Although she never played an organized sport before joining HRD in 2009, PoiSIN has amazing athleticism, leaving skaters in the dust and on the floor with her amazing speed and hard hits.  Her form is stupendous; she gets so low she could eat a strip of bacon right off the top of her skates using no hands!  Not only is she an invaluable skater for the Redwood Rollers, she is also contributing to the future of Roller Derby through her daughter Savannah (A.K.A. Squirrel Stalker) who skates for HRD’s junior league, the Redwood Saplings.  PoiSIN also has two older sons who are very supportive of her and are huge fans of HRD!

Her teammates recognize that “she’s dedicated and does a ton for HRD. She’s a beast on the track and values her teammates”, and that she, “works hard, gets so darn low, hits hard, and keeps her head in the game”. Skaters also say that, “she’s solid, a true teammate, kind, hard-hitting, and basically a superstar”. She is a superstar in every aspect of HRD.

Fun facts:  PoiSIN loves chocolate, so if you ever wanted to buy her some candy, Chocolate Leaping Frogs are her favorite.  Keep your eyes peeled for Bruce Wayne, because PoiSIN’s dream car is the Batmobile!  Watch out for PoiSIN’s dark side; she is known to train baby koalas in hand-to-hand combat techniques…

Thunder began skating with HRD back in the day when the league was brand new. As a new skater I was always terrified at the prospect of coming up against her in a pack. There is footage out there of her knocking the panty off of a jammer: she hit this girl SO HARD that the panty fell right off of her helmet, talk about brutal. After skating with the rollers for four seasons she had to step off the track due to an ACL injury which required surgery and cadaver ligaments to repair her knee. But Thunder’s love of roller derby didn’t stop just because she went under the knife, she continues to coach and inspire in our Redwood Saplings Junior Roller Derby program. Thunder pushed for the creation of a junior league so that the young women of our community would get a chance to play roller derby. There’s magic that we all feel when we lace up our skates and Thunder wanted to share that with the Saplings. Thanks to Thunder’s hard work our junior league has grown and thrived up here on the North Coast. Our Saplings bout each other regularly and get to travel to play other junior leagues in California. HRD is so proud of the Saplings and so grateful for Thunder’s dedication to ensuring the future of our sport.

We love you Thunder! Thanks for all that you do!

Fun fact: Thunder is a total water baby. When she’s not on the track she can be found swimming in the rivers of Humboldt County and is often mistaken for a mermaid.

Ruby in all of her cherubic glory, timing penalties for a recent scrimmage

Ruby, aka Christiana Coffman, is one of the super-est of super volunteers Humboldt Roller Derby has ever had the luck of having. Ruby first fell in love with roller derby when she started skating in our drop-in clinics in 2009. Though she soon decided that skating just wasn’t for her, she stuck with HRD – finding many ways to lend her time, expertise and a helping hand.

By day, Ruby works at a local credit union and in her spare time she miraculously volunteers for a host of other local organizations. Ruby has not only served as an HRD board member, HRD head of non skating officials, and HRD PR chair – she also serves on the board at The Sequoia Zoo. When not at one of her volunteer gigs, she is either in the kitchen baking fabulous gourmet treats worthy of their very own bakery or out on the town with friends. How she manages we will never know!!!

Ruby has since retired from the HRD Board of Directors and is now serving as the Head Non Skating Official and a member of the PR committee. You can see her in the middle of the track during bouts – working diligently with a clipboard and making sure all of the other non skating officials and the referees have the support they need. Behind the scenes she is coordinating the posters and making minor updates to the webpage. We are very lucky to have her as our very own Ruby Red. We’re convinced, she must be magic! We truly don’t know where we would be without her.

HRD thanks Ruby for all her work and the part she has played in building this great organization that allows women and girls in Humboldt County engage in the athletics, empowerment and community. Next time you see her at a bout, give her your thanks too!

Harley assesses the situation on the jammer line

Please join us in congratulating HARLEY SAN QUINNTIN as our Skater of the Month for January 2013!

Harley joined our bootcamp in 2011 as soon as she turned 21 (our former age requirement) after waiting 2 whole years to join Humboldt Roller Derby. During those two years she spent her time practicing her skate moves at Blue Lake Roller Rink, where she currently works, which helped her breeze her way through the bootcamp system. Since being placed on the Widow Maker’s roster Harley has continued to work hard to hold down a spot as one of our leagues least penalty heavy jammers (only 4 trips to the box thus far in her career!!!). Harley was also a co-captain of the Widow Makers last season, as well as helped out in our bootcamp as a Level 1 trainer and also as a coach for our league during our off season. She’s a great teammate and will do whatever the league asks of her, whether that’s doing inventory on loaner gear for our boot camp attendees or hosting off skates workouts for her team mates.

When she’s not on her skates Harley can be found on campus at Humboldt State University where she is studying for a degree in kinesiology and participates in the Humboldt Circus. Harley can break down athletic movement for you AND juggle or spin fire at the same time! Harley likes puppies, Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Pokemon, and other awesome nerdy things. Harley also likes to experiment with hair color: she often shows up to practice with blue, pink, red, or black  hair depending on how adventurous she’s feeling.

Fun fact:
Harley skates without her glasses, and technically can’t she while she skates. She’s pretty much like a bat, echo-locating her way through the pack.

Thanks Harley for all that you do!

Well, Humboldt Roller Derby concessions volunteer Kate Shea Ortiz knows exactly what it takes. On top of being a mother of two, Kate has spent countless hours not only filling in for every bout job possible but also building relationships with food, beer, drink and ice vendors to ensure that our bouts are run seamlessly. On bout days Kate spends hours running around picking up food, beer, and all of the supplies needed to keep concessions full. Kate usually spends at least eight hours working on bout days and at the end of it all, she often heads home late at night and washes all of the soggy beer-soaked towels. Now that’s dedication!

Even at the busiest bouts, Kate works through the night with a smile on her face. A fellow volunteer states, “Given almost any situation, she can calmly figure out a solution or a work-around. She doesn’t get flustered. She simply moves forward.” Between all of the running around and the training of two beer tables worth of volunteers, she always seems to find another way to offer her assistance. In fact, at a past bout an entire concessions crew didn’t show up at the last minute. Despite the major blunder, Kate calmly moved forward and gathered a group of untrained volunteers to the fill the positions. By the end of the night you never would have known it had happened. Kate is always able to see a problem from various perspectives, come up with solutions, and make everybody feel great while she’s doing it.

Kate’s doesn’t offer her hard work just at the bouts themselves. Behind scenes, Kate handles the concessions invoices to ensure that vendors get paid and that bouts are fun and profitable. On top of dedicating hours of her time to Humboldt Roller Derby, she also works with the Humboldt Area Foundation, the McLean Foundation, and she is currently working for The California Endowment. Kate works with these community groups to help them organize their ideas into fundable strategies that improve the community, much like she does for Humboldt Roller Derby. Kate’s experience in community building is what makes her passionate about what she does and it truly shows.

One fellow volunteer states, “Kate is an unsung hero of Humboldt Roller Derby”. Well Kate, we are proud to say that you truly are our hero and you deserve the recognition! Humboldt Roller Derby might be in a serious rut without you. Thank you for your time and dedication.