Everything’s bigger in Texas, and that includes the talent. The Lone Star State has given us some iconic individuals: pilot Bessie Coleman, actor Tommy Lee Jones, author Rick Riordan, singer Beyoncé Knowles, and roller derby star Texas Tease. Get to know all about her in this month’s profile!

Name: Texas Tease

Number: 940

Travel Team: Brawlers

Home Team: Machine Gun Kellys

Years skating: 2

You were nominated by Cat, and she has a strategy question: On the starting line, what do you look for in the blocker swarm?

I look honestly for the weakest link, like the smallest person because I’m not a big person myself. I just look for somebody who might be about my same height— if they’re steady on their feet, looking at their feet to see how well they're set up and ready to go. That’s kind of what I look for, just the weaker link out of all of it.

Let’s start back at the beginning— how did you get involved with roller derby?

The reason I got involved in roller derby was: I watched the movie Whip It. I love that movie, and I understand that it’s different than roller derby is today, which is totally fine. Whip It is a pretty inaccurate version of roller derby itself, but it was still a cool concept. I’ve always been doing sports since I was a kid (mostly soccer, so it was always contact), and I have no issue being in contact with other people in playing sports like that. I think it’s fun. Looking at it, I thought those women were the most badass women in the freaking movie. I was like, “Yes! I want to be badass!”

How did coming into your second season compare to your first?

I would have to say about the end of the first season I was [feeling] a little pressure with things (it had nothing to do with the team, it was all my personal learning factor and how I learn). The first season is always a little frustrating because you want to be able to do more, and sometimes you don’t always get that lightbulb effect from the get-go, which is fine, but it wasn’t until I think right shortly after we finished my first season that some things kind of lightbulb in my brain. I was like, “Okay! Now I’m really ready to hit the track again and really throw myself at it, be patient with myself, and just try and watch others when they’re doing stuff.” I was paying more attention to everybody. We all know that I like to jam, so watching Jen Pinion and watching her do it, other people, just focusing on how they jam. So that’s kind of what I did, just take mental notes.

Do you have a favorite lightbulb moment that you were wanting to work on?

Finally learning how to hit people correctly and not stand up, because I love to kind of stand up straight. Pinion, when she hits people, she kind of dips down more right as she’s about to hit, which causes them to kind of lose more balance. You don’t want to be bigger than the person you’re about to hit or taller at that moment, standing up wise, because you’re gonna fall. Watching a lot of people just do that and remembering to hit a certain way— don’t hit straight forward, don’t be square, turn your shoulder, use the bonier part of yourself. My brain is stuck on hitting people with my shoulder instead of my hip, so I need to remember not to do that because I end up hurting my shoulders. So it’s just remembering— you know, taking all the mental notes.

Photo Credits: MidMemory Photography and Phanovich Photography

I feel like our coaches were really helping us with that right before we went on our break, because I have a similar issue of ‘it’s all shoulder’ when it shouldn’t be.

Yeah, because you think, “Oh that’s gonna hurt them, getting hit with the shoulder! It’s bony, right?” I mean, yeah, it’s bony, I’m sure it doesn’t feel great, but it doesn’t feel good because your entire rotator cuff is like, “Hey, that doesn’t feel great on me!” This season has been different altogether with the quarantine and everything.

How would you describe your derby playing style?

Photo Credit: Ezekiel Coppersmith Photography

[laughter] Spazz-tastic, I don’t know! Just kind of whatever pops into my head, I’m gonna go with. Just root for it, and stick with that plan. Everybody’s different. I’ve realized sometimes taking ‘O’ [offense] is not the easiest when you’re worn-out. It’s always different— you go with the punches that are rolled towards you, if somebody yells your name, just see where they are: “Ooh is that opening there? Great!” I don’t have one person that I look for ‘O’ from because everybody seems to come in at different times— you’ve helped me, Lyda’s helped me, a lot of other people have helped me at times, so it’s never just a single person all the time, it’s always different, which is fun! It keeps you on your toes, you know? Some people prefer to have one person do that for them, which is fine, I’m just more of a spazz-tastic skater. Wherever there’s any availability, I’m gonna go for it. It might not work, but hey, that’s okay! It’s always fun.

What have been some of your favorite moments as a jammer so far?

My best moment that I still can’t get over was actually a home bout. I broke through the wall, so I was lead jammer and everybody was going ‘O’ because I think the other jammer might have gone to the box. It was perfect— some of the other blockers on the other team went into the box as well and it just left me and two or three blockers. I went around that track so many times and it was great. I just remember Kilty yelling my name like, “You got this! Keep going! Don’t slow down!” I remember all of it— it was just perfect. When the jammer’s in the box, it made it great, because then I could focus on not just the jammer but on myself, and the team could just focus on me for a moment. I think that’s one of those moments, especially as a new jammer, you need that moment where the team is just focused on you because the other jammer’s in the box. It really helped. That was an amazing moment. Super proud of myself.

Do you have any kind of pre-game rituals to get you in the right mindset?

One thing that may sound really weird: I like to listen to heavy metal. And I don’t do this all the time, I do this before a bout because it gets me in that moment of enough anger to want to hit people. I’m not mad at people! I’m just angry enough that I’m just kind of in that moment of ‘let’s get this going.’ So it builds up that mental state of ‘I’m ready to hit people.’

Yeah, and if you associate the heavy metal only with derby, it’s putting you in that mindset every time.

