Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.

“If you're willing to put your body on the line, bleed with us on the track — everyone should be welcome for that,” says Jane Risk, the newly elected President of the Kalamazoo Roller Derby. 

Risk is currently helping lead the board through a transitional period after the September 2022 elections. Kalamazoo Derby is home to one of two different all-gender squads in the area, the other team called Lakeshore competes out of — you guessed it — various West Michigan lakeshore towns.

Mid-2021, Risk, an openly transgender woman, was in the midst of her own gender transition. Risk wanted to find a physical activity to participate in where she felt comfortable being her authentic self, and beer league hockey did not seem like a good fit. Before joining the Kalamazoo squad, Risk researched roller derby online, and found that traditionally, the sport was accepting of transgender players. 

Risk learned how to connect with the Kalamazoo Roller Derby online, and emailed the team. Risk asked if Kalamazoo Derby would be a place that was accepting of her, a trans woman. 

Roller derby is a very physical sport, with a lot of close contact. “They said yes, and hooked me up with people who could help me get gear.” It all seemed simple enough to Risk, and it was clear as the Second Wave interview progressed that the main concerns of the roller derby community are whether an individual can compete effectively and safely, and whether can they have a good time? 

That was all the encouragement Risk needed, and she spent some of her shutdown stimulus money on skates and pads. Once Risk had the proper gear to begin skating, she attended trail skates during the week to practice beginner-level derby drills. Kalamazoo Derby organizes group skates through the various Kalamazoo and Portage parks so new squad members can learn the basics, and to give the team a chance to bond before competitive matches, called “bouts” come along. 

Second Wave was also able to Zoom interview Rachel Yates, Kalamazoo Roller Derby newbie, after a bout in which she sustained her most serious derby injury to date. Yates' journey to finding a home in the Kalamazoo Roller Derby began as an attempt to find a sport that her daughter, who was six at the time, could participate in. 

When asked if she was athletic growing up, Yates says she was quite the opposite. “Most athletic thing in my background was yoga.” She tried dance lessons, but because of limited hip and hamstring mobility, Yates says she never pursued anything seriously. Before she joined the Kalamazoo squad, Yates says she was content living vicariously through her child.

Yates' attitude changed once she saw how fun, challenging, and accepting roller derby could be. The sport seemed like something Yates could really enjoy, and possibly excel at. Yates joined Kalamazoo Roller Derby in 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

“If my 6-year-old child can do it, why am I not?” Yates says with a laugh. “To find a sport that felt like a good fit for me, and I wasn’t half bad at it, it felt nice. And I did prove something to myself, that I was capable.”

To see Yates in action, Second Wave attended a derby bout hosted in Paw Paw the weekend before Halloween. The first match was between the Kalamazoo Derby Kill a Crew, and Lakeshore Derby squads. This was the bout in which Yates was injured. 

The all gender teams ready for the next round. When the all-gender scrimmage started, the energy in the air was electric. When interviewing Rachel Yates about the match that took place on the pre-Halloween Weekend, she mentioned that the atmosphere was more aggressive that day even while the traditional team bout took place before the all-gender scrimmage began. The first bout had an edge to it, and that “set the tone.” 

“There was an agitation in the air, little annoyance getting to everyone, and it all snowballed into the second game,” says Yates.

One of the most common concerns from within the roller derby community, and from outsiders is that the brutal aspect of the sport would change if all genders were allowed to compete in a sport that is traditionally a safe space for women. Risk and Yates both spoke on this apprehension, and they both gave the impression that normally the all-gender scrimmages can be more fun and laid back. 

Yates says that she is still processing the event when speaking on the injury she sustained at the bout in October. “I had never cried on the track before, and was proud of that.” 

The camera had a hard time catching this very physical moment. The collision happened as Yates skated around a curve in the oval-shaped track. A larger player, who in years past had played professionally, collided with Yates, who is 5 '1. Yates went flying straight into the gymnasium floor. 

