Muncie's Cornfed Derby Dames are making an effort to connect to the Ball State community before its bout this weekend.
The Dames will take on Fishers' Circle City Derby Girls Party Crashers on Sunday in the Gibson Roller Skating Arena.
This is the Dames' second season as a team, and the team members hope to encourage students to attend its bout by offering reduced ticket prices, advertising at the Scramble Light and running the free Big Shots van out of the Village to take students to and from the bout.
Board president Amanda Holmquist said turnout at the bouts is typically between 200-300 people, depending on whether or not fans from the opposing team attend. Most fans have connections to the players and are not from Ball State, but the Dames are trying to change that and engage students in the final bouts.
"It's something fun to do in Muncie, something different, and it gets them outside of Ball State area," Holmquist said. "Our rink is a little south in Muncie, so it gets [students] out of their comfort level - maybe they can explore the city a little."
This will be the second time the team faces off against the Party Crashers this season. In the last bout, the Dames won 205 to 40, after having previously lost to the Party Crashers in its first season as a team.
Although it is a young team, Holmquist, who played on the team in its first season, said there has been improvement between the two seasons.
"It's our second year, so we're playing more competitively," she said. "We lost to them last year, so we put them on our roster again this year, not realizing we had improved a lot and they had lost some of their team."
Roller derby bouts consist of 30-minute halves. Each team has four blockers on the track and one jammer, who races through the pack and earns points for each blocker on the opposing team they pass. Blockers attempt to stop the opposing jammer from passing through, while helping their own jammer, so bumps and bruises are common.
Junior Jessica Huffman, known as B-FLATtened, said the best seat to watch the bout from is the "suicide seating." These seats are located on the floor, close to the track where the women play and spectators must be 18 and older to sit there because of the potential danger.
The team is made up of 25 to 30 women, who range from moms with day jobs to Ball State students and alumnae who live in Muncie, Holmquist said. They practice three times a week and have attendance obligations and must pay dues. Roughly one-third of the players are Ball State students.
Junior Christine Hurst, known as Chrissy Calamity on the track, said she loves the community of women within the team and has been with the team since its inception.
"I didn't have any history of skating [before participating in roller derby]," Hurst said. "I'd seen a couple of roller derby matches in Indianapolis, and I thought the sport was really cool. I got with the team when the league first started because it was a new team, so I get a lot of time to participate."
The Dames give back to the Muncie community by donating a portion of profits from each bout to a local charity and use volunteers to work its events.
Students and community members can purchase tickets for Sunday's bout online at cornfeddd.com.
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