was there, and the rest is HKRD history! Been there ever since!
What was the emotion as you came back to skating for the first time after ten years?
[nodding] Cause I’d had my skates on a couple of times when we went to roller rinks, never my pads, but to put that stuff back on: it’s a little bit of a gazelle, you know? Getting used to it again. I remember taking, I took some pictures that first day, just so I could remember the feeling, and I was like, *gasp* “I’m back! Like I’m back!” And I also felt so grateful, I was so nervous because I was gonna be awful at it, that was my thing. I was like, I’m gonna struggle, I know I’m gonna struggle. I just kept telling myself, “Don’t give up, just don’t give up, don’t give up.” When I got there, I was so grateful that there were so many people who were new to derby, wanted to try this out, give it a thing. The people I had seen there, later come to know that they were very very new. They had been Goose Poop [Island], like I couldn’t believe their skill level at that point when they were like, “Yeah, I had really never skated a month ago.” What! I couldn’t believe the determination, and I also felt…good, so me getting some skills back—I can do this in a group that feels super safe, it’s not something I’m gonna feel so far behind.
And I felt like there were plenty (not plenty, there were a few) of veterans that came back, so there was a whole lot of people that I could be like, “Yes, I want those skills that they have.” Then there was other people that I felt like I could almost like, “Hey, yeah, plow stops, they got me too, I’m working on them too, this is helping me, is it helping you, what helps you get it because you’re just learning it and maybe it’s something I was never really any good at.” They would help with me, so it was just such a good mix of not being pressured too much to be already at this certain elite level, but then also I felt like I could be helpful to those who were just learning to skate too, with the couple things that I remembered or helped me. Plus I had to learn a whole new derby because of course the rules set was not quite the same, not quite as fast, there was a lot.
Well, just sticking with it is an incredible achievement because it can be really overwhelming to come back like that. But are there any other achievements that you’ve had since you’ve come back that you’ve been especially proud of?
Well, little known fact, I played a #2 blocker, which is the inside line blocker. We didn’t, we kind of lined up in four [lanes]. There wasn’t the whole brace sort of thing. The 1 was the pivot, and they kind of could do anywhere, but I was holding the inside line. That was my job, I was a blocker. I have a picture of when they put me in as a jammer, and I was shaking so bad I didn’t even know if I was gonna make it around the track! I never jammed, and I only jammed that time because we were ahead by like a hundred or so, so it was put everybody in, let ‘em get a try. So when I was then going to be a jammer, I was like, “Um, wait, what? I’m gonna do what? I’m gonna stay a jammer?” I was going back and forth between those. But just being able to be a jammer, to get that mindset, cause it’s a little lonely sometimes, you know? You don’t have as much of that team mentality. You try to look for your teammates, but yeah it’s different, and when you mess up, it’s a lot more obvious. When you end up in the box, there’s a lot more at stake for it, mentally. So just getting to do that and still showing up to be like, yep, I’m still gonna do this, and I still think there’s hope for me to be a good jammer, but yeah, sticking with the jamming when I just, I came from such a blocking mentality.
What is your most common penalty, and does that say anything about your personality or derby playing style?
So previous to this year, I would’ve said that’s the cut track; as a jammer, cause when you get knocked out and your brain gets a little scrambled, you remember this person, but you don’t remember where anybody else really was at the time sometimes, but you think you’re in the good, you hop back on, and you get a little discombobulated basically when you’re trying to get back in. And we won’t even talk about Atlanta [2022 bout], because Atlanta, for some reason, I forgot the rules. And I was getting in and I was going back behind everybody, but I was doing it on the track instead of off, and I just didn’t understand until Inga told me what was happening, and I looked at her, and I remember thinking, “I did what? No, like, I went behind everybody!” And she said, “Yeah, but you did it on the track.” I was like what! Why would I do that? So it was cut track.
We’ve done a couple of bouts this year, and I wanna say, I’ve not been cutting track! I think I got a directional, which that feels really weird for a jammer, because typically you’re going that way, and then a back block. But what it says about me now, what I learned about just the most recent ones, is I gotta be a little more strategic and a lot less forceful, because I think that’s what’s happening with the back block: I am just trying to be an Earth jammer, and just plow through, a little bit of Fire too, and I think that’s getting me in trouble with where I’m knocking into people as I’m trying to move through.
How do you find a balance between roller derby and real life?
How do I think one should find a balance between roller derby and real life, or how does it work in real life? [laughing]
However you wanna answer that question!
Derby is exciting, and derby is a tribe, and derby lights me up in a way that is just, it’s hard to replicate. I mean, the endorphins, this is our drug, right? And we’re allowed to do it, you know? It’s not harmful in the addiction sort of way, of course we’re bruised and beaten, but you know, we’re sadomasochists, we like it. The balance in between, it is tricky. I like to bring [family] with whenever I can, like bringing to the bouts, and I need to prep for this thing or hiding Easter eggs, drive me around to hide Easter eggs, just trying to involve everybody in the process.
Having a daughter—I also think this is a good sport for her. We are more positive for women, but we are also uplifting for any gender, any expression of that gender, very open, so I think that makes that easy; sharing derby is helpful and finding that balance is just really sharing that because there’s so many positives about it and about the community, about what we stand for, what we don’t stand for, cause I don’t understand that also. My husband’s just become accustomed to it, which makes me happy, that’s good for him too.
But the balance can be hard because there’s so many things that I want to do with the team sometimes, and I have to back off and say, “Nope, I need to take a moment and do something non-derby, you know?” But the good thing is, derby’s understanding of that also, and when we need a minute, when we need a minute at practice. I had to leave practice once, Maddie was having some struggle at home, and I just needed to be there. I let practice know, this is what’s going on, and you don’t hear any grief about it. If anything, you get checked in, like, “Hey, you never leave practice early, is everything okay, you don’t have to tell me a whole lot.” So that’s why it’s easy to find balance because I think it gives us so much that helps balance the other parts of our lives and can contribute to so many other parts of life. And our breaks are nice too, but yeah, it’s easy to balance…it’s not easy to balance, but it is. It makes it so it’s easy to balance, cause we’re all here to have fun, right? We don’t get paid for this. It’s our own time and you have a supportive community that’s supportive of exactly what you can give to the team, because when we say we give 100% to the team, that doesn’t mean 100% of my time, of my energy, of everything—that means 100% of what I have to give. Derby makes it easy.
Who would you like to nominate for next month, and what do you want to ask them?
925 Jersey Cyclone. What are you most proud of in something you have overcome with derby? Because we all have to overcome something—what are you most proud of? And sometimes she’s so quiet, and I really want to know that! Because I see things, I see how she’s grown.
Yes! Like every time she’s tiptoeing on the side, I’m like, “Ahh, it’s so fun to watch!”
Yeah, and she just won’t give up. Definitely wanna know that, what she’s overcome, and I wonder if she tells people that she does derby, and I wonder their response.
Thanks for a fabulous conversation, Madam Bomb! Readers, you can catch her in both of our home bouts this Saturday, June 3, against The World and Greenville Roller Derby. Our fans had quite the presence at our first home bout, so you don’t want to miss out on your chance to be a part of the crowd! Until next time, be like Madam Bomb and don’t give up on something you really want.
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