Roller derby returns to Pomona Fairplex

By T.J. Berka, Staff Writer

Inside SOCAL

A couple weeks ago, Rancho Cucamonga resident Richard Young had some idle time, so he did a search for the Pomona Fairplex on the internet to check out upcoming events.

It was there that Young encountered an old friend.

"I was just looking to see if anything good was coming up," said Young, 47, a corrections officer in Los Angeles. "I saw that the LA T-Birds were coming in and I knew that I had to check it out.

"Some of my best memories as a kid was coming up from San Diego to watch the T-Birds. I really loved it and I knew that I had to be here."

Young was one of a couple hundred that checked out the T-Birds, a roller derby team that skates as part of Roller Games International, on Saturday at Building 8 at the Fairplex. He saw the T-Birds skate, and eventually fall, 62-61 to the New York Bombers.

Saturday's game was the second of four scheduled dates at the Fairplex, with the T-Birds again skating May 5 and May 12.

"It's good to be back out and skating," said Bombers veteran Bernie Jackson, a skater since 1978. "This is a good place to start back up and I'm hopeful that we can get this sport back to the way it was."

Roller derby's heyday came three decades ago in the 1970s. At that time, the sport - a cross between roller skating and wrestling, with some steroid-free American Gladiators-like action and improvisational drama thrown in for good measure - sent the T-Birds around the United States and the world.

In fact, roller derby was a main sport on ESPN at a time when ALF was a top-ranked show on NBC, splitting air time with activities such as Australian Rules Football and cockfighting.

"I remembered watching it on TV when I was a little kid, but I really had no idea it still existed," T-Birds skater Tara Holcomb said. "I moved out here from Louisiana three years ago and was just looking for a place to skate. I found the T-Birds and started skating, even though I really had no idea what roller derby was."

Roller derby is an extension of the era that it was most popular in. It's a trippy display of athleticism, physicality and gaudy uniforms, as teams of five - broken up separately into male and female sessions - skate against each other for eight 10-minute periods.

During these periods, there are sessions called jams, where one helmeted player from each team is stationed behind the other skaters and has a minute to lap the players on the other team.

During that minute, players are thrown into rails, shoved to the track and even whacked in the head.

"It's just fun to be out there and competing, trying to score points," said T-Bird skater Greg Robertson, a member of the team since 1965. "It's just fun to be with such talented skaters and it's something that the fans find quite entertaining."

The entertainment comes from the fact that anything can, and does, happen. On Saturday alone, two separate players used opponents as bowling pins, rolling them off the oval track into the bench area in the middle of the track, knocking the resting players out of their chairs.

Along with human bowling balls, Saturday saw countless players flip over the track's railings onto the concrete - including a flip off the track that severely injured the right ankle of T-Bird Megan Martinez - a few hip checks onto the track and even an occasional belly flop onto a prone opponent.

"It's just good fun," said referee Don Lastra, 70, a former Manhattan Beach police officer who has been a referee for roller derby and pro wrestling since 1961. "These are really great athletes and they put on a good show for the fans. They work so well together and really make it fun."

Lastra used to be a roller derby skater in the 1960s, but had to retire due to Manhattan Beach P.D. regulations. The MHPD does allow him to officiate roller derby and wrestling, where Lastra has met athletes like Tanaka, Roddy Piper and Rocky Johnson - the father of wrestler/actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Along with officiating, Lastra, who retired from the MHPD in 1991, has a small gray ponytail growing on an otherwise clean shaven head.

Along with its interesting hairstyles, much of roller derby's fun spawns from its retro nature. Saturday was no different, as the Bombers rocked out in brown, red and yellow uniforms akin to the San Diego Padres of the 1970s and early 80s.

The athletes use old-school roller skates as opposed to the more popular rollerblades. Even the halftime entertainment was a blast from the past, consisting of a Michael Jackson impersonator much younger than the majority of Jackson's hits.

"Roller derby is burned into my memory," said Young, who played hooky from his job in L.A. to see the T-Birds. "I loved watching these athletes growing up and I had to see what it was like now."

As far as the athletes were concerned, a lot was the same. Players such as Robertson, Bernie Jackson and Sugar Thompson were part of teams that traveled around the globe for decades during the sport`s glory days, with athletes such as "Jammin" Gina Valladares and Chris Martinez being offspring of past derby standouts.

Valladares, daughter of roller derby legends Ralphie Valladares and Honey Sanchez, is the epitome of the nepotism that has kept roller derby afloat through its down period.

"This sport has been an important part of this family," said Sanchez, who skated from 1958-75 and sported a spiked hairstyle dyed pink with her bangs dyed blue. "We skated when we were young and our children and grandchildren have taken it from there."

Where the Valladares' and all the athletes who skated Saturday hope to be is the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, where the T-Birds skated in the `70s and `80s. With roller derby clubs starting to pop up throughout the Southland, Jackson sees that happening sooner, rather that later.

"I think we'll get this back to where it was," said Jackson, who is an office manager in Burbank. "This was a full-time job for me when I started out and I think it will be for me again."

Long Term

Agreement Signed

with FAIRPLEX for RollerGames

in Southland

T-Birds Veteran Sugar Thompson shows daugther ropes during workout.