September Featured Skater: Trace of Death

Name: Trace of Death

Number: 131

Travel Team: All Stars & Marble City Mayhem

Home Team: Bombshell Bettys

Years skating: 15

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She’s seen the league throughout its many different versions and names, but one thing that hasn’t changed is her intensity on the track! Get to know this month’s skater: Trace of Death.

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You were nominated by Deaf Rattle, who wants to know how you feel about being involved in roller derby for so long? And also what makes you want to be involved in roller derby?

I guess it’s just my passion, it’s hard to walk away from. Where I’ve played derby for so long, it’s kind of hard to not to play derby, you know? It’s kind of hard to watch from the sidelines. So I’m glad to be back.

What was Hard Knox like when you first joined?

It was a lot different back then. There wasn’t as much structure; it was not as much strategy. It was just basically trial and error from everyone that I’ve skated with over the years.

So how did you find the league? Had you been skating before then?

I worked at Sonic back then, with a friend of mine, and she had gone to a black and white scrimmage at the skating rink in Maryville, her and her husband. She was going to join, and we skated together at Sonic, and she just kept coming to work and telling me about it and kind of talked me into it. I didn’t really have any idea what I was getting myself into, but I had worked that day and I worked earlier shifts than her, and she kept on bugging me, so when I got off, I went and bought pads and went to practice. That was in April of ‘07.

Do you know if that friend still skates?

She doesn’t. She retired from our league (it’s KnoxVillain, #865).

And you’re still here!

Still here!

What positions do you enjoy skating?

I would rather block, but I like to jam.

What do you like most about blocking?

I think I like being able to get my jammer through because I know for a long time, I always struggled to get through, so I think from a jammer standpoint, after you’ve jammed for so long, it’s fun to be a blocker and get your jammer through, you know? So they don’t have to struggle.

What have been some of your favorite moments as a roller derby player?

When we went to Regionals in 2010. It was really exciting, but I had actually had foot surgery right before we went, so I went in a wheelchair. But I was there for the team. And that was the best Hard Knox had ever done. So it sucked, but I had extra wheels with my wheelchair, you know? [laughs]

You had all of the wheels!

Right!

How would you describe your derby-playing style when you’re out on the track?

I would say now we have a lot more strategy, and I have a lot more tools in my toolbox. I just try to stay focused and be a team player.

Did you have any particular goals at the start of this season, like something you wanted to add to that toolbox or refine in there?

Just to listen to my coaches and try to stay with my teammates because they haven’t always done that with derby, per se, so I’ve kind of always, like when I blocked, I was usually always [on] offense, so I didn’t really have to stay with my teammates. I could just pretty well do what I wanted to. But now since it’s a lot different than that, clearly two people can do a lot better than one, so basically I just want to stay with my person at all costs, if I’m blocking.

How do you like to spend your free time?

Just hanging out with my son and my nephew. I help my sister out with him. He’s just three. She works at night, so he usually stays with me for five nights a week and I take him to school the next day.

Do they ever come to any of your bouts? What do they think of you when they see you out there?

Well, my sister and my mom and like most of my family have always seen me skate over the years, not usually missed a game or anything, so they really like it. My nephew, however, he’s so little he doesn’t really pay too much attention, I would say, because he’s so little he doesn’t really know what’s going on, but he loves skates and he loves anything with wheels, so that kind of keeps his focus a little.

It’s just normal for him to see you out there, like it’s no big deal.

Yeah!

What is the story behind your skater name?

So when I first joined Hard Knox, it was really hard to get any kind of name because—I don’t know if you know a little bit about that, but there was some kind of database—so I actually went through like fifty names or something before I got my name now, but like everything that I wanted was taken or someone had something similar to it. For instance, my initials are T & T, so I wanted “TNT,” but back then there was a “TNTiara” so I couldn’t have “TNT.” Or I wanted “Dynamite” since that’s kind of like TNT, and of course that was taken, but there was probably about fifty names that led up, and everything was taken or I couldn’t have it, so actually my friend that I started playing derby with, Knoxvillian, her husband had just come across it, and you know, it was kind of like the movies. So really once he said that, it stuck. It had my name in it, nobody could say that I couldn’t have it, so I just accepted it.