Yeah, I’m ready to go for it, I’m ready to hit people really hard.

With the hip, not the shoulder!

Right, yeah with the hip, no shoulder! Not to break anything up here [gestures to shoulder] that’s kind of vital. So yeah, that’s kind of one thing I do, and that’s really the only thing I can think of. I mean, just drink coffee, listen to music, and get plenty of sleep the night before.

What is the story behind your skater name and number?

I honestly was trying to think of a badass roller derby name, but I really couldn’t think of any because they were stuff that was taken. I’m not a super cliche person, everybody’s different, I don’t like cliche things. So I kind of got to thinking— we all know I have huge pride being from Texas. I still love it, but I wouldn’t live there anymore. I love Texas, and I was trying to think of cool names like, “Ooh, Texas Rider, or Rough Rider,” and then my mom was like, “Texas Tease.” I was like you know, that actually sounds really cool, I really like that. Originally my plan was to go for number 13, but that’s what Cut is, she’s 13, because I had that in soccer for a while. Then I thought, if I’m gonna go Texas Tease, 940 will be a great number because 940 is an area code for my personal cell phone number. It’s a Texas area code, specifically the town in which I lived. I was like that’s great, it brings back a little piece of home with everything. So that was kind of the inspiration towards my skating number.

Nice! So what brought you to Tennessee from Texas?

So I moved here with an ex, things didn’t work out, which I’m glad they didn’t work out because I wouldn’t be in roller derby if I hadn’t broken up with him. I stayed strictly because I didn’t enjoy it when I lived with him, so I told myself and my parents (they really wanted me to move back because I was 20), I just kind of told my parents, “You know? I want to stay for a little while, I want to see if I like it just living by myself, I want to see if I can enjoy this and just see how it goes.” And then shortly after doing that my mom told me, “Hey, you know, you’ve always wanted to do roller derby— Knoxville has a team.” I remember looking at the website and I sent an email about wanting to join fresh meat and they said, “Okay, we’ll get some gear, here’s what you need, here’s where we practice, be here on this day and all this stuff.” That’s when I met everybody. There were a lot of veterans who were skating with us too, so that’s how I got close with everybody before the real first season started, which was nice. So yeah, it was pretty much just trying to live my life for myself and see how things went and explore new opportunities. I’m glad I did it, I’m glad I didn’t go running back to my parents. I’ve grown up a lot. That’s been nice.

What’s something that you’ve gained from roller derby— maybe something that you didn’t expect?

The can-do attitude. I really love saying, from our mantra, you know, “I am confident in my abilities.” Always be confident in your abilities, no matter what they are. That’s the best way to live life, in my opinion, just be the best you can to your abilities. Realize your strengths and realize your weaknesses, and just know your weaknesses can be improved on. There’s always room for improvement— no one is perfect. I don’t care how well you’ve got things down, there’s always some really cool way to learn something new. Even if you’ve already known it, people come into something and they point some really cool thing out, and if you can gain from that, that’s even better, but be confident in your abilities and you know, that’s a great thing to live by. I mean, if you can’t have confidence in yourself, what can you do? You’re gonna beat yourself up, and beating yourself up is kind of depressing, and you know, I’ve been there, but yeah, being confident in your abilities is great.

What have been some of your favorite derby moments off the track?

Oh my gosh, it’s great because this month is Pride month [interview was conducted in June]. Pride was fun— I remember we were told to go in the Coliseum because that storm was coming, and I just remember looking at Randy like, “Yeah, I’m not moving, I’m just going to stay right here with this storm because I’m not scared, and let’s just stay out here and get wet and it will be great.” That was really fun. Building the Habitat for Humanity was so much fun. I would do that again any time. I love that. Things like that were good times; I would do it all over again. I wish I had more stories, but from one season, that’s all I got. The volunteering was a lot of fun, especially to get to know some more of the team outside of practice. I would do that any time. Volunteering is a lot of fun for me.

Continuing on that same track, what are some things that you like to do in your free time?

So, I do like to work out, obviously skating. I like to go bike riding a lot. I’ve actually made new friends at work, so I do enjoy going out and hanging with my friends more often even though it’s quarantine. I actually volunteer on a horse farm now. It’s out in Lenoir City, it’s called Horse Haven. So they pick up horses that no longer (or) that haven’t had the proper care. I mean, being from Texas and being on a lot of farms, taking care of animals is a great thing. I enjoy being around animals a lot and just helping there.

Who would you like to nominate for next month, and what do you want to ask them?

I want to nominate Sharon Beaves. I was talking to her one week before quarantine, and last season towards the end of the last season. I’d like to know more about Beaves because I know she joined the team but she was on another team before us, and why she started, and how long she’s been in roller derby. She’s really nice, the times I’ve gotten to talk to her, but I don’t know too much about Beaves.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to chat with me, Texas Tease! This conversation was a great reminder that some really wonderful experiences can come out of moments that look like a struggle. Hopefully it won’t be too long before you can see her and the rest of the team out on the track. Until next time, be like Texas Tease and be confident in your abilities!

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Featured posts:

August Featured Skater: Sharon Beavers

July Featured Skater: Texas Tease

Name: Texas Tease

Number: 940

Travel Team: Brawlers

Home Team: Machine Gun Kellys

Years skating: 2

June Featured Skater: Cat

May Featured Skater: obLivion