Roller Derby Breaks the Rules on Being a Ballwin Mom

Shelley Hogan doesn’t have trouble expressing herself. As an educated 30-year-old woman working as a patient care technician at Barnes Jewish West County Hospital, Hogan can comfortably and intelligently talk about a variety of subjects – America’s attitude toward sports, her high school classes at the Gateway Institute of Technology, or the subtler differences of living in St. Louis versus in Ballwin, where she, her fiancé Gil Tiemann and two children moved to last summer from Soulard.

But when the conversation veers to roller derby, stop. The game has changed:

“I don’t even know how to put it into words,” Hogan said.

It isn’t that Hogan isn’t able to explain the sport – quite to the contrary; despite having played for barely more than a year, Hogan discusses the game’s strategy and structure with the authority of a professional.

But when asked to describe her attraction to the game, which contains violence on par with most competitive hockey leagues, Hogan smiles looking almost exasperated as her excitement starts to build.

“My outlook in the last year has changed,” Hogan said. “You tend to realize how strong you are.”

Hogan said with that strength came confidence as well as inspiration, both of which she’s tried to instill in others by encouraging them try out roller derby or a new muse of their own.

“I’ve always been a strong person, but … I just wish every woman could find that part of them,” Hogan said. “It’s empowering. Very empowering.”

Hogan said her own interest in roller derby was first piqued about three years ago, when she sought out a kickball team as an alternative to playing soccer –  a pastime she’d enjoyed at Tower Grove Park growing up.

“And my friend, Pink Diamond, she was in Saint Chux [Derby Chix] and she said, ‘Well, you should play roller derby.’”

Pink Diamond?

“It’s so weird now,” Hogan said. “I don’t know anybody’s real name.”

In fact, the universal use of nicknames in roller derbies – which includes The Educator, Punches Pileup and Deathica Steele locally – even extends to outside the rink.

“I remember when I joined the league and I got this inbox full of Facebook friend requests and thought, ‘Who are these people?’” Shelley Hogan said, who otherwise goes by Shell Shoxx.

After spending the better part of 2010 playing for Saint Chux Derby Chix, Hogan was recruited into the more competitive Arch Rival Roller Girls at the start of this year. The group contains four teams for interleague play throughout the equivalent of the school year, then breaks out into two competitive clubs in summer. Hogan's team, Saint Lunachix, will face off against the Springfield, MO-based Springfield Roller Girls at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Queeny Park. The ARRG All-Stars travel team will face the Ohio Roller Girls at 8:30.

The overall experience has been exhilarating and sometimes debilitating.

Since she started playing, Hogan went from weighing about 185 pounds to 135. In fact, she weighed even less last fall, several months into paying with Saint Chux. It was then during an away game in Arkansas that Hogan broke a rib, which was followed by an excruciating drive back to Missouri as she realized the extent of her injury.  When she finally saw a doctor, he ordered her to gain 5 more pounds.

“He said that I broke my rib just because I didn’t have enough cushion.”

After making the jump into ARRG in January, Hogan said she experienced another rude awakening.

“These vets kicked the [expletive] out of you, and I needed that. I needed to up the competition,” Hogan said. “No one knows how long their derby career is going to go. So I kind of told [Saint Chux], ‘I love you guys, but I need to go follow this and see where it’s going to go.”

Although each league is different, most have a mixed makeup, with ARGG players typically falling between 21 and 40 years-old. Attorneys, at-home moms, day care teachers, social workers and artists are just some of the careers carried on by the derby girls outside the rink.

“And they are so awesome,” Hogan said. “It just feels good. It’s like a little family, and I like that.”

In fact, the diversity of the women who participate in ARRG and roller derby in general was part of the reason Hogan was taken aback by an encounter last year. As gradeschool-aged skaters were wrapping up a birthday party hosted at a rink in St. Charles, Saint Chux Derby Chix were asked not to enter the facility until the kids finished leaving; per the request of a group of mothers, the facility manager asked the group of loudly-dressed women, suited up to play, to wait outside until the kids were gone.

“So that really took me back, because I look at [those moms] and think, ‘You’re the ones who I want to ask to play!’” Hogan said. "They were judging us. Almost everybody has children in that league. It just kind of hurt my feelings.”

Hogan said a little turbulence while balancing two working adults’ schedules, roller derby, her kids’ classes and their activities was inevitable. Enrolling in nursing school, too, may have been delayed by roller derby in part, Hogan said, but no more so than the obligations of raising a family, which happens at its own chaotic pace.

Daughter Meaghan, 7, attends in Ballwin, along with her older brother Gabriel, who’s 9.  Growing up, too, can make for a race that’s difficult to keep up with.

“It’s like the little dirty boy is starting to go, ‘Whoa, do you see my hair?’ Hogan said. “I’m not ready for that, either.”

When: First bout at 7 p.m., Second bout at 8:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30.

Editor's Note: Ballwin-Ellisville Patch and Maryland Heights Patch will be hosting a welcome table to meet and greet those in attendance. We also will be handing out a pair of Cardinals tickets to the winner of a drawing among those who sign up for their Patch's newsletter. So stop by, say hello and enjoy some roller derby action!