Scream Queens keep on rolling in Schuylkill County

By Lindsey Shuey

A contest that involves football-like hits, anonymous identities and eight wheels has emerged as a popular amateur sport in Schuylkill County over the last four years.

The Schuylkill County Scream Queens, started by Clarissa “LolliRoT” Christ in 2018, are an all-female flat track roller derby team based out of Roller Roost Sports Arena in Pottsville.

“I think Schuylkill County is very much a skating community,” said Christ, of Minersville.

In addition to Roller Roost, where youths can be found practicing skating tricks on weekends, the county has two skate parks, in Pottsville and in Minersville, and another indoor skating rink in McAdoo.

Christ found her love for roller derby in 2013 when she joined the Dutchland Rollers, based in Lancaster.

Later, she moved to Schuylkill County, where there was no roller derby team at the time.

In 2016, she joined the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Roller Radicals, based in Moosic, but the more than hourlong commute took its toll.

“I was traveling there three times a week in all the weather,” Christ said. “I wasn’t getting home until 1, 2’clock in the morning.”

Determined to start a local league, Christ invited the owners and managers of the former Roller Roost II to a bout in Lancaster.

“I got them VIP seats, and they came and they watched, and they absolutely loved it,” Christ said.

Christ slowly started hosting roller derby practices at Roller Roost II and scoped out talent at the weekend public skate sessions.

Many players start out not knowing how to roller skate or have limited skills. However, with practice and consistency, they work their way up to becoming “derby goddesses.”

When she first joined, Christ didn’t know what roller derby was. As she learned and developed her own skills, she fell in love with the sport.

“Somebody a few years ago explained it absolutely perfectly,” Christ said. “ ‘It looks likes a beautifully choreographed mosh pit on skates.’ ”

A roller derby bout is played on an oval track and consists of five players from each team playing offense and defense simultaneously. Four people are blockers, and one person is a jammer, or a scorer.

When the whistle blows, jammers must find a way through the opposing blockers.

Once free, the lead jammer — or the first to successfully escape the blockers — can call off a “jam,” or play, and put the teams back on the jam line, or line of scrimmage, for a new round.

A jammer needs to make it past the blockers at least once to score.

Blockers who have stripes on their helmets are called “pivots.” Pivots can take the starred helmet cover from the jammer and then become eligible to score.

Anyone, of any skill level, is welcome to attend an open recruitment session hosted by the Scream Queens. The sessions are held throughout the year.

“We have tattoo artists, we have singers in bands,” Christ said. “We also have schoolteachers, nurses, public transportation workers. We’re a mix of people who might not have met prior to derby, but now that they have derby, it’s almost like we became family.”

As COVID-19 gripped the nation in spring 2020, the Scream Queens were blindsided by the sale of Roller Roost II.

Although they sprang into action searching for a new home, their desperate search for a venue was complicated by the nationwide shutdown.

“We thought that was going to be the end for us,” Christ said.

Luckily for the Scream Queens, the new Roller Roost owner, Becky Hoover, decided to keep the roller rink — and the Scream Queens — and expand the facility to include basketball, soccer and other sports.

“I am so thankful every day for the Hoover family,” Christ said.

Going forward, Christ hopes to create a junior roller derby team for kids ages 7 to 17.

“The extent that these kids (at Roller Roost) are at when it comes to roller skating, it’s insane,” Christ said. “And I absolutely love it and am a wee bit jealous because I can’t move like that any more.”

Story, photos, and video originally published Sept. 25, 2022 in the Republican Herald