Name: override
Number: 11
Teams: Marble City Mayhem & Team Zebra
Home Team: Bombshell Bettys
Years skating: 30
They’re known for their quick calls and even quicker movement on the track—get to know May’s skater of the month: override!
You were nominated by Endorphin Annie, who wants to know: have you always been as fast as you are now on the track?
[laughs] I probably used to be faster, actually. I started out as a kid, first just going to the roller rink, you know, when I was ten, but then I got into speed skating after that. I did inline speed skating for a couple years. So that’s where I got some of my form, but I’ve always been pretty fast.
Did that translate to any other—did you play any other sports or anything like that?
Yeah, I played baseball from like five years old to junior in high school, until I got cut my senior year because I wasn’t big enough, but it happens.
So you skated as a kid. How did you discover roller derby?
I didn’t discover that until much later. So I was actually getting ready to finish graduate school, and there was a girl in my—actually, what I used to do is: I would bring my skates up to our studio whenever we had to do all nighters for school, and when I would get tired, I would skate a loop, you know, around the building. I’d be inside the building, but one of the other girls actually joined Red Stick Roller Derby, and told me about it. She was like, “You would probably like it.” And I was like, “You’re kidding!” I skated all growing up, but I didn’t know about roller derby until I was 25.
So you joined roller derby. What position did you like to play then?
Well, I wasn’t able to actually play for a while because back then, they just had referees, and we weren’t allowed to play or touch any of the skaters, so there was no contact. Mostly because it was, you know, fear of guys hurting girls and stuff like that. So it wasn’t until I moved to LA when I got to play on the men’s team for the first time, and I pretty much started out doing jamming mostly. But back then (I guess it’s always been the same) endurance has always been the biggest hurdle with jamming.
What do you like about jamming?
I think whenever I jam, it’s sort of my focus. It’s sort of like when a horse puts the blinders on their eyes, it’s essentially kind of what I do to where my mind goes into like a rapid tornado, and I’m just focused straight ahead, to where I just go go until I can’t go any more.
Do you have a signature move that you try to do if you can?
I guess I always like the one-foot turnaround, to where it’s like you slide along the outside or inside edge on one foot backwards. So I tend to do that one a lot.
What are some of your favorite achievements on the track?
There’s been a small handful of times where I’ve made like a 25 or 28 point jam. Let’s see, there was one time where we ended up winning by a couple of points. I wouldn’t say it was the last, final point, but it was a very close game, and so I was able to get out, score, and call it off. Basically got to make sure that we won. So that was a good feeling.
How did you decide on your skater name and number?
The skater name came about from Crash Override, from the movie Hackers. Big Hackers movie fan and computer hacking kind of fan. The number came about from: originally my number was 11d2, until they stopped allowing letters. That one came from SNL, I think, or Celebrity Jeopardy, where it was 3 or eleventy-two (it’s a made up number, it’s a number that sounds like a number but is made up).
You did start as a referee for roller derby. Had you ever reffed before for another sport?
No, so that was kind of the only way I could do anything with derby, was just refereeing, at the time. But you know, I’ve really enjoyed it just because skating is very difficult, as far as being a skater, for its own reasons, and then being a referee is difficult for very different reasons, but both are very challenging to where you never really perfect it. You’re always just trying to be the best you can at it.
When you’re getting ready for a bout, do you have a different mindset that you have to put yourself into if it’s reffing versus skating?
Well for reffing, not so much. If I’m a Head Ref, then I do have to do a lot of mental prep on different things, so as far as coordination and knowing, trying to think about all the different parts of the game, like EMTs [Emergency Medical Technicians] and doing the Head Ref/Coach meeting and then the referee meetings, trying to go over any new rule changes, and so there’s just a lot of mental preparation.
But with skating, I definitely have a way that I get into a zone to where I typically don’t talk to people. I usually just have to be quiet, and then I have to do at least several sprints beforehand. I usually like to get my heart up really high beforehand, and then I kind of find a corner someplace, and just zone out to get mentally prepared for what I want to do.
What is your favorite position to ref?
I think probably front pack ref, but I do, I don’t know, I like all of them because they’re all different, but I tend to like the rapidness of front pack. You sort of have to be aware of a lot.
Do you notice any similarities in the penalties you call versus the ones that you yourself might commit? I mean, obviously you’re going to call whatever you see, but you know, we might be aware of certain things.
No, I don’t usually get a whole lot of penalties called on me. I mean I do, but not like an exorbitant amount. But they’re always different, so I don’t have like a tendency to do one thing or another. I do know that if I’m trying to overdo it, like I’m trying to overcompensate (for if we’re losing and trying to do the job of two or three people) I’ll get more penalties, just from trying to be overly aggressive I guess. But it’s always different, you know? Sometimes I’ll get back blocks or forearms or cutting [the track], it’s just kind of a gambit, so I don’t really have a tendency for anything.
Do you feel like you are a ref who skates or a skater who refs?
Skater who refs.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Usually I do a lot with computer graphics and software, so I’ve always been big on learning different softwares and code and website design and things like that. More often than not, I actually am either researching or exploring new softwares. So a lot of computer stuff really.
What’s a piece of advice that someone gave you that has stuck with you?
I guess for as a referee: the first big piece of advice I got was my first game that I was jam refereeing, and it was one of the coaches from the opposite team that came up to me. He was a former level 5 ref that came up and was very stern and asking me questions and things like that, trying to get me shook up because he could see that I was new. But he basically was critiquing my hand signals and how you need to do them, do them big, do them right. And so ever since then, I’ve always done very big, slow hand signals, very properly.
For skating, one of the first pieces of advice that I got was as a jammer, and I was just trying to push through a pack and that wasn’t working. One: because you use all your energy, and two: I don’t really have the size to do that. So they’d say, “You know you don’t have to push straight through. You can move side to side, and you should do that.” It was just a simple comment, but it was one that I always keep in my mind. I’m not going to try to push until I know I can actually make it through.
And sometimes it takes someone else pointing out what is actually obvious for it to click in our brain!
Oh yeah.
Do you have any goals for yourself for this season?
I don’t know if I have goals that I’m still striving towards, but one that I did that I was fairly proud of myself for doing was—we did the survival sort of mini tournament thing in Kentucky. It was just five people on the track, nonstop, and just being able to make it through five 20 minute length games and doing well, I felt was a pretty good achievement. I wasn’t sure whether I would have to bow out and go vomit into a bucket somewhere or not.
If you could describe your derby experience in 3-5 words, or maybe a short sentence, what would you say?
My derby experience in a short sentence…I would say adventurous. I’ve been able to go, see, do, and meet more places and people in my derby experience than I ever thought that I would. I’ve traveled most of the United States and met thousands of people from all over the world, just doing derby. So it’s been a whole series of memories that were so much more than I could’ve imagined I ever would have been able to get.
What advice do you have for people who want to either play or ref roller derby?
It is what you make of it, I guess. If you really want to get into it, you can go and do with all different kinds of leagues. I think a lot of people get stuck trying to stay just with their one league, but to go and visit other leagues, and to try to do scrimmages or extra events—you can make so much out of it that you want to.
Who would you like to nominate for next month, and what do you want to ask them?
Tough Muffin. I don’t know why, but the only thing I have is: what do you want to be when you grow up?
Thank you for a great conversation, override! Readers, you will have a chance to see them and the rest of Team Zebra at our regular season opener on May 18. We’re down at World’s Fair Exhibition Hall, and you can catch bouts at 5 and 7. Until then, be like Override, and make the most out of the opportunities that life sends your way.
-smalls-