Name: Mobile Crisis
Number: 16
Travel Team: Brawlers
Home Team: Moonshine Moxies
Years skating: 1
She’s a fierce blocker who has officially made her debut with HKRD this season! Get to know August’s Skater of the Month: Mobile Crisis!
You were nominated by Tough Muffin, who wants to know: how confident are you on the track versus off the track?
[laughs] I think that’s a great question! I am not a very confident person in all areas of life, and I think with being so new to derby and still trying to hone skills and figure out the game: definitely, I do not have a lot of confidence in my skills. That is something that I am hoping to continue to work on.
You’ve been involved with or adjacent to the roller derby community for quite a while. When did you first learn about the sport?
I think I went to my first bout in 2006. Like a lot of other people, I had seen derby on TV in childhood and kind of had some vague ideas of what was going on. And I can’t remember exactly how I found out about that first bout (probably flyers posted around) but me and some girlfriends went, and it seemed like that was super awesome! Couldn’t wait to get involved, but life happened, and actually did not reach out to try a fresh meat or meet any people until later (2014).
Had you skated before, or done any of that sort of stuff as a kid?
I skated as a kid. I think I might have been eleven or twelve, somewhere around there, and I told my parents that I wanted to play hockey. And so they signed me up for figure skating lessons. And that was good! I was informed it was less dangerous (and I supposed it is).
But I took ice skating lessons; I think I had a pair of roller blades. I’d go to roller skating and birthday parties, those sorts of things. Took mostly ice skating lessons, and then middle of high school actually got a job working at the ice rink, and so spent time on skates for that. But when 2014 rolled around and I did my first fresh meat, it had been years since I had consistently been on any sort of skate.
So you tried first in ‘14; this past year, you did fresh meat again. Any reason you can think of why this is the year that it stuck for you?
Uh, life! In 2014 I did a fresh meat round, and the league had some different standards at the time, so it took a little bit, and I passed the WFTDA [Women’s Flat Track Derby Association] test, where we had to do a certain number of laps in a certain amount of time, that was excellent. It was just a couple of practices in, after I had passed my sort of test, and I got pregnant with my son. And so that kind of derailed things for a little bit, and then I went to graduate school, and then life kept happening.
I came back at the beginning of 2022, and did not do a fresh meat, and two practices in, I sprained my ankle, and had to do physical therapy, and it took a few months to get back on track. I think it was April of that year, I decided that I really did need to do a fresh meat to kind of get my skills back up to speed. Did that fresh meat, and I think two practices in, sprained the other ankle. So I did yet another fresh meat in October of ‘22, and then all of 2023 I spent that year doing rec league and just sort of slowly coming to practices, trying to build confidence, and just spending more time on skates. So 2024 is the first year that I have actually dedicated to doing derby.
Whenever we tell people that we play roller derby, they tend to have questions for us. What is your favorite question or the most common question that people ask you?
Oh gosh. I don’t know that I get a lot of questions right off the bat. It’s more surprised faces, like, “Wait, what? Do you guys hit each other?” I guess that’s the biggest sort of area of questions or, “How violent is it? Do you guys still punch each other?” And then if someone remains interested, then they’ll start getting into questions about how the sport actually works and how you score points.
What is your favorite position to play and why?
Well, it’s not jamming. [laughs] I don’t know if that is because of a lack of endurance; I think it is more still not feeling super confident on skates. I think when you’re jamming, there is a lot more agility that is involved, and I still have in the back of my mind: you’re older and you can get injured, and so take it easy.
I do prefer blocking. I have a goal of eventually trying to do some pivoting, but still tend to shy away from that, simply because of the possibility of having to switch over to being a jammer. But definitely blocking, and I prefer the outside lane, and I also do like to brace. I like being able to see the action coming at me, and I like trying to figure out where to help my teammates sort of get into the best position to stop the jammer.
How would you describe your blocking style?
Hmmm, I wouldn’t! [laughs] At this moment, my style is trying to learn, figuring out what works best, what doesn’t, and doing everything that I can to adapt, to hone my skills into being a more effective blocker. Even though I’ve been around derby for so long, I feel like I really have not actually played for very long, and there’s still a lot of things that I’m figuring out about the game.
What is your most common penalty, and does that say anything about your personality or your playing style?
