two in the pink, one in the stink

The Bay Area Roller Girls are featured as the cover story in the new SF Weekly :B.A.D. Girls

The women have also picked up the endorsement of original roller derby's most famous bad girl, Ann Calvello, 75, of San Bruno, whose green hair and quixotic temper during a four-decades-long career have helped make her an icon within the all-girl derby milieu. (Teams in one of the Texas leagues play for the Calvello Cup.) She showed up to offer her best wishes at a recent Derby Girls benefit held at a San Francisco nightspot; it raised $5,000 for the budding league. Much of the money came from a "spanking booth" in which male fans lined up for hours for a chance to pat scantily clad Derby Girl bottoms at $1 a pop. "I don't know if these girls are roller derby's future," says Calvello, "but I sure as hell like their style and what they're trying to do."

The hour is late -- almost midnight -- and new coach Lydia Clay, 63, a veteran of roller derby during the 1960s and '70s, is putting the women through their paces. It's Clay's second workout with the Derby Girls after agreeing to help them in return for gas money for her commute from Hayward. "These girls have heart, and I love that," says Clay, a whistle dangling from her neck. As the one-time team captain of the Red Devils (a perennial nemesis of the old Bombers) during derby's second golden era, Clay has skated before countless thousands of fans, from the Cow Palace to Madison Square Garden.

The mere fact that the women are willing to commute long distances to practice at such a late hour (the only time they can secure a rink to themselves) says much about their commitment. Except for Amy Jo Stewart, 24, aka Stitches Stew, who skated for two Arizona teams before moving to San Francisco last year, the women are without derby experience. A few hadn't put on skates for years before the Derby Girls formed and, for now, offer more devotion than talent. At the start of practice Clay has turned diplomat when the women press her for an appraisal of their collective abilities: "Let's just say that we've got a lot of work to do."

tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Bay Area Roller Girls