“You get thrown on your ass a lot, and you get right back up.” But getting up on her own was not possible this time. Yates, at 30, is concerned that this injury will change the future physicality in her life. 

“Torn AC joint, the ligament separated” is what the X-Rays showed later the next week after Yates had time to get to the doctor. “I would not attest the aggression to the all-gender scrimmages,” says Yates firmly. 

Yates says she has no idea when she will be able to skate again. For now, Yates' daughter and husband will continue the sport for the household. Yates' husband, Garrett Yates, is one of the men who compete on the all-gender team for Kalamazoo Roller Derby. 

Jalapaiño Balden watched the bout from above, up by the commentators. Risk told Second Wave that Kalamazoo used to have a men's team and a women's team. The two teams worked together closely, but after some leadership responsibilities went amiss on the men's side, their team dissolved. When the men's team started to dismantle, the Kalamazoo Roller Derby Board of Directors started the conversation about consolidating the men's and women's teams.

Before Risk entered the Kalamazoo Roller Derby world, Yates had already started the conversation with the previous board about how to successfully establish an all-gender team. Yates told Second Wave that before the COVID-19 pandemic, Kalamazoo Roller Derby was a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. However, because of the contradiction between not being allowed to compete during COVID, yet still being charged Association dues, the Kalamazoo Roller Derby left WFTDA. 

The Kalamazoo Roller Derby all-gender team started in 2021 when the discussion of the idea was opened to the entire league for a vote. The league voted in favor of allowing an all-gender team to be formed. This also solidified Kalamazoo Roller Derby’s departure from WFTDA. Yates says anyone who is not a cis male can play with the WFTDA. “Part of this did not sit well with me,” she says. 

Yates saw this statement from WFTDA as a way of invalidating someone's gender identity. “If all genders aside from cis men are allowed to play under WFTDA, what does that say about the validity of trans men as men?” 

When it comes to all-gender teams, Risk concerns herself with the ability for all the players to have a safe and competitively fun time. 

The all gender scrimage in full swing. Roller derby has been around for several decades, but a lot of people are still reluctant to try it. Risk commented several times during the interview on how important it was to have enough people to scrimmage with. One of the main points of creating all-gender teams is “there are just more people to play the game with,” Risk says. More people, more fun. 

Risk and Yates also both touched on the actual physical limitations of the sport, and various attributes that make the sport harder to compete in, regardless of gender identity. 

“With taller skaters, sometimes it can be a struggle at first because a lot of skating tech does favor smaller frames that are lower to the ground,” says Risk. Derby-stance (essentially being grounded enough to not get knocked off your skates) is more difficult to get into the bigger stature someone has. 

Thirteen-year-old Jalapaiño Balden, from Kalamazoo, was part of the crowd at the pre-Halloween bout in Paw Paw, and Second Wave caught up with them there. Balden plays on a youth team called the Killer Bees, and has been competing for less than a year. 

Balden says they think that all-gender teams are important, especially for non-binary folks like them. Balden is open about their gender identity and says that as someone who presents feminine at times, and masculine at others, it is “nice to be able to feel comfortable both ways.” Roller derby provides Balden, and others like them, this type of safe space. 

Another spectator at the same bout in Paw Paw, Ariel Kaylor-Ramos from Fennville, just recently joined the Lakeshore Derby all-gender squad. Kaylor-Ramos played football in fifth grade and remembers thinking then that it was important to be allowed to participate in any sport. 

“Sports shouldn’t determine who can play by gender,” Kaylor-Ramos tells Second Wave as the competing teams zoomed by us on their skates around the track just a few feet away. Risk stood on the sidelines, watching her team intently.

By ensuring that the roller derby league is as diverse as possible, it makes the league “anti-fragile” at that point, says Risk. The more diverse a company or a league may be, the stronger the organization is going to be. All those who talked to Second Wave about the topic said it is important for everyone to be welcome to compete in roller derby, regardless of gender. 

If you would like to find out more information about Kalamazoo Roller Derby, their bout schedule, and membership services, visit here.