And what about your number?

That is my son’s birthday. His birthday is January 31, so it just kind of stuck, so I kept his birth month and birthday.

What has roller derby taught you about yourself?

I guess that I’m a lot stronger than I had originally thought, maybe!

You are definitely very strong, any time I have to block against you: I’m just going to the floor!

[laughs] Well thank you!

What advice would you give to someone who wants to play roller derby?

It’s a good outlet, and stick with it. I think anyone can do it if they put the time and effort into it. Because I’ve skated with a lot of people that couldn’t even skate when they first came to practice, you know? So just keep pushing.

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

Mad Dawg, because she came in right after I left, and she used to play junior derby, so I’m interested in seeing how far she’s come from junior derby to now being on the All Stars: what’s that been like?

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Thank you for a great conversation, Trace! Hard Knox fans, keep an eye out for more information about our latest fresh meat boot camp that will begin on Wednesday, November 2. Maybe you will be one of those who tries it out, and if you do, I hope you take Trace’s advice to stick with it!

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August Featured Skater: Deaf Rattle

Name: Deaf Rattle

Number: 77

Travel Team: Allstars

Home Team: Bombshell Betty

Years skating: 11

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Longtime Hard Knox fans know that when this skater takes the track, their hands will go up to cheer on this tough-as-nails athlete! Get to know August’s skater of the month: Deaf Rattle!

You were nominated by The Business, who wants more insight on what drives you to be in a hearing dominated setting as a Deaf person.

So I grew up playing outside a lot. I was a really active kid and I made friends outside. I just loved being in the outdoors, doing different types of activities, like skating and bicycling and different things like that. So my sister would take me to the rink, probably at least once a week or every week, and in the beginning it was really tricky to get a hand on. From the time I was about eight we were going to the skating rink, and I was just getting better and better, and I started to really fall in love with it. So I would start trying new tricks and challenges, and I would be going round and round the rink, and I loved it, it was a lot of fun. And it was just, it wasn’t super physical, it was just skating around, and it was just a beautiful fun time.

Then we had to stop because we had moved to a different state, and we did some moving. We came to Tennessee about, I was about fifteen, so I went to school and played different sports like basketball, volleyball, I did track, and I actually ended up becoming the MVP twice for volleyball and for basketball. I actually got 33 points in one game, at one point, and I got a lot of rebounds, and I broke the school record at one point too. And then with track, we went to state, and I got champion three times. And we played against a lot of hearing kids, and my team was all hearing, I was probably the only Deaf person, and I still got the championship three times.

Then in Europe, I went to the Deaf Olympics. I got the silver medal for the high jump and the 110 metres hurdles (I got two silver medals for that as well that I got to bring home). I’ve just come across tons of Deaf people all over the world that use different languages, and I’ve been learning and trying to pick up their different types of sign languages all over the world, like Italian sign language, Swedish, Japanese, just all these different types of sign language. And that was in 1993, I was about seventeen when I was in the Deaf Olympics for track.

I got married, I have a daughter, she’s growing up so fast, and I decided to settle down. And then everything started to change, so I tried to find something, tried to find a way to do something different, something that I really loved because I really wanted to continue to be active. So I didn’t have anything until I had moved to a different city here, in Knoxville, and so I had found roller derby as I moved around. When I moved back I found a Deaf community there, and I knew a lot of people, and as I got to know more and more of them, I found an old friend that had mentioned the roller derby, and had asked, “Hey, you wanna come?” And I wasn’t really sure what they were even talking about, and I was like, “A movie?” And they were like, “No, no, it’s a game, like roller derby’s a sport.” I think that was about in 2011, so I bought my ticket, took my daughter, my friend, and I, and we all went, and I watched the game, and oh my God, it was—my jaw dropped, I was speechless! I got to see what that sport was like, all the way back then, and it was kind of interesting because I got to tie it back to my childhood of when I would just be goofing off, having a good time in the rink, and I would watch that on the old TV, like I’d see in the 70s it was a thing. I remember wanting to join and learn how to play when I was younger, but I’d never really found it, there was never one established nearby, but now I had some friends, and in 2011 we had thought about it, and we said, “You know what? We miss that kind of stuff, we should really go back and try to set that up.” We didn’t really know how, so after watching the game, the next day we had figured out that we should set up and try to join a roller derby team, and now I don’t know how to stop!

