February 2010 Featured Skater: Shellby Shattered

Shellby Shattered, of The Boston Derby Dames (BDD), has been an incredibly scary blocker and fearless leader of the Boston Massacre (BDD's travel team) since its early days. She has helped build BDD and The Massacre into the force they are today, and was a major factor in Boston making their first appearance at a WFTDA National Tournament in 2009. She has also led her BDD home team, the Wicked Pissahs, to two league championships, has earned MVP with New England Roller Derby (NERD), and has played on a number of expo teams. Shattered has everything that it takes to have success in our fine sport: dedication, hard work, team spirit, focus, willingness to try new things, good introspection, great awareness, speed, agility, and a positive can-do attitude. Please take a moment to learn more about this derby gal who’s got some of the Eastern Region teams shaking in their skates when they play The Massacre.

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Name: Shellby Shattered
Number: -0
League: My home league is the Boston Derby Dames and I play on the travel team, The Boston Massacre. Our league is structured such that any skater who has been on the league over a year and who makes the travel team through a quarterly try out can choose the "travel team only" option, which I chose to do the past two years. In my first 2.5 years, when I did skate on a home team, I skated on and captained the Wicked Pissahs (Go Pissahs!).

Tagline: "Less pants, more ruffles"

What is your (roller derby) position of choice?
My position of choice would be pivoting or playing outside, but I really love any blocking position.

What is your skate gear of choice?
My skate gear of choice are the 1065 Reidell skates with Reactor plates, Bones Swiss bearings, & Atom G-Rod wheels. I also wear Scabs kneepads & elbow pads, & K2 wristguards. I like Protec and Triple Eight helmets the same and often switch between the two.

Do you have a pre-bout ritual?
I hadn't really had a pre-bout ritual until this past year and now I can't imagine not having one! I was talking with Joy Collision before our first FSOP (Flying Sparkling Object Posse) team challenge bout at the East Coast Extravaganza in 2009, explaining how nervous I get before bouts and she told me that I needed to find something that helps "shake out" the nerves. She showed me a few things she does to help get the blood flowing and I took some of those things, sprinkled in a few of my own ideas, and came up with the following pre-bout ritual: I start off-skates and do a bunch of high-knee jumps, sprints, and some butt-kickers (where you literally run back and forth, kicking your own bum), then do some double knee jumps, and some side-stepping cross-overs. When I'm done with that, I basically just stand there and shake out every limb in my body starting with my arms and working my way down to my legs and feet. If I don't feel relaxed after one go-around, I do it again and again until I do. It really helps me focus on something other than the upcoming game and gets my blood flowing so that I'm less nervous. It really takes those awful butterflies out of my stomach so that I don't feel like I'm going to puke before every game. Yeah, it's a life saver. Thanks Joy!

What are some of your best/favorite moments in roller derby?
My best derby moment was when Boston won our bout against Charm City at East Coast Regionals 2009. It was the last game we needed to win in order to move on to Nationals and it was such a great feeling to finally know we would get a shot at Nationals and that all of our hard work had paid off. Boston had been denied going to Nationals two years in a row, in 2007 against Detroit (by 5 points in an overtime jam) and in 2008 by Carolina (by 2 points) - both were equally heart breaking. We ended up playing 19 bouts during the 2009 season with a goal of making it to Nationals. It was a really difficult season with a lot of ups and downs - I think our season's wins almost equalled out our losses - but to stand there at the end of that game and see how excited our team was, and to know how hard we had worked to get there, that was just so awesome and a feeling you can't really put into words.

Who are your roller derby heroes?
I have so many derby heroes it's almost hard to list them all. Most importantly, my entire team is my hero - they work so hard all the time. Outside of my team, D-Bomb from the Oly Rollers is a huge inspiration. She's just so lethal in any blocking position and it looks almost impossible to try and stop her. Fisti Cuffs from Gotham has also been inspirational to me. She replacement blocks so well and she makes such intelligent plays. I think the thing I like most about her is that she makes the game about the play and not about herself. In other words, she often initiates the pushes her teammates need in order to make the "big play" instead of opting to try and do it herself if it doesn't make the most sense to do so. I think that's so important and that she doesn't get the glory she deserves for that.

I could go on and on about players that are my heros or who have inspired me in one way or another but some others are: Sparkle Plenty / TXRG (my #1 hero and derby inspiration when I started skating); Joy Collision / Charm City & Kamikaze Kim / Duke City (hot damn those girls are fast, fast, fast); Miss Anthrope the Mordant / Carolina (#1 booty blocking machine); Dara Licks / Philly (for her watch-out whip-lash hits); and Megan Formor / Windy City (because she's like five people on the track all wrapped up in one - seriously, she's everywhere).

What is your motivational quote?
My #1 motivational quote related to derby is a new one this year and was inspired by watching Fisti Cuffs, "make the game about the play, not about you." Last year, my motivational quote was "one jam at a time." I think I'll keep them both this year.

What goes through your brain as you lace up your skates?
I'm almost always repeating to myself "play clean, play smart, play with heart, & have fun." Those are the 4 things that are most important to me, even if I'm not always able to achieve them. They are my goals and they put my mind and focus where it needs to be and help me try to get closer to the player I want to become.

Do you have a signature move?
My signature move is giving my jammer a whip while simultaneously laying a little defensive crack-on-thigh to the opposing jammer. That's really fun and awesome when I can actually pull it off.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in roller derby?
The best advice I can give to anyone who is just starting to play roller derby is to always play with everything you've got physically, but to always keep your mental game in check. It's one of the toughest lessons I've learned, and a goal that is always in the back of my mind.

Anyone you'd like to take the opportunity to thank?
I would like to thank Sarah Doom for always having been such an excellent teammate, coach, and friend who was always there to help me through some of my most difficult times in derby (she is truly missed here on the Boston Massacre) and Maura Buse for always having my back in the pack!

How does it feel to be one of the big reasons why Boston made their first appearance at Nationals in 2009?
I think the reason Boston made it to Nationals was because every single person on our team pulled their weight and did exactly what they needed to at the exact moment they needed to do it. It really was an entire team effort that got us to Nationals and I'm just really excited to have been one of those pieces of the pie.

What are some of your greatest derby accomplishments?
My numero uno greatest derby accomplishment so far was having made it to Nationals with my team in 2009.

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Would you like to be the WFTDA Featured Skater of the month (or nominate one of your fantastic teammates)? If you are an active skater on a WFTDA full member league that has a dazzling derby career, please contact webmaster@wftda.com and let us know what makes you shine.