Well, my husband would say my common penalty is the fact that I don’t get very many penalties! And I think that is because I’m much more reserved in my playing—instead of sort of being more aggressive and going for it, I’m still kind of waiting to see what’s happening and what’s coming. So I really have not gotten very many penalties, but I think that the most common one I have gotten is either a multiplayer or a directional. On the times when I do get really into what’s happening and I’m going to try to hit somebody out, I usually stop thinking about the rest of the rules and just get them.
What is the story behind your skater name and number?
Skater name is because of my profession. “Mobile Crisis” is the unit that you call when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, and so if somebody is in the community and they are in need of some psychiatric care, you call Mobile Crisis. I have never actually worked for Mobile Crisis, but I do work for the organization that runs Knoxville’s mobile crisis unit, and a lot of the positions that I have had over the years are very Mobile Crisis adjacent. I’ve spent most of my career working with individuals that are experiencing mental health crises or significant mental health symptoms.
And 16 is just because that’s the only number I’ve ever had. I did not play team sports growing up, and I joined an adult co-ed soccer team with my husband 10+ years ago, and that is the number that was just randomly assigned on the jersey. So 16 seemed like a pretty good one.
What have been some of your favorite derby moments? These could be either on or off the track.
I think on the track: my favorite moments are times when I feel like I was effective, and sometimes I understand what I did that was great, sometimes I don’t understand what I did (what was great) but those moments where it’s like, “Ohhh! You were in the right place at the right time, and you did something good! You stopped somebody! You did great!” I think those moments are good.
Off the track, I don’t know. It’s a great community, so spending time with each other and getting to know each other is pretty fun.
Do you have any pre-game rituals?
Try not to think about it! [laughs] That is pretty much the biggest thing that I do, because if I think about it all day, I get pretty nervous. I don’t know that I have developed any rituals, because I think at this point I really only played in—what have we had, four or five games? Something along those lines? I think my routine is just: try to keep Saturday as normal as possible. It’s just another day, it just happens to be a day that we’re going to play a game, and if I think too much about it, then it makes me nervous, and then I think it probably negatively affects how I’m going to do. Too much in my head, I can’t think about it.
So we only have had a few, but so far, have you preferred our home bouts or traveling for away bouts?
I actually prefer the away bouts. I think part of that is because I don’t know the people that are there, you know? I don’t really know all of the people that are at our home bouts either, but just being in a different place: I’m going to walk in, I’m gonna do the game. These people don’t know me, it just feels like the pressure is a lot less when we’re away.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Yesh, what free time? [laughs] I like to read. I like to craft, make things. Before I made the decision to go into the mental health field, I thought that I was going to be an architect. I do enjoy drawing and painting and designing and those kinds of things. I like spending time with my family. My kids are very athletic, and so there’s always some sort of game or practice or something to watch, so I do enjoy that.
What does your family think about you playing roller derby? Have they been to any of the bouts yet?
My parents are season ticket holders! So I think that’s good. My family is very supportive. I think my dad is pretty excited. I did not play organized sports growing up, but my brother did, and so I think it’s kind of—my dad went to every single one of my brother’s games, and now I’ve got some games, so I think he is enjoying showing up. Definitely my mother’s goal for every bout is just to not get injured. As long as I come home without an injury, it has been a successful game, regardless of the score!
Well that’s a perfect segue, because my next question was: what is your goal for the rest of the season, since we are halfway through it?
I think my goal for the rest of the season is to just finish. Which may be a small goal, but I think it’s a huge goal. This has been a dream of mine for eighteen years. To be able to be on the team and to play, and having all these bumps in the road, and finally getting to the point where I am right now—I think my goal is just to finish, and then my goal for the next season is to come back. You know, every practice that we have, every game that we have, my skill set improves, and my understanding of what I need to be doing on the track increases, and I am really looking forward to seeing where I am three, four years down the road.
Who would you like to nominate for next month, and what do you want to ask them?
Shreddy Krueger. I guess my question is just: why derby? I know that she has been involved in other sports, different athletics. Why derby? Why now?
Thank you for a super fun and thoughtful conversation Crisis! Readers, you don’t have much longer to catch her and the other Hard Knox skaters at home this season, so make sure you clear up your schedule! Until next time, be like Crisis, and make it a goal to just finish something important to you!
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