I can’t quit, it’s my favorite thing. I love it so much, there’s nothing else I’d rather do. It really fuels my soul, my spirit, and it just brings me so much joy. It’s also really awesome for exercise, and I love, you know, being able to go around and see fans looking at me, cheering for us. I’m a blocker, so typically they’re ready to help support and protect my other teammates, and it when it’s all done, seeing people cheer with their hands—you know, we don’t clap, because I’m Deaf, so we can’t do the normal clap—so they have their hands as a way to Deaf cheer for me, and I let them know that a little while back because I am Deaf. I hope that answers your question!

Yes, absolutely! I had no idea that you had been involved in so many sports and in so many places, that’s really cool! So you just identified yourself as a blocker: is that your favorite position to play?

So I was a jammer, and then I became a blocker. Being a jammer was honestly so much fun. Being a blocker’s okay, it’s not bad, because when you’re a jammer, you just have to weave through, you have to be really fast, and I was very thin at the time, and now I got a little bigger. So I’m a little too big, I think, to be a jammer, to be weaving through like that, and you have to be super strong, so for a jammer, that’s kind of the requirements for that kind of position. I’m really tough and I’m really talented when it comes to this game, and I’m confident in my skill, so I became a blocker too. And that’s why I started being a jammer a little less, because I started gaining a little bit of weight and it was harder to play that position. I really like being a blocker, yes, but a jammer was probably my favorite, but being a blocker’s totally okay, I have a good time.

I will say, any time I have to go up against you as a jammer, I always, I’m very intimidated. You are a very strong jammer, in my opinion.

[Laughs] Yeah, so funny story: you know Trace of Death? So before I had gone to compete, and oh my God, they were super strong, and I was super thin at the time, of course, and so it was easy for them to hit me, but now with an older team, I’m able to get them back. I joined Hard Knox in 2011, and then I moved to Little City Roller Girls in 2014. Then in 2020 you know, had to stop obviously because of COVID, and then moved to Knoxville, and then it was a little too far for me, and then I went back to my old team, and then I got to be with Trace of Death again. We practiced and trained and they said that they wanted to use me as, she called me that I was basically like a brick wall because of how strong I am now and how much strength I’ve gotten over the years, because back then it was nothing, you could hit me and there I went tumbling down, but now you can’t hit me.

Did you have any goals for yourself at the start of the season? And if so, have you achieved any of them?

Well, I guess I had a goal for our team, which is communication and have the team learn more sign language so that they can understand me better, and I want them to learn a little bit more about Deaf culture. I want to expose them to my world and teach them about who I am and what it’s like to be a part of the hearing world and what it’s like to go back and forth between the two, and show them that I love learning new things and I’m always really motivated to keep going, and so I wanna get to know the whole team, because we’re one at the end of the day. I love the word “teamwork.” That is probably my favorite word because that includes communication, knowing where to go, what to do, and I just love being able to talk and communicate with my team, I think it’s a crucial part of the game, and with sign language, I think it’s even more important because then I can enjoy it just as much as they do, and then it can be fully inclusive and it’s fun for me and it’s fun for them. That’s a goal I had for everyone.

I really appreciated the TikTok that you recorded for our affirmations. Being able to sign them as I say them is really cool.

Yeah! And I also really like, you know, before a game starts, we all get huddled up together as a team, and I love how the team gets all hyped up together, and you know they try and learn some fingerspelling, so we’ll fingerspell together, and just really have that moment where it’s inclusive for me and my language, so that’s another thing I probably love the most.

ASL Affirmations with Deaf Rattle

Is there a story behind your skater name and/or number?

Yes! So when I joined the team, I was supposed to pick 7, but somebody already had the number 7, so I was trying to think, “Oh, what do I do?'' Then I decided to go with 17, but somebody had already chosen the number 17, so I was trying to think, “Oh, what do I do now?” So I thought about maybe doing 77 and seeing if anybody else had number 77. So really, my favorite number is 7, it was really important to have the 7, but nobody else had 77, so yeah, I like the number 7, so I thought 77 was going to be good.

And then “Deaf Rattle,” that was given to me by—I’ve forgotten who that was, the skater who gave me that name…Goblin! It was Goblin who gave me that name. They used to skate with us—because before, “Deaf Growl” was my name. I was thinking that that didn’t really fit me, and Goblin recommended “Deaf Rattle,” and I took their suggestion and I took their idea of “Deaf Rattle,” and I feel like that really matches with the hands, like when you clap in sign language, it’s like you’re rattling your hands. So I feel like that’s a really good, that was given to me by Goblin, recommended the name of “Deaf Rattle,” and I think it’s a, I forgot their number, I think it might be 39, if you look, you can see in previous records, they always painted and did the crazy painting on their face, and they recommended the name of “Deaf Rattle” which I liked and thought it was just a good fit.

What is something that roller derby has taught you about yourself?

Well, I feel like roller derby has really inspired me. I love the action, I feel so good when I’m out there. I like the thrill of hitting, I like the crazy atmosphere, I just love that, and really I feel like I’ve learned to control myself. I would say I’ve learned how I control myself, and I’ve also learned how to be more stress-free. That’s been a really good thing for me that’s helped me be a happy spirit, on and off the rink, and it’s, I’ve learned my skills, it keeps me going, it’s been really great. It’s enhanced my life.

Is there anything else you want to add?

Going to RollerCon in Las Vegas: it’s an annual thing, I went there, I’ve gone there three times now. I was just learning a lot of different drills that helped me a lot, and we had a Deaf team in a game, and if there weren’t enough Deaf skaters—I think there’s one from Canada (or maybe two from Canada)—and there was one girl, I can’t remember her name, but she was the number 7, and she was in the movie Whip It, so she was one of the actors in it, I mean. She wasn’t shown a lot in the movie, but she was just kind of a background character that didn’t have a big role, and she was playing on the banked [track] in the movie, and she was on my team in Las Vegas at RollerCon! So that was a pretty cool experience for me. I felt really honored to meet the person who was a character in Whip It, so she knew fingerspelling and that was a really cool and awesome experience for me. I was learning to take classes about banked and how to walk up the bank safely and different rules about that, but when we skated it was really fast. It was fun but when you got hit, oh man, it was super easy to get down because it was such a steep bank. But it was cool—there were so many different classes, and I was just wanting to learn all these new techniques and drills to help us get better, to help us improve our skills. 

Again it was just so cool to meet so many different people and meet people from different teams and other states, from all over the world and different countries too. The recognition of skaters, I’ve met so many of them, I flew out there, it was San Diego, the team there, I trained with them, just for the day, on both the banked rink and the flat rink where they had both in the building and I was like, “Wow, this is really cool!” And it was fun meeting all of them and I just learned so much from them and yeah, it was just fascinating. So now that I’ve experienced that, I would love to do that again.

I don’t know how to quit roller derby, to be honest with you! Maybe until my body tells me to stop, when I’m old and gray, you know?

Well I hope that day does not come soon, because you’re definitely an asset for our team! 

Thanks, me too!

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

I think I will nominate Trace of Death. How do you feel about being involved in roller derby for so long? Because she’s been there for so many years, and also what makes you want to do this, what makes you want to be involved in roller derby?

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Thank you for an amazing conversation Deaf Rattle! You have done so many incredible things, and I’m so proud to be your teammate.

Until next time, be like Deaf Rattle and find your own path towards being a happy spirit, on or off the